Little Too Much iPod Time, Maybe?

We learned last week from the Times that President Bush has an iPod (and ever since have been subjected to countless stories analyzing the playlist of said iPod), but in my perusal of the papers this morning I began to get the impression that iPod might be getting a little bit too much use.

On April 5, Homeland Security and the State Department announced that the US will now require passport identification for travelers coming into the country from Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean (in most cases previously a driver's license was sufficient). The policy change has apparently been in the works for months, and "[a] senior U.S. government official involved in the policy change said Homeland Security and State Department officials had vetted the change exhaustively with the White House before announcing it," according to a Jim VandeHei article in today's Washington Post.

Apparently somebody forgot to ask the president. Questioned about the policy shift (which has drawn fire from trucking companies, the tourism industry, and others) at a convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Bush replied:

"When I first read that in the newspaper about the need to have passports, particularly the day crossings that take place, about a million for instance in the state of Texas, I said, 'What's going on here?' I thought there was a better way to expedite the legal flow of traffic and people." [emphasis added].

Mr. President, please step away from the iPod.