PHONY TO THE CORE

http://www.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=6687


PHONY TO THE CORE: The "Ole Family Ranch" in Crawford is a Set
Completed the Same Day the Election was Stolen
By Cheryl Seal

Have you seen all those article and pictures of Bush "at home on the
ranch" in Crawford - the ones that imply that he is "just an ole ranch
hand" more comfortable on the family homestead than in the "Big City,"
be it Austin or D.C.? Well, if you bought this image, you've been
royally snuckered. The Bush family homestead in Crawford is nothing more
than an elaborate set. The house, built in 2000, was designed to be
ready for Bush to step into - like a set awaiting an actor - during the
2000 presidential election. Not only was the "ranch" created in 2000 -
so, essentially, was the "town" of Crawford! Before then only about 400
people lived in the area. The Crawford Chamber of Commerce and
Agriculture were formed shortly after the ranch was finished.

The 1,600 acres on which the "ranch" sits was purchased in 1999 for an
undisclosed price, but it was a helluva lot less than the current real
estate agents' appraisal of $1.2 million. Yep, worth $1.2 million, but
G.W. has a sweet deal at the tax appraiser's office, where the property
is valued at about $988,000. Oh, and that "homey ole ranch house?" It's
actually a 10,000-square-foot single level mansion/compound that won't
even be 2 years old until this November! The compound features a
swimming pool for daughters Jenna and Barbara, who apparently loudly
demanded it - the Bushes call it the girls' "Whining pool." Btw - we
hear Bush got a sweet deal on the house construction, (the cost, of
course remains undisclosed): the builders came from a religious
community in El Mott, Texas. The original completion date of the house
was November 7 - election day 2000. In other words, the curtain went up
on the set on schedule for "show time." The very timing of this event
indicates that Bush was absolutely confident that the election would be
successfully engineered in his favor.

The whole idea behind the ranch set, of course, was so that the public
could be treated to footage of Bush seeking a quiet "retreat" at the
family ranch. Americans would thus assume that the ranch was a rooted
family homestead or compound like the one Kennedy's had in Martha's
Vineyard or FDR had at Campobello. But when Bush retreated into his
"homestead" in November, 2000, he was merely walking onto a prepared set
upon which the paint had barely dried, let alone even the barest of
roots put down! When we see photos of Bush bombing around the ranch in
his leather jacket in his "ole pickup," supposedly knowing every tree
and bush - it's all pure fantasy! If Bush knows every tree and bush
after actually spending, all told, a total of about 2 months on the
ranch (if you put the odd days end to end) since it was bought, then
I''d like to know when he found time to hold all those endless Crawford
press conferences! Seems to me he'd be way too busy introducing himself
to trees and bushes.

Until Bush and handlers decided that a rural ranch would be a slick bit
of PR for the presidential campaign, Bush had no interest in a "home on
the range." Instead, his preferred weekend retreat was to the Rainbo
Club, an exclusive lakeside hunting club in Henderson County, about an
hour south of Dallas, much closer to the comforts of Austin. When a Bush
run for president began to look like a pretty good bet, the 1,600 acres
were bought and the Bushes started making weekend trips to a 60-year-old
ranch house that existed on the property - not of course, before
refurbishing it! - so they could build the "lore" that would take in the
American public, hook, line and sinker.

In an interesting side note - while Bush is anti-conservation in his
presidential policies to please his corporate pals, in his OWN home, he
has installed several conservation/energy saving features, including
solar panels for heating water, rainwater collection for landscape
irrigation, an air conditioning system that uses groundwater and a gray
water recycling system. The obvious impression here is that Bush, being
all PR show and no substance or real convictions, wants to cover all the
bases. Block conservation when it is expedient, but have some
conservation "stuff" to show off when that is expedient.

So, in short, we have a "president" who, ON THE SAME DAY - November 7,
2000 - stole an election and had the last nail driven into a phony ranch
set. But with a completely snuckered press corps, we also have had a
completely snuckered public. And a platoon of completely snuckered world
leaders, chief among them Blair and Putin, who have been hosted at the
"ole ranch" set and completely taken in. Alas, the Crawford ranch is a
symbol of the utter corporate phoniness of this administration. The
whole scenario reminds me of those type of sophisticated con artists
(like the ones who recently convinced several investors they could turn
sand into gold! ) who blow into town, rent an upscale office space just
long enough to give them enough credibility to hoodwink investors. Then,
once they have fleeced enough "marks," they disappear. What makes the
Bush case much, much worse is that I doubt he will disappear.