Monday, August 01, 2005

No-slumber in chief

The other day I saw a story about how President Bush was rousted from bed to place late-night phone calls to waving Republicans during the CAFTA vote. Then today, there’s this in the news story about King Fahd of Saudi Arabia: “Fahd died at approximately 2:30 a.m. EDT, a senior Saudi official in Washington told The Associated Press. President Bush was alerted within minutes of Fahd's death, the official said on condition of anonymity.”

So somebody has to wake up the President. A Google search on “woke up the President” suggests that it’s mainly White House chief of staff Andy Card’s job. But I’m pretty sure that Card doesn’t live in the White House. Does he have to rush over (as in “within minutes”) when he gets the news? Does he have to put on a suit? Is it entirely his discretion as to what topics are important enough to wake the President? (Hmmm…this might be a good question for the Explainer.)

No comments: