While Rome burns

It's nice to see that while Gen. McChrystal is tapping his foot waiting for approval of his strategy in Afghanistan or some version of a Biden plan, the president has plenty of time for some links........

President Obama is golfing at Ft. Belvoir today with Melody Barnes, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.

This is the president's 24th round of golf since his inauguration, according to the meticulous records of CBS News' Mark Knoller.

And, interestingly, it's the first time the president has played with a woman.

Usually these outings are men only.

But today's round of golf comes after some questions raised by the media about what some critics say is a too-fratty atmosphere in the White House, a place where the president's closest advisers -- chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, senior adviser David Axelrod, and press secretary Robert Gibbs -- are known by women at the White House as "the Boys." That's a perception fed with lower-level aides like personal assistant Reggie Love and trip director Marvin Nicholson who have close personal relationships with the president and play basketball and golf with him.

On one level, this is much ado about nothing. No one is alleging discrimination or an uncomfortable work place. White House aides point to the myriad women in positions of power -- Barnes, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Communications Director Anita Dunn, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, UN ambassador Dr. Susan Rice, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and many others as evidence to rebut any notion that the White House should stamp "Beta Omega" above its columns.

Where's all the critics who were up in arms when Bush got a few rounds in "while our boys were dying in Iraq".

24 times while he's been in office? What's he doing? Tuning up for the seniors tour?