Mr. Smith Goes To Washington

Back before his inauguration, on January 13, 2009, President Obama hired Michael S. Smith to redecorate the White House and the Orchid office.  You remember Mr. Smith, don’t you?  He’s the high-falutin’ Hollywood and Wall Street decorator who created that $1.2 million office for Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain.  The $1.2 million office that sported the infamous “commode on legs”.  That little spending spree by Thain prompted this remark from the President a week later, “…taxpayer money should not go toward renovating offices.”

Rumors of Pottery Barn White House decor or no Pottery Barn White House decor, I’d like the President to answer one, simple question.  What is the difference between what you are doing and what Thain did?

If there’s some reasonable justification for spending any money at all right now on a perfectly functional office while “500 million” people (sic) are losing their jobs each month, then I suppose there’s also one for sending Desirée Glapion Rogers, assistant to the President and social secretary, to attend New York Fashion Week.  And sure enough, according to a White House aide, we can rest assured that it wasn’t a shopping expedition for Michelle.  “Desirée was in New York on a fact-finding mission.  She’s acting as a cultural liaison for the White House; she’s researching fashion and music.”

Wow.  Let’s all act surprised.  Useless “research” being done on my dime.  And on your dime, too, buddy.  Even though this “economic crisis” is so damned bad neither one of us have a dime to spare any more.

And apparently all that explains why newly-hired decorater Mr. Smith threw a big, fancy bash for Ms. Rogers at the Four Seasons last week.  Though it’s being touted how he paid for it out of his own pocket, seeing as how he’s being paid by the government now, those pockets are really filled with American taxpayers’ money.

And the wheels on the bus go ’round and ’round….