Beats Working

As part of his new media strategy to get out of Washington and reconnect with the voters, President Bush dined with "community leaders" Sunday night in Miami Beach.

Or so the White House wanted you to believe.

In fact, Bush spent the evening at the exclusive Joe's Stone Crabs restaurant talking about sports and movies with a bunch of former Miami Dolphins football players, an actor and the flamboyant host of a raunchy and ribald Spanish-language variety show.

It was only hours after Bush had learned that an Israeli air strike had killed dozens of Lebanese children, a moment for soul-searching if there ever was one.

But what did Bush want to talk about?

Former Dolphin Jim Kiick told Steve Wine of the Associated Press that topics of conversation included movies, the 1972 Dolphins and fellow attendee and former Dolphin Dan Marino's achievements -- but little politics.

Kiick added: "It was a pretty wild feeling to know you're having dinner with the most powerful person in the most powerful country. Usually it costs you $20,000 to get close to the president."

It's not the first time the White House has used a euphemism to describe with whom Bush was meeting as part of his new campaign to, as counselor Dan Bartlett put it, "get a sense of what's on the minds of the people out in the country."

During his recent trip to Chicago, Bush's dinner with "opinion leaders" was actually with business leaders and the mayor. His breakfast, which Bartlett described at the time as being with "leaders in the small business community," was actually with the CEOs of large companies, two of them in the Fortune 500, and one of them being Kraft.

And while Bush evidently was happy to make time in his presidential schedule for small talk and big crab legs, at least two members of the current Dolphins organization turned down his invitation -- because they were too busy.

Miami Dolphins coach Nick Saban and defensive end Jason Taylor told the AP's Wine that their obligations at training camp took priority.

Bush made mention of his evening during his remarks yesterday at the Port of Miami: "This trip is a little different from the last time I spent the night here in Miami," he said, referring to his visit in 2004 for his first debate against Democratic challenger John Kerry.