WASHINGTON, DC--Citing years of distracting, time-consuming obligations that have caused many important matters to go unattended, President Clinton called for a National Week Off Monday for the purpose of getting the nation's shit together.
"My fellow Americans," Clinton said in his weekly radio address, "as your president, I have had a great many things to deal with during my time in office: welfare reform, Whitewater, gun-control legislation, Bosnia, sex scandals--you name it. As a result, a lot of shit has piled up that I have not had the chance to take care of."
Among the shit Clinton intends to deal with during the national week off: a pile of bills that he meant to pay a few months ago but forgot all about because of the Sierra Leone crisis. "I just want to take a whole day to do nothing but go at that stack. Then there's all that crap piling up on the Oval Office floor. I've got to do something about those boxes."
Clinton said other shit would be targeted in subsequent days. "I still have to call back that Barak guy--he's left a load of messages about that whole Lebanon-pullout deal. And the Army's been hassling me for months about getting them some new bombers. Plus, I owe Mexico, like, a billion dollars."
"I am certain," Clinton said during the radio address, "that you, too, have a great deal of shit piling up. Now more than ever, we, as a nation and as a people, need this time off to finally deal with all the shit we've let slide."
Clinton said that as a two-term president, he has an unusually large amount of shit to deal with. "I've still got shit from '93 I haven't even touched yet."
According to White House chief of staff John Podesta, Clinton has also been putting off moving a couch he found down the block from the White House last week. "Al Gore said he would help the president get it upstairs," Podesta said, "but then he took off to do some campaigning in California, so he never did." The couch is currently sitting in the White House rose garden.
Political analysts see the week-off request as a shrewd move on Clinton's part. "Clinton may be the most shit-burdened president since Lyndon Johnson," said Duke University political-science professor Warren Heintz. "This will enable him to finally catch up and get organized. Plus, if he doesn't get those videos returned, he's screwed. He's got late fees up the ass." Heintz noted that he himself has "mucho shit" that he would love to take care of during a week off.
As part of the proposal, Clinton has called for the creation of a new U.S. Department of Shit, and would appoint former White House press secretary Mike McCurry the first Secretary of Shit. "This will ensure that in the future, America's shit will stay firmly together," Clinton said.
With approval of the week off still pending, the U.N. is discussing a possible global week off.
"That would be fantastic," British prime minister Tony Blair told reporters Tuesday. "The Irish situation's been keeping me busy like a mother, and I've got so much National Health shit to go through, it's not even funny."
The National Week Off would be the first such break since 1982, when President Reagan declared a month-long sabbatical during which the nation could go horseback riding.
-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), June 15, 2000