I'll be Damned

A brezy little article in The New Republic discussing Bush's decision to bring his daughters into his campaign makes frequent references to an allegation I hadn't heard before - that George Bush took off on vacation while his daughter was recovering from an appendectomy.

Sure enough, that did indeed happen:

President-elect Bush, his parents and other family members flew to a Florida vacation spot Tuesday, while one of Bush's twin daughters recovered in a Texas hospital after undergoing an emergency appendectomy. The president-elect's wife, Laura Bush, stayed behind to help care for her daughter.

``She's feeling great,'' Bush said of daughter Jenna, 19. ``My daughter's great,'' he told reporters, joking that if she cannot join the rest of the family in Florida, ``she can clean out her room.''

Wow. What's stranger is the timeline. The article's dated 12/26/2000. The appendix attack occurred the night before:

Jenna Bush was taken to the hospital, a five-minute drive from the mansion, after experiencing abdominal pains Christmas Day.

The president-elect said the family was having lunch at a friend's home when the attack occurred. The family returned to the governor's mansion, where Jenna's pain grew more severe.

Doctors performed surgery to remove the appendix, which is a small, finger-shaped pouch of intestinal tissue.

Now, it's not my place to criticize the family life of someone else. But at least let me remark my surprise that his daughter would be suffering pains which required emergency surgery on Christmas Night and he would be on a plane for vacation the next morning.