Alls u guys pickin’ on the cur rezdents. Tain’t fair.

Two, no, three thots keep nagging at what’s left of me mind:

- to be fair, remember how nice Nancy Reagan was to the incoming Clintons.
After all, precedents were set and should be honored.

- i wonder how Lawra’s comin’ with that rush-order surprise sleepover plan for dubya an’ his remaining buddies before the big move to whitesville manor on the common.

- to be perfectly honest, i think it’s only right to keep the place under lockdown while the servers continue searching for dubya’s secret decoder ring until the very last minute. a fella’s got every right to save his precious antiques from the trash bin. “nope. not under here….”

Let’s tell them: you can have the Os on the keyboards, you can take the Oval Office carpet along with the tedious story…oh yeah, and please take that painting with the thieving cowboy you think is a role model. Just leave. Soon.

This is obstructionism, pure and simple.

class act, Laura, the educ. pres’ librarian wife. No child let move forward, eh?

Since acquisition of Blair house under FDR, there have been 11 pres. only 6 of which have used Blair in the ‘traditional’ way of Jan. 15-20. 6/11 –does that a tradition make?

It did, however, make me wonder what claim to authenticity the Lincoln Bedroom could have…perhaps it occupies the same airspace?”

C-Span is set to begin its huge documentary on WH History this Sunday — I suspect it will answer all questions.

When I was just a kid in the late 40’s we went through DC on a vacation, and as my Dad had a distant cousin who was in the Secret Service, we got a very personal tour of the whole place on a Saturday Morning.

The WH as you look at it from Penn Avenue was indeed totally gutted. Down about four floors (we looked from the diplomatic entrance) was a huge pile of structural steel, and a cement plant. Inside they had reinforcement to hold up the walls, and at the west end, a kind of bridge that Harry Truman used when walking from Blair House to the West Wing Offices. Otherwise, it was a big empty hole. By the Diplomatic entrance were parts of what became the Truman Balcony — that was pre-cast off site, and the supports for it inside the walls were being put in place.

What was done was very very carefully measure every part of the WH rooms, and all of the woodwork, mantles and all were taken across the river for restoration. All the floors — same treatment. Otherwise, every bit of structural beam and post was removed — some of it was still over by the Treasury Building, so you could see the sorry state of it all. What had happened over the years as electricity and modern plumbing had come into fashion was that holes had just been drilled for such in the structural members, and over the years the whole place became structurally dangerous, in addition to being a fire-trap. If you look at pictures of the WH in the early days of WWII, you will see that they provided FDR with cables and pullies so in case of fire, he could crawl to the window, take an ax and break it (they provided an ax) and then use his upper body strength to let himself down to the ground level on an inclined cable. When Harry Truman moved in, his daughter Margaret’s piano partially fell through the second story floor. So no question — gut rehab was in order.

I also got to see an assortment of FDR’s ramps that were stored in a construction shed by Treasury, ready to be shipped off to Hyde Park for the museum. The one real change they made in the WH during rehab was to eliminate all steps between rooms and raised thresholds so it was wheel chair accessable. Anyhow, the reconstruction was all concrete and steel, aside from decoration, all wood was removed. But all rooms were restored to their exact location in their exact dimensions — except that lots of mod con’s were added — many more bathrooms, better electrical service and the like. And it was air conditioned — before the 50’s it was shaded with large awnings, but no AC.

The West Wing was built by Teddy Roosevelt, but it was complete only at the end of his administration, so really it was Taft who first officed there. TR took down the extensive green houses that had been built — prior to his time the greenhouses grew much of the food used in the WH. Up until the early 1950’s the now Executive Office Building was both the War and State Department — War went to the Pentagon in the early 40’s, but the State Department wasn’t built till the 50’s. Up till TR’s time, the Presidential Offices were on the second floor in the WH residence.

(I often think that the lovers of small government ought to propose to eliminate the Pentagon and State — and move their functions back to the Executive Office Building, and push the President back into the Residence — now that would be properly downsizing Government.)

From what I remember from my tour back in (I think) 1949, there was about twice as much WH underground than above ground. At least three, maybe four stories. I’ve been in it several times since — and each time I find myself trying to remember aspects of that big hole in the ground, and what I was told they were set to construct. I think the Truman’s got back in for a couple of months, but it was really Eisenhower who got the full benefit of the gut rehab.

I have 3 Book outlines and 5 more after those are done.

It takes a lot of perseverance to get the first one published but once that is a Bestseller, all the top Agents/Pubs come knocking the door.