The House and the Senate are understandably in recess, since it was Passover and Easter, and many members wanted to spend time with their families. President Bush, however, has taken it upon himself to throw a temper tantrum over Democrats being on vacation.

Bush is angry that they didn’t pass the Iraq war spending bill before they left for vacation. Bush told reporters that “they need to come back, pass a bill.”

This man is the last person to tell someone to come back from vacation. Let’s not forget that Bush is the man who spent almost five weeks on vacation during the Hurricane Katrina crisis. Bush has spent 405 full or partial days at his Crawford ranch in Texas since being in office. I’m pretty sure I would lose my job if I took off more than a year in vacation time during a seven-year career.

Even though Bush is complaining about their vacation, he sure doesn’t have a problem using it to his benefit. Bush made a recess appointment for an ambassador who wouldn’t have been approved by the Senate.

Sam Fox was appointed as the ambassador to Belgium. Fox is controversial because he gave $50,000 to the Swift Boat Veterans group that lied about and trashed John Kerry during the 2004 election.

Unfortunately for Bush, he didn’t check the law before he decided to make that appointment. Bush withdrew Fox’s nomination once he realized he would never make it past the Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate.

In order to counteract this, Bush said Fox would serve as an unpaid voluntary ambassador. This was an important move on Bush’s part, since certain recess appointments cannot receive payment for services.

Bush should have read a little more, though. According to federal law, someone cannot work in a voluntary position for a job that has a fixed rate of pay. Ambassador is one such position. I guess that plan is out, and Bush will have to own up to his mistake.

While Bush was yelling at Congress for doing something he himself does on a frequent basis, other Republicans were doing something similar.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi took a visit to Syria for some diplomatic talks, and conservatives started freaking out.

They were angry that Pelosi was going to talk with a nation that thery insist has supported terrorism. Syria definitely hasn’t had clean hands when it comes to that one, but that makes Pelosi’s effort for diplomacy even more necessary.

The other “outrage” was that Pelosi wore a head scarf when she visited a mosque. All of a sudden conservatives were turning into feminists, outraged that Pelosi would do such a thing.

Both of these outrages are equally as hypocritical as Bush’s anger over the Democrats’ vacation time. Republican congressmen, in addition to Pelosi, have visited Syria’s leadership. Republican Congressman Frank Wolf said, “I don’t care what the administration says on this. You’ve got to do what you think is in the best interest of your country.” It’s hypocritical because no one was outraged over the Republicans’ visit while Pelosi is attacked mercilessly for her diplomatic mission.

Both Laura Bush and Condoleeza Rice have worn head scarves when visiting mosques. They have worn them on many different occasions actually. These women were just respecting the culture and wishes of their hosts, and earning a little respect for our supposedly insensitive American culture.

So why are Republicans spending so much time attacking Democrats for doing the same things they themselves do on a regular basis? It could be to take some heat off of their party, since Bush has spent so much time making them look bad the past few months. Being hypocritical about a head scarf is certainly less egregious than prosecutor firings or misuse of the General Services Administration.

Conservatives in this administration, it seems, have done so many wrongs that they can no longer remember which ones they did and which ones they didn’t do. When you are doing something unethical or unorthodox every single week, how can you keep track?

Reach columnist Hunter Kincaid at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.