Bush Chief Of Staff To Obama: Put Your Jacket On (VIDEO)

UPDATE: We've unearthed a photo of Bush breaking his own dress code by going jacketless in the Oval Office on January 22, 2001.

**Scroll down for video**

On Wednesday night former Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card told "Inside Edition" that he's not pleased with President Obama's lax Oval Office appearance. (Obama has instituted an even more relaxed weekend dress code.)

According to the Inside Edition website:

"There should be a dress code of respect," Card tells INSIDE EDITION. "I wish that he would wear a suit coat and tie."

Card is the first member of the Bush administration to bash Obama, and he's going after him for forgoing a coat and tie.

"The Oval Office symbolizes.... the Constitution, the hopes and dreams, and I'm going to say democracy. And when you have a dress code in the Supreme Court and a dress code on the floor of the Senate, floor of the House, I think it's appropriate to have an expectation that there will be a dress code that respects the office of the President."

Card continued, "I don't criticize Obama for his appearance, I do expect him to send the message that people who are going to be in the Oval Office should treat the office with the respect that it has earned over history."

WATCH:

MSNBC dissected the dress code controversy on Thursday morning, and pointed to a similar fashion "faux pas" by President Clinton while in office:

Unfortunately for Card, the New York Times dredged up this picture of former CIA Director George Tenet [not of Andrew Card, as may have previously been implied]:

Comments

[Donnat]

"Even though my boss disrespected the office more than any man in recent history, he at least wore a jacket"

GOP logic

[TateNC]

Andy Card brushed all decorum aside and left it at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, on 9/11/2001.

If respect and following procedure means so much to Card, why, at 9:03 a.m.—fifteen minutes after it was clear the United States was under terrorist attack—did President Bush sit down with a classroom of second-graders and begin a 20-minute pre-planned photo op?

Please Card ... explain this first and then complain all you like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WztB6HzXxI

[OutsiderSA]

This was the dress of the previous pres of Ghana. BHO should do this to really make the ret@rds a$$-plode

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/05s59yXaZa3O7/340x.jpg

[Shiral]

Guess what, Mr. Card? YOU don't call the shots, anymore. If the new president wants to institute a new dress code for the Oval Office, he gets to DO that. He's in charge now, not you. Where was all this protectiveness for the Constitution when you were into extraordinary rendition, and torturing prisoners, not to mention the warrantless wiretapping? If Bush had worn a white tie and tails every time he stepped into the Oval Office, his presidency would STILL have been a disaster.

While suit jackets ARE called for when meeting foreign dignitaries and when people are reporting for work, I'm not going to quibble about Obama taking his jacket OFF now and then when he's working on getting us out of this mess. He's got a hell of a mess to clean up; why shouldn't he be physically comfortable while doing so?

[RobertFromMN]

Mr. Card should learn his place, and his place was in the former disaster of an administration. I happen to like seeing Obama take the jacket of and roll up his sleeves. Bush never needed to take his jacket off because he never really did any WORK. (34% of his presidency on vacation.) Perhaps if the Bush Cabal had worried less about superficialities like dress codes and more about properly running this republic, we wouldn't be in the mess we now find ourselves.

[hdc77494]

I admit I'm old fashioned, but I think the leader of the free world should wear a jacket and tie to the office. I'd have to say I think cabinet appointments should too. If I were a staff member and all my bosses wore a jacket, I'd be stupid to show up in a dress shirt.

[VivaZapata]

if he gets the US out of the mess Jacket Wearing Bush got us in, he can spend the next eight years running around naked for all I care.

[maggie the cat]

Yes, evidently you are very old fashioned. That and have a lack of awareness of some of what goes on in the White House. Robert Kennedy was known for letting his kids run around in his office while his tie was undone as he rested his feet upon his desk. He was very spontaneous and non-systematic in that sense. And guess what? There have been many Presidents and cabinet members before and since who, don't wear a jacket in their office, and are not 'formal' in their offices everyday.

[VivaZapata]

that andrew, he's such a card. it makes perfect sense that someone like him would consider a president's degree of formality a issue worthy of criticism. one of the men responsible for eight years of national ruination is blathering on about a jacket. perhaps he needs one of those white jackets, the wrap around kind they use before they take you away.

[VivaZapata]

err. that's "AN issue worthy of criticism."

[MsIrisMG]

Ah, I wish the moderation would come off so I could say what I REALLY think of that guy...what nerve!

[Waitaminute]

To old Andrew the private citizen, President Obama's race is disrespectful to the office. It hurts him to his heart that Obama is the president. What a pathetic little man.

[Pussnboots]

There is a reason that "Let's roll up our sleeves, and get to work" is a common expresion, and "Let's put on our coats and ties, and get to work," is not. Congress might function better without the false dignity afforded by the suit and tie.

[Yasmine]

Mr Card should not have made this comment.
It is refreshing to see OBAMA do something that is NATURAL.
The FRENCH have a saying :
" L'Habit ne fait pas le moine ..............." ..........ni le Gentleman
I have added something to it that i will say in English
THE attire does not make the MONK , neither DOES it MAKE A GENTLEMAN !!!
So many so-called Gentlemen have turned to be either crooks or criminals also.

[carson32520]

With all those pictures of past presidents jacketless in the oval office, I wonder what is truly behind Andrew Cards criticism. Once again, Republican RACISM rears it's ugly head. Ah those "The Good Old Boys!"

[ptsd6869]

HEY ANDY! I TAKE MUSTARD, KETCHUP & RELISH ON MY CHEESEBURGERS.

[Mitchell4A]

Pathetic. These folks think that they can respect the Oval Office by wearing jackets as they trash Constitutional guarantees and behave as ruthless ideologues.

If the Republicans keep going with their current mind set, they will be history for a couple of generations.

GOP, Inc. to be Permanently Downsized
http://msa4.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/gop-inc-to-be-permanently-downsized/

[Littledog]

Agree--these Republicans are so out of it...like Bush should be ANYONE'S MODEL OF ANYTHING! The man as destroyed everything he ever touched--a ball team, an oil drilling company, our economy. all handed to him on a silver platter by Mommy and Daddy.

[Benjine]

So - even though it seems every single president ; including Mr Card's beloved Mr Bush - takes off their jacket when they are working, it seems that only Obama need be singled out for criticism on this point. Well, I have two questions for you Mr Card. 1) If Its not OK to take off your jacket in the White House is it OK to put your feet on the desk of the Oval Office? http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12931660
and 2) When are you going to issue an apology to the President?

Thanks!