Snowy Easter for Bush

ABCNews’ Jon Garcia reports: Snowing in Crawford in April? Yep. A steady snow started falling Saturday afternoon, sending locals scurrying indoors, their cowboy hats dusted with the cold, white stuff. While Washington, New York and Boston bemoan the late season snow, at least they’re used to it. Crawford isn’t. The local weatherman says they haven’t had a freeze over Easter since 1975 — and the last time before that was in 1937.

A White House spokesman said President Bush got a bike ride in early this morning, before the flakes started to fall, adding that it was a safe bet the First Family wasn’t going swimming today. 

Neither the White House staff nor the press traveling with the President were quite prepared for this — many had packed shorts and short-sleeved shirts in anticipation of a more temperate, Spring-like weather. Some press scrambled to buy sweaters, jackets and blankets. FOX correspondent Mike Emanuel trumpeted the fact he got $75-worth of outerwear on sale for $20.98 at the local Dillards. And ABC’s Jessica Yellin stopped on the way to work to get a purple "micro fiber" weatherproof blanket for her workspace in the now-even-colder-than-usual Crawford middle school gym.

"This is ridiculous. I brought only one warm sweater just in case of excessive air conditioning," Yellin said. "Now I’m wearing several outfits at once!"

"I think that’s a bit much," said one long-time White House staffer who is a veteran of many trips to the presidential ranch. "C’mon, it’s Texas weather. It’ll be 80 degrees like that," said the staffer with a snap of the fingers.

And CBS correspondent Mark Knoller, a veteran of 50+ trips to Crawford, was heard lamenting the fact he’d purposely pulled his gloves out of his lightweight jacket and tossed them aside before hitting the road with Bush last Wednesday.

"Cindy Sheehan asked me ‘where are your gloves?’ but even she hadn’t brought gloves! She only had gardening gloves — and she was wearing them!" Knoller said.

Of course, Sheehan, the anti-war activist who’s promised to dog the President about the war in Iraq until he meets with her, was out on her usual protest rounds near the ranch. Sheehan got her Easter eve protest in early, avoiding the snow but not the morning cold.