Hot Potato

DONNELLY, ID - Astute readers or those bored enough to bother reading about every detail of a two-day presidential vacation (Did he break wind in front of the Idaho Congressional delegation? White House sources say yes) may have noticed obscure Idaho datelines in recent Bush stories. Amid these tiny towns and banal minutae was your intrepid correspondent, who was sent to the sleepy mountain town of Donnelly (pop. 138) to find out how well Secret Service agents tip (not well, according to waiter at Chapala Mexican Restaurant who asked not to be identified).

I have now written three stories about Bush's visit and the only time I saw him was from about 200 yards away as his fishing boat docked (I originally thought he was the blue dot on the bow of the boat but a photogapher with a long lens said he was actually the red dot throwing the rope). The Statesman sent two reporters to the mountains to cover George and the other reporter wrote the day to day presidential stuff at the resort where he was vacationing while I sniffed around the edges to see what mountain-folk think about the leader of the free world visiting rural Idaho.

While I didn't get to interview the president, I did get exclusives with the mayor of Donnelly (some would say the most powerful man in Donnelly) and Rick the carpenter, who stumbled out of his trailer wearing a Slayer shirt and smelling of beer and introduced me to his German Shepherd, Beast.