See, he's just a working stiff like the rest of us

WACO, Tex., Aug. 3 -- President Bush arrived here Thursday evening to begin a 10-day stretch at his Prairie Chapel ranch, his longest planned period away from Washington during this summer vacation season.

Bush's scheduled week and a half in Texas is a far cry from last year's working vacation, which was shaping up as the longest presidential retreat in more than three decades before it was rudely cut short by Hurricane Katrina after nearly a month.

What a guy! A real man of the people, don't you know. Only taking 10 days at his multimillion dollar ranch, instead of his usual six-week summer break.

I guess the thought of him relaxing on the ranch last year when Katrina devastated New Orleans, and, in 2001, when he ignored the Presidential Daily Briefing telling him that bin Laden was determined to strike the US with airplanes, which it did a month later, was a tad much for his advisors to bear this time.

Of course, don't worry too much about our Boy George working himself to death. As the Washington Post article notes:

While Bush plans to curtail his long stretches away from Washington this year, he still plans to spend most of the coming month out of town. He has planned long weekends at Camp David and the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, for August, before returning to Texas before the Labor Day weekend.