{"id":183066,"date":"2015-03-24T17:18:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T22:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/03\/24\/clearly-we-need-to-have-a-full-congressional-investigation-over-this\/"},"modified":"2015-03-24T17:18:00","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T22:18:00","slug":"clearly-we-need-to-have-a-full-congressional-investigation-over-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/03\/24\/clearly-we-need-to-have-a-full-congressional-investigation-over-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Clearly, We Need to Have a Full Congressional Investigation Over This\u2026\u2026\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

It appears that the White House and its head florist have parted ways<\/a>, and some reporter who really needs to get a life demands to know why:<\/p>\n

When White House chief pastry chef Bill Yosses left the executive mansion last summer, the president publicly mourned the loss of \u201cthe crust master\u2019s\u201d mysteriously addictive pies. And when the first family\u2019s personal chef and pal, Sam Kass, left in December, Michelle Obama heaped praise on Kass\u2019s \u201cextraordinary legacy of progress\u201d in an official White House statement.<\/span>

<\/span> But the recent exit of head florist Laura Dowling, who\u2019d been in the job since 2009, has been a much quieter affair. So hush hush, in fact, that most outside of 1600 Penn knew nothing about it. There\u2019s still no official comment on why Dowling is no longer at the White House, but according to a source with close ties to current residence staffers, she was escorted from the building on Friday, Feb. 13.<\/span>
The East Wing initially confirmed via a very brief e-mail that \u201cLaura left her position earlier this year\u201d but provided no further details. Later, the first lady\u2019s office (not quoting the first lady specifically, mind you) sent this enhanced statement:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs Chief Florist, Laura Dowling and her team treated guests of the White House to their beautiful floral arrangements. Ms. Dowling\u2019s creations were always lively and colorful, reflecting not only the season but the unique and historic rooms which they graced. No two arrangements were ever the same and each one left guests with a lasting impression of the elegance and history of the People\u2019s House. We are grateful for her contribution over the years and wish her well\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span> Hours after we put in a call to Dowling\u2019s Alexandria floral design shop, Int\u00e9rieurs et Fleurs, she issued a statement via the law firm Sidley Austin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter almost 6 years as Chief Floral Designer at the White House, I have resigned in order to pursue exciting new opportunities and explore my passion for floral artistry and design. Over the next few weeks and months, I\u2019ll be launching a new platform for my work as an author, speaker, instructor and design consultant that builds on the creative ideas and partnerships I\u2019ve formed during my tenure there. It\u2019s been such an honor to work at the White House and I will always be grateful for this incredible opportunity.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There is then a followup article, which seems to indicate that it was that Michelle Obama wanted to move the White House aesthetics in a new direction<\/a>, with an equally breathless tone:<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

In this town, matters of taste \u2014 much like positions on marriage equality \u2014 can \u201cevolve\u201d over time. Just ask Dowling, who left because her \u201cfussy style\u201d was not in line with the first lady\u2019s emerging modern and clean aesthetics, several sources said.<\/span>

<\/span> Laura\u2019s work \u201cis just different. I\u2019m not sure if it was right for the White House,\u201d said one top floral designer in the area who has done freelance florist work for splashy big events at 1600 Penn. This designer, like many we talked to, spoke on the condition of anonymity because \u201cthe floral community is very small, and nobody wants to put down anybody\u2019s work.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I understand that this needs to be covered, and I understand that the author, Helena Andrews, is, “The co-author of The Reliable Source,” the Washington Post<\/i>‘s Society\/Gossip column, but the breathless tone is a bit over the top.<\/p>\n

Truth be told, I do not blame her.  I blame her editors.<\/p>\n

The editors should have told her to walk back the tone a bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It appears that the White House and its head florist have parted ways, and some reporter who really needs to get a life demands to know why: When White House chief pastry chef Bill Yosses left the executive mansion last summer, the president publicly mourned the loss of \u201cthe crust master\u2019s\u201d mysteriously addictive pies. And …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[975,1129,1064,982,1173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employment","category-journalism","category-media","category-stupid","category-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}