White House needs a break: Vacation not an evasive maneuver

Respite? Yes.

Relief? Perhaps.

Retreat? Not at all.

Donald Trump's 17-day vacation coinciding with Congress' summer recess is not to be seen as a dodge by the president.

An AP report out Friday said the entire White House staff needed to clear out anyway so that overdue repairs to an uncooperative heating and cooling system can be made.

But couldn't we all use a break -- however short-lived -- from the round-robin of blame shifting over the failure to repeal and replace Obamacare, the souring relationship between the U.S. and Russia given the recent sanctions, the travel bans, the wall and the potential for tax reform?

The format for political coverage has become so tiresome, not to mention the bleed-over to sports and entertainment where networks dedicated to the sort mirror the 24-hour cable news outlets with multi-person panels filled with so-called experts who shed little light and in fact serve to cloud the discourse over any subject with opinion and rhetoric.

Trump's tweets don't often serve to clear the waters either, drawing ire from members of his own party more and more frequently it seems, when he derides the investigation into possible collusion with Russia during the election or the sanctions against that nation passed by Congress last week which he begrudgingly signed into law.

So maybe a cooling off period is just what the doctor ordered, not just for the president or for Congress, but for the rest of us as well.

Maybe the time and space between them will result in some fresh ideas when all return, to address some of these important issues facing the nation.

Then again, the White House has said Trump will still be working from his golf course in New Jersey. As long as his mobile device is within reach, there is no telling what 140-character firestorm is one click of the "send" button away from reigniting the news cycle.

Published in Editorials on August 5, 2017 8:49 PM