Cranky con wages war on White House Christmas trees

[White House tree 2012 - Jim Long photo]

I usually ignore Andrew Malcolm's idiotic hackery (and no, don't click his link). I wish I had resisted because you can't unsee this drivel:

Amazing how a reelection can reshape an incumbent’s thinking about many things. Now safely ensconced in the White House for 49 more months, the Obamas have decorated the place with 54 Christmas trees this year.

Even allowing for the usual Washington excesses with taxpayer money, that’s a whole grove of Christmas trees.

“We have 54 trees in the White House,” an excited Michelle Obama proudly told visitors the other day. “54! That’s a lot of trees.”

In fact, the Obamas’ 54 trees this year are almost 50% more Christmas trees than last year. That was during the campaign before Obama whispered a reminder to the Russians that he had to be careful until Nov. 6, when a victory would give him more “flexibility.”

Or shorter: Those trees are a communist plot. Or something. And how dare those people enjoy our holiday. Shouldn't they be celebrating Kwaanza? (And the crowd went wild!)

All of which brought up fond memories of the 2005 White House Christmas. Laura Bush only had 18 trees but she had hundreds of toparies made of fresh fruit and real roses. The Blue Room tree was decorated with fresh white lilies. There were thousands of cookies in the shape of White House dog Barney. Who also had his own Christmas video and a official White House web page. Between the topiaries and the swags, they used enough fresh fruit to fulfull the average nutritional requirement of a small town for a month. And all the trees and miles of swag were strung with crystals. Oh and Mister Malcom, about that 300 pound gingerbread house? Laura Bush did that in 2006.

Ye gods. Andrew Malcolm is talking about the home of our President. Where heads of state and other dignitaries are entertained to further our national interests. We're supposed to want to impress them with our national wealth and power by cheaping out on Christmas decorations?

I'm okay with catty judgments on how the theme was executed but to challenge the right of this First Lady to follow the decades long tradition of showing her decorating style at Christmastime is a bit much. None of which I would bother to mention except they pay this guy way too much money on the premise that he's some kind of neutral observer instead of an ordinary, hardcore cranky conservative.