President Obama ought to be ashamed at bugging out of town to play golf at a fancy resort with a celebrity as the Middle East spirals toward an all-out Sunni-Shia war and negotiations with Iran are in critical condition. And perhaps he is, judging by the efforts to prevent media reporters accompanying him on the trip from getting any pictures or information. Paul Bedard reports in the Washington Examiner:

In its latest attempt to shut down media coverage, the White House Saturday dismissed reporters to their Florida hotel by declaring a news "lid" even though President Obama was just beginning his golf game — but the press pool voted to stay. (snip)

With a lid, the reporters in the "travel pool" would typically return to their hotel. But with Obama still in public golfing, though at a very exclusive club, something could happen. So the pool voted to stay in the area just in case.

"However, the pool will hold on the grounds of the golf course until the early evening. This was the a result of a democratic vote by the pool to hold as close as possible to POTUS. (The other option was a hotel about 15 miles away.) Despite the lid, pool voted to stay on site.

Aside from the Examiner, there is not much coverage of the president shirking his duties this way.