Here's to the Happy Couple -- and a 10 Point Bump

Jenna Bush and Henry Hager plan to marry. And there is already buzz of a spectacular White House wedding that will gather society, power and politics around these two cute kids.

Ordinarily, I'm a sucker for such things. I've cried when the groom kissed the bride -- and I didn't really know either of them.

But this time I have to say to Jenna and Henry: don't do it. The 16 months to go as this administration ebbs away is not too long to wait.

The bigger the wedding, the sweeter the music of the Marine Band, the greater the contrast with what is happening to some other kids in the 110 degree hell of a far away desert country.

They can try to keep it simple. But a White House wedding is going to be big. It will be the first one since the coming of cable. It's a union of Republican royalty. It could be Charles and Di -- without the carriage ride. Or, wait, the carriage might make great TV.

The thing I find most disturbing is that there is already talk that a White House Wedding will be great politics. It could be a terrific way to hook women -- who are the angriest about the war, and one of the biggest problems for Republicans going into the election.

Women -- even the angry ones -- are going to eat this up. We can't help it. It's what we do.

The father of the bride is responsible for the loss of close to 4,000 American lives, the lives of uncounted Iraqis, and many thousands of injured and maimed. He has had the big boy office in an organization that has lied, manipulated and ultimately failed at every turn. But on this day, he is the proud and loving papa walking his daughter down the aisle.

Eyes will grow moist, and approval ratings will rise.

Can I possibly be cynical enough to suggest that this is timed around the election? Could it be that the children's book Jenna Bush wrote with her mother is a bit of pre-wedding character repair for a girl who seems well-versed in the difference between shots and shooters?

The administration gives great and ongoing credence to the old saying: just when you think you're too cynical, you realize you're not cynical enough.

Let's run down just a partial list: the swift boaters, the smearing of John McCain in South Carolina, the mythical WMD, the phantom National Guard service, Brownie at the levees, Valerie Plame, secret torture sites, Pat Tillman, the stem cell veto, the fired federal attorneys, an attorney general with the memory of a gold fish, the surgeon general who was tossed out of the club house for taking on causes that upset the Republican right, and assorted other assaults on our trust in this administration's motives, methods and competence.

With that body of evidence on the record, I'm not discounting anything. Hey, if international state visits don't work any more because much of the world hates us, a White House wedding just might.

Ok -- politics is politics. And this president would not be the first to make use of photogenic offspring.

But we have this inconvenient problem of young people the same age as the happy couple dying on the roadsides and in the alleyways of Iraq. I wonder if those at risk will be gathered around the television to watch the festivities.

One who won't be watching is Army Reserve Sergeant Jose Velez, a young man from the Bronx who asked his girlfriend Naomi to marry him the day he left for Iraq. She was busy planning the wedding when she got word he was killed by a roadside bomb.

I didn't know Jose Velez. I just read about him in a magazine. I don't know the hundreds of other young women who were engaged to be married, went to Iraq, and never returned. I can't speak for them. I have no standing in their lives or their families' grief.

All I can do is wonder. As the proud parents bask in their child's very special day, as current and past members of the administration clink their champagne glasses, will they think about all those who will never have that day -- and why?

Comments

[JMVforever]

Hello Peggy, my name is Elias and I'm the brother of Sgt. Jose M. Velez. I wanted to thank you for mentioning him in this article. We feel his sacrifice daily and we will never stop. He was the best brother a dude can have, for real. I'd like to know what magazine had this article about him if you can remember.

Thank you again Peggy.
Elias

[DedraToo]

I'm sorry...I understand what is being said about women being a sucker for a wedding...but NOTHING and I mean NOTHING is going to make me feel good about ANYTHING that happens at the White House until this entire administration is gone. I find it insulting that they dare to have a celebration while my cousins, and my friends children are being shot at, and ploted against every single day. I keep comforting myself by saying...one day...all of these people will stand in front of Jesus and have to explain themselves.

