The White House said Tuesday that President Bush, never one
to procrastinate, has started the process of packing his belongings for when he
leaves the White House later this month.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said the
president and the first lady do not have a lot to move to their newly purchased
house outside of Dallas, and joked that reporters shouldn’t expect to “see a
big Ryder truck pulling up to the White House.”
{mosads}Perino noted that the president, first lady and current
White House staff only have “14 days and about 18 minutes” until their time at
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. comes to a close.
To that end, she said, the president and his staff are
starting to get ready for the move to make way for incoming President-elect
Obama, his family and staff.
“The president’s style is always to be one that’s a little
bit prepared early, and he and Mrs. Bush have been working to box things up,”
Perino said. “They didn’t come with a lot of things; they didn’t bring a lot of
furniture here. So mostly what they have are books, obviously their
clothes, and then some of the things that they’ve picked up along the way on
their travels as they’ve traveled.”
Perino noted that current events have delayed a lot of
the staff from packing up and shutting down.
“Well, part of the thing is, is that when the president
said we would sprint to the finish, I think he really meant it, and we’re all
panting trying to keep up behind him,” she said.
That said, Perino noted that some staff will start
preparing for their departure in the coming days.
“I think that things will start to wind down for all of
the offices,” Perino said. “Obviously we’re not creating any new policy
initiatives; we’re not up on Capitol Hill lobbying for any legislation. But
when it comes to [the communications] office, [reporters] never sleep or stop,
so I think that we’ll be at least fully staffed through next Friday. And
then I’ll probably see it through at the weekend.”
Perino said that she personally doesn’t have a lot to
pack except for a couple boxes of “mementos.”
“And those will be going home soon,” she said.