By James Donahue

Last week’s criticism of newly elected President Barack Obama’s desire to remove his dress coat and tie when at work in the Oval Office was the latest in a series of assaults by the “old guard” Bushites who survived the voter house cleaning that occurred in November.

Former Bush White House chief of staff Andrew Card said on a talk show that he felt the new “dress code” permitting comfort and a “roll-up-the-shirtsleeves” approach to getting to work showed “a lack of respect for the Office of the Presidency.”

New York Times writer Sheryl Gay Stolberg wrote that Mr. Obama was bringing “a more informal culture” to the White House and that he was abandoning “an ironclad rule of the George W. Bush administration” that required a “coat and tie in the Oval Office at all times.”

In his interview with talk show host Michael Medved Card said he was “disappointed to see the casual, laissez faire, short sleeves, no shirt and tie, no jacket, kind of locker room experience that seems to be taking place in this White House and the Oval Office.”

This kind of verbal attack in the media is so trite it didn’t deserve the attention it received, nor was it worthy of anyone’s concern. We must remember that the White House is the home of the President, and the entire Obama family is living there. That means President Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters. They are going to walk around in that building in casual dress . . . even in their pajamas . . . and it should be nobody’s business if the president chooses to work in his office without a suit coat and tie.

What appears unique about Mr. Obama, when compared to former President Bush, is that our new president is busy and working in the Oval Office. During his tenure Mr. Bush spent more time vacationing at Camp David or cutting brush on his fake Texas ranch than he ever did in the White House.

The other attacks by left-over Republican legislators, who appear bent on staying on the failed financial course followed by not only former President Bush but a line of presidents before him dating back to Ronald Reagan, is more troubling.

That every Republican in Congress would snub President Obama’s efforts to draw bi-partisan support for a new finance stimulus plan, voting in unison against it, gives us a clear picture of what is happening in Washington.

In spite of his call for a united effort to solve the massive economic meltdown, repair a collapsing infrastructure, fix a failing educational system, call home our worn-out military and extend a hand of friendship to other world nations, a wing of the old Bushite crowd appears pledged to fight Mr. Obama every step of the way.

Radio big mouth Rush Limbaugh put it all in perspective when he said he wanted to see Obama fail so “those damned liberals” don’t take over the country.

What Limbaugh and the House Republicans don’t seem to understand is that if Obama fails, America appears destined to fail as well. Most of us realize that Obama was our one last star of hope for a recovery after the disaster that followed eight long years of pilfering and killing under the Bush reign.

It was going to take a genius to claw a way out of the mess we are in. We found the genius. But without solid support, his ideas won’t be worth a grain of salt. The campaign by Limbaugh and the conservative Republicans to stop Obama is a prime example of the old adage . . . “cutting off the nose to spite the face.” Nobody will win.