[NotaBeliever]

At this point in the game, a 10-point wedding bump will not be expected. Nor achieved. Every television morning show seems to produce dream weddings on a schedule. We can see the fantastic and fabulous without aggrandizing the nuptials of the daughter of a disgraced president and a former minion of one of his former minions. Let 'em hold the whole event in the White House. It will have to be fumigated, exorcised, and debugged after the new tenant takes over in 2009 anyhow.

[yellowdogSC]

Karl's Rove's LAST gift to America from the bUSH administration.

You heard it here first...

(Unless someone else said it first of course. I said it here last night with only about 5 comments posted, but it seems to have fallen under the refrigerator.)

Thank you.

[aedelbert]

"Women -- even the angry ones -- are going to eat this up. We can't help it. It's what we do."

Wow. I'd like to think that women can separate the wedding of the president's daughter from her father's catastrophic regime, especially those who have husbands, sons, brothers and fathers serving and dying in combat.

Those who can't make the distinction deserve all the pain they vote for.

[Mariel]

I love your criticism of "the Secret," Dharmamom. Yes, thinking positive is part of what got us into this mess--attracting wealth and stuff and love and stuff through positive thinking, while sending the troops off to die and be maimed. Right on!

Wouldn't do any good to try for a wedding blackout, though, as the tabloids just HAVE to make a big juicy out of this.

[AirmanOne]

"loopholes: Bush:"LOOPHOLES?, LOOPHOLES? WE DONT NEED NO STINKIN' LOOPHOLES" .........

[bethinCary]

Note to Bush: Don't let Cheney help you with any wedding plans.

[bethinCary]

Hope he can manage a wedding better than a few wars.

[SonnyBono]

Why do we even care when one of Mr. Bush's semi-beautiful daughters lands some white bread dork? After all if this planet is only six thousand years old, its still a small part of the overall span of life when you look at the accomplishments(?) of Ms. Bush and the rest of the family Bush. As far as I am concerned the only Bush that should be allowed to run loose is Reggie.

[Tommymac]

I hope that if it happens, on the day of the wedding....

...1 million anti war protesters line the fences around the White House.

After all, it's a public wedding, and We The People should be invited...if not, let's make it the biggest wedding crash in TIVO recorded history....

[choirgirl]

"Women -- even the angry ones -- are going to eat this up. We can't help it. It's what we do."

YOU'VE got to be kidding. maybe teens and young 20-somethings who still have stars in their eyes,or the dingbats who fawn all over dead Diana and all that -- but this woman isnt going to eat this up. whether its a bush bride, or twittney spears, weddings of famous people or their empty headed children, just not important news. leave that little bit of twaddle out of your article and you may have a point otherwise.of course it is reprehensible to hold a big-a$$ whitehous wedding while others are killed or maimed in the middle east. why should any body expect different from the bush crime family??

[KeysDan]

Oh, just in. The father-of-the-bride will be wearing a never-used flight uniform just retrieved from the back of a locker in an Alabama Air National Guard unit. The codpiece will be from the USS Abraham Lincoln, cleaned and ready to go. Mission Accomplished.

[Aanya]

No one in the Bush Family should be allowed to reproduce! Once both of them are fixed, who cares what they do. We do need to pass a Federal Law making any more Bushes completely illegal!

[KeysDan]

I personally look forward to the wedding. I understand it will have an Iraqi-theme: bridesmaids in Texas-sytle burkas, groomsman in faux uniforms (since none of Jenna or Henry's friends serve in the military), and Karl Rove (Henry's former boss and mentor) as best man. And who doesn't look forward to seeing Pickles in camouflage tulle , and of course, the grandmother of the bride, Bar, in her pearls and long train, assisted by ex-SuperDome Katrina survivors (it is working quite well for them since they are underprivleged anyway). The guest list will be worth every tax penny spent: the Cheney family, oily colleages,and dear right wing friends,including his old hunting partner, Harry, if sufficiently recovered from recent facial plastic surgery. The wedding should be viewed as the celebratory event of the national nightmare nearing an end.