Another Working Vacation

Q Why does the President like to go out to his ranch for the whole month of August? What does he plan to do?

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MR. FLEISCHER:  President Bush is from Texas. His home is in Texas. When his presidency is over, he looks forward to returning to Texas. But he is not of the Beltway, he is not from Washington, he is from the state of Texas and he enjoys going home to Texas.

While in Texas, he will have a working vacation there. I was going to do this at the end of the briefing. Let me give you some information now. But the President will travel for approximately two days a week each week during his visit to Texas. The upcoming week, he will travel one day to build a house in nearby Waco, Texas, to participate in a Habitat for Humanity event.

The following week, the President will travel to Colorado and New Mexico. The week following that, the President will travel roughly three days to Wisconsin and other locations TBD. He'll also travel to Pennsylvania that week.

The following week, the President will have an event in nearby San Antonio, and you can also anticipate travel over Labor Day weekend to some unnamed cities as of this point.

But to get back to the probe, the President enjoys getting out of the Beltway. The President enjoys being in the country. He is looking forward to what he calls his "home to the heartland" visit, where he will be based in Crawford, Texas but will, from there, travel to the rest of America to meet with a wide variety of Americans, to listen to their concerns, including union workers, including people concerned about our nation's defense, including people who are fighting for social justice through Habitat for Humanity. And that will be the essence of what the President does.

He's also enjoying a little down time and a little running, and a little cedar clearing.

Q But does he recreate beyond that on the ranch? I don't think he ever has. I mean, he runs, he takes walks.

MR. FLEISCHER: He'll do a little fishing on the ranch. I'm sure he'll have friends and family over to the ranch. He'll do a little policy, he'll keep up with events. Travel, as I indicated. But it's going to be a working vacation that's going to include parts work and parts vacation.

Q Will there be a national security conference call --

MR. FLEISCHER: He'll have intelligence briefings every day. Every day but Sundays.

Q Live, or by phone?

MR. FLEISCHER: They're always live.

Q Ari, the American people sent him here to the White House. He's going to set a modern record for not being here. Is there something about it he doesn't like?

MR. FLEISCHER: I think when the American people sent him here to the White House, they enjoy the times that Congress is in recess, and they understand that the President also doesn't have to live 365 days a year in the White House.

Q Does he find it like confining or something? He feels the need to get out?

MR. FLEISCHER: He just finds his ranch in Texas welcoming, as well as finding the White House inviting.

Q Ari, the President has billed this trip, too, as going home to the heartland, a place where he says the values are superior or what they should be. And I'm wondering, what exact region does he ascribe these values to? Where is the heartland?

MR. FLEISCHER: He's never said that he finds the values superior. The President has never said anything like that.

Q Well, he says he's found them correct, or what, you know, America stands for.

MR. FLEISCHER: But he's never said anything about superior, because that implies it's superior to someone else's. And the President has never discussed it like that. But what the President believes is, first of all, he has a home in Texas. That is his home.

Secondly, he was sent to Washington to work on the people's business, and that's particularly true when Congress is in session. He will be leaving for his home in Texas on a very good note, on a very positive note for the American people, noting the strong action in the House of Representatives this week to give America energy policy, to pass a patients' bill of rights that can be signed into law, on the conclusion of a Senate action to help our nation's farmers in accordance with the President's desire.

So he leaves Washington on a very strong note, at a very good time, to return home to the heartland to talk to the American people in their communities about issues that are on their minds.

Washington, D.C. is an important part of the American community. It's not the only part. And the President looks forward to going home for a working vacation and he looks forward to traveling throughout the country and throughout the heartland as part of that working vacation.