There Will Be Some O’s Missing In The White House When The Bushies Leave

In my hometown newspaper this morning, a letter writer debunked the myth that President Clinton’s staff “vandalized” the executive offices and the White House, before Bush staffers moved in, including the allegation that many computer keyboards were missing the W key—as in President Bush’s middle initial. It turned out that the “vandalism” reports were false or grossly exaggerated.

In May 2001, it was revealed, and reported in Salon and other media, that a formal review by the General Accounting Office, Congress’ investigative agency, “had found no damage to the offices of the White House’s East or West Wings or Executive Office Building” and that Bush’s own representatives had reported “there is no record of damage that may have been deliberately caused by the employees of the Clinton administration.”

The question now arises whether the Bush crowd will play pranks similar to those that were wrongly attributed to the Clinton staff, on the incoming Obama team.

In, “Oval Office Handover Spats, Grudges & the Occasional Pleasantry,” ABC’s John Cochran assures us:

Now, as “W” himself prepares to leave, his staff has been told: no pranks and no damaging of equipment before Obama’s people take over. Which means, I suppose, that the letter “O” will remain safe and secure on White House keyboards.

That may very well be so.

No O’s may be missing from White House keyboards on January 21, 2009.

But, when Obama and his team move into the White House and the Executive Buildings, they are likely to find that various other “O’s” are missing, and have gone missing for the entire eight years of the Bush administration.

Some of the missing “O’s” are, for example, the “O” in Open-mindedness and Objectivism; the “O” for the Oversight that went missing when executive agencies, staffs and individuals rode roughshod over other branches of government and over ordinary Americans; and, certainly, the “O” in the Outrage that has been missing when Americans’ constitutional rights, trust, and values were so frequently violated or ignored.

And, if you allow me to consider the “silent h,” perhaps the most important “O” that has been missing in the Bush administration is the “O” in hOnesty.

It will, no doubt, take a long time to reinstate these missing O’s, but the incoming “O” administration, I know, will work very hard at it.