So not only is no one staying at the Blair house but this place is fricking HUGE too...

[LynneSin]

So huge that if there WAS someone staying at the Blair house they might never even see the Obamas also staying there in a house with 119 rooms and 35 bathrooms. But to have the Obamas at the Hays-Adams hotel is like a major major hit to the taxpayers. So in the end the Bush administration started with a lie (that they even won the 2000 election) and ended with one (that the Blair house was occupied and therefore the Obamas couldn't move in so their daugthers could start their school at the beginning of the semester). I guess everything else between those two lies were, well, probably a lie too.



http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Reporter_Bush_lied_about_Blair_House_0107.html

Reporter: Bush administration lying about Blair House bookingDavid Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Wednesday January 7, 2009





The Bush administration claimed on Tuesday that the reason Blair House was not available for the Obamas to live in when their daughters started school in Washington on January 5 was that former Australian Prime Minister John Howard had previously been booked to stay there overnight on January 12. However, political columnist Margaret Carlson believes this is a lie.

Carlson told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, "I reported -- but also the Washington Post reported -- on December 11 and 12 that there were no foreign dignitaries booked into Blair House during that period of time."

When the Post reported on the rejection of the Obamas' request in December, it noted that White House spokespersons had referred to "previously scheduled events and guests that couldn't be displaced" but that "administration officials said there are no foreign dignitaries scheduled to stay there during the first two weeks of January."

"I have the feeling they actually asked to come and stay so that there might be some plausible reason for not letting the Obamas stay there," Carlson suggested.

Carlson went on to say, "Blair House might look small, but it's actually 119 rooms, with 35 bathrooms. Howard wouldn't even have to share a sink with the Obamas. ... But most importantly, it's secure. By having to stay at the Hay-Adams, not only do the Obamas have to move twice ... but the security cost to taxpayers is enormous."

[Captain Hilts]

1. Does it extend into the NEOB?????

I don't know where they get the room for all that. This number makes no sense to me.

I was in the 'hood last week.

[bunnies]

2. 70,000 square feet.

Mind blowing isnt it?

[DevonRex]

14. And it's actually several buildings, not just one. Probably connected

in some way.

[BklynChick]

3. I wish this story was more widely report. It's shameful.

[Bobbieo]

4. Bush is a vindictive little man!!!!!!!

[LynneSin]

5. And you know what - the only person he was pulling was 2 little girls

I don't think Obama would have even made this request if it wasn't for the fact that the new school semester starts 2 weeks before Obama becomes president.

What a jackass.

[BklynChick]

21. I agree. This is why this thing pisses me off so much. Obviously, Barack

made the request to make life easier and a little less stressful for his children. What a mofo Bush is.

[M155Y_A1CH]

6. Kick

To the top :kick:

[DevonRex]

10. George and Laura are nothing but petty assholes. nt

[AtomicKitten]

7. It is the epitome of jackassery, a parting shot at the incoming president & family. n/t

[Cyrano]

8. Oh, give me a fucking break. Cheney needs somewhere secure to

shred the remainder of his files.

[FloridaJudy]

9. My grandmother had a word for the Bu$hes

"Nekulturny". I believe it's Russian for "having no class whatsoever".

But then when did those cretins give a hoot about common decency, or the cost to the taxpayers?

[eppur_se_muova]

17. Literally, uncultured. A gross insult in Russian. nt

[FloridaJudy]

18. Yup. That's about as insulting as it gets in Russian

Without resorting to words that would get your mouth washed out with Lava.

[rufus dog]

11. that blows my mind

I remember standing in front of it thinking how small and accessible it was. It must go back a long way and/or have underground rooms.

[VADem11]

20. Blair House

is actually a complex of four townhouses connected to each other.

[firedupdem]

12. How ignorant of them. They don't give a shit about the two

little girls moving 2 times before going to the whitehouse. What jerks.

[1776Forever]

13. Hoping Rachel Maddow will have more on this tonight - Stay tuned!

:fistbump:

[TahitiNut]

15. Bush knows there's room. When Poppy Puke was inaugurated, the whole clan infested Blair House.

Notice the scrawls of the five spawn of Babs and their spoiled brats? There's Duhbya, Laura, Jenna, and Barbara on the left side of the page.



Name:
President-Elect George H. W. Bush, Barbara Bush and family

Date:
January 18-20, 1989

Description:
This visit was on the occasion of the inauguration of President George H. W. Bush.

[Princess Turandot]

16. Actually, the day after the story came out..

the refusal, I mean, the folks who run Blair House said that there was no issue with PE Obama staying there, because the PE quarters are separate from the rest of the place, with its own entrance etc. (Makes sense, when you think about it.) The place is 4 buildings combined, I think, but the photos are usually just of the yellowish colored townhouse in the group. But the Blair House people of course were not the ones making the decision. I think it takes up one side of Lafayette Park.

[Olney Blue]

19. Would they have let the Palin clan stay there?

[LynneSin]

22. The Blair house is probably beautiful - that family would make a ruins out of it

This is a woman who spent like $50k of Alaskan tax dollars to make her governor's office look like what has been descirbed as a bordello.