White House celebrates Diwali

The White House hosted its second Diwali celebration Wednesday, which is very cool. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays with the evangelicals who equate Hinduism with devil worship. Former ambassador to India Robert Blackwill hosted the party; it was his last day in government, he just resigned as head of Iraq policy due to a staffer abuse mini-scandal.

Dubya and Laura, Karl Rove (who attended last year), and Representative-elect Bobby Jindal were no-shows. One fundraiser said that for Indian-Americans, ‘pay to play’ is all pay, no play; he threw a hissy-fit when Bush attended a Ramadan dinner a few hours later:

Community activists were told that if the President and the First Lady attended the event of one community or nationals, there would be pressure from others. But a few hours after the Diwali event, Bush attended an Iftar dinner hosted by the White House to mark the end of Ramzaan… “We raised millions for the President and the GOP… and this is what we got in return,” the activist, also a physician, fumed.

Many Republican desis attended, and the mithai and samosas were ordered from the same New York midtown restaurant, Bukhara Grill, which catered Salman Rushdie’s wedding and is a favorite of Bill Clinton’s. Great food is nonpartisan, time for a pilgrimage:

Dhandu Ram is the man behind the tandoor at Bukhara Grill in New York. He is a master tandoor who hails from Rajasthan, but got his training on the job at the famed Bukhara at the Maurya Sheraton in Delhi… As a tandoor chef, Ram is the star attraction at Bukhara Grill and agrees that more respect is given to chefs here… He points out that a tandoor chef generally gets a green card because this is a task that no one else can really do.

Update: Someone who once worked for the host of the party chimes in on Daniel Drezner’s blog:

Blackwill is an incredibly brilliant thinker with absolutely no interpersonal skills… I never saw Blackwill touch an employee other than to shake hands. His manner is such that embassy staff wondered that he could have fathered three children… He sleeps four hours a night… By the time I’d arrive in my office at 0730… I would find between 20 and 30 e-mails from Blackwill, time-stamped from 0330 onward… he was always a decent human being. I think his major fault was that he simply lacked empathy toward other human beings…

15 thoughts on “White House celebrates Diwali

  1. “We raised millions for the President and the GOP”

    Awwww … poor baby. Stop your whining! Millions aint shit given the amount of money spent on this campaign. You gotta raise millions in a single night if you want some Bush action! This ain’t no kitty party, this is fundraising for the President of the God-Damn-U-S-of-Fucking-A! If you can’t raise enough money to play with the big boys, at least go buy yourself some long pants and a pacifier so you can stop sucking your thumb in public.

    As for the Iftar dinner, that’s been going on since before this President, and it’s largely for international TV news broadcasts. But I’ll bet you the President’s “brother” “Bandar Bush” was there are one of the hosts. Again, stop your whining — when you’ve got pull like the Saudi Royal family, when you’ve been bailing out the Presidential clan’s failed businesses for decades, then come to me and talk.

    Dishoom! Dishoom!

  2. Yeah, at least with the Clinton’s you got to spend the night at the White House when you donated millions. Now that’s value for money 🙂

    Eh, politicians. They take your money and spend it on themselves. So, what’s new?

  3. Here in Canada they celebrate Diwali and not Christmas in many places now, just to suck up to the South Asians.

  4. Here in Canada they celebrate Diwali and not Christmas in many places now, just to suck up to the South Asians.

    Bill O’Reilly gets paid for his “War on Christmas” schtick, what’s in it for you “Clueless” ? Very appropriate handle BTW

  5. Bill O’Reilly gets paid for his “War on Christmas” schtick, what’s in it for you “Clueless” ?

    A free, life-time supply of delicious and judgment-impairing self-haterade?

  6. My problem is that there are alot more people in Canada that celebrate christmas then there are those who celebrate diwali. I have friends who in there workplace have been told not to say happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas has not to offend Sikh’s and Muslims.

  7. My problem is that there are alot more people in Canada that celebrate christmas then there are those who celebrate diwali. I have friends who in there workplace have been told not to say happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas has not to offend Sikh’s and Muslims.

    Why would saying ‘Happy Christmas’ offend Sikhs and Muslims? This is a pile of crap. Stop lying you liar.

  8. Here in Canada they celebrate Diwali and not Christmas in many places now, just to suck up to the South Asians.

    Well I, for one, welcome our new South Asian overlords.

  9. Excellent point Clueless. Canada is becoming a scary place now. They desperately need a first amendment.

    Of course, a first amendment is not enough, if freedom-hating secular progressives want to restrict free speech. O’reilly’s excellent “war on christmas” highlights this problem, especially the misinterpretation of the establishment clause to mean “separation of church and state” at the expense of the free expression clause. witness state government workers forbidden from saying “Merry Christmas” at work, for example.

  10. And you really believe Muslims or Sikhs will be offended by people saying Merry Christmas? You turn the silly decisions of some school adminstrators into a demented caricature of how things are. Get a life and stop lying.

  11. brutus: i think its only the leftist secular progressives who are offended by the “merry christmas”, and are thus trying to impose their sensitivities on the rest of us under the guise of protecting the poor oppressed muslims and sikhs.

  12. the misinterpretation of the establishment clause to mean “separation of church and state”

    Really, how does one interpet “separation of church and state” if not the actual separation of religious terms/icons from government owned & run institutions.

    The true “war on christmas” is the commercialization & gift buying frenzy, coupled with the reduction of the holiday to overpriced trees and a drink company icon.