The Times' Mark Leibovich wrote up Obama's recent Beltway get-togethers with various pundits and reflected on Bush's complete lack of social interaction with the capitol over the last eight years [emphasis added]:

In contrast to Mr. Obama's week of fraternizing, George W. Bush never came around to the notion that Washington socializing was worth the effort — or the risk of a later-than-necessary bedtime. While it is not likely that a few well-placed dinners, social calls or drop-bys over eight years would have had much bearing on his abysmal approval ratings, it is not far-fetched to think it could have bought him a slight uptick in sympathy from the bipartisan commentariat that routinely savaged him.

See, if Bush had only gone to cocktail parties, the pundits--on both sides of isle-- wouldn't have have been quite so mean to him.

A) I must have missed all those GOP columnists who have “savaged” Bush during the last eight years. B) Liberal commentariat were “savaging” Bush in 2001 and 2002 and 2003? And C) Bush refused to interact with the Beltway for the first four years of his administration and was showered with media hosannas, which proved Bush's complete repudiation of the Village's social circuit had no bearing with his coverage.

This reminds me of the Slate article we recently commented on, which claimed the press gets outraged when it's ignored by the White House, even though this press corps did not become outraged when ignored by the Bush White House. And now the Times suggests the press would have been more sympathetic to Bush if he hadn't ignored them socially, yet the press produced more sympathetic coverage for Bush than any other president in recent memory.

Bush hasn't even left office and already the Village is rewriting its history.