“I woke up and discovered, to my horror, that Trump had won.” (Barbara Bush)
“She didn’t hide her horror from those close to her. After Trump was elected, a friend in Kennebunkport gave her a Trump countdown clock as a joke. The red, white, and blue digital clock displayed how many days, hours, minutes and seconds remained in Trump’s term. She parked it on the side table in her bedroom, next to the chair she would sit in to needlepoint or watch television.”
As George W Bush said about Trump’s Remarks at His Inauguration: “That’s Some Weird Sh-t’
As a conservative, and kind of a “nominal” Republican these days, I must admit that I’ve consistently voted for GOP presidential candidates in recent years…even though the Republican candidates in the two elections prior to the latest espoused few conservative, American, values …only because the Democrat candidates were so inimical to the interests of America.
In the case of the two Bushes, GHWB and GWB I did so because, at the time, I genuinely admired them and trusted them.
Boy! Was I conned about them!
In recent years it has become apparent that these two, and the entire Bush family were not what I thought them to be.
Among other things, I thought the family was gracious and elegant, devoted to the values and culture that made this nation truly ‘great’!
I must admit, I was having some misgivings about “43” during his time in the Oval Office. His handling of the Scooter Libby situation was shocking. That entire episode was so obviously in need of sober, evenly handed justice that George so inexplicably exhibited cowardice, timidity, naivete’, and just plain stubbornness. From the outset it was known around D.C. that the “outing” of Valerie Plame was done by Richard Armitage, Sec. Of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff. Even before Patrick Fitzgerald formally began his “investigation”, the Special Prosecutor and personal friend, Acting Attorney General James Comey (yep, the same), both knew it.
Yet, Fitzgerald went ahead with the “investigation”. During that probe the Central target, Karl Rove, got off the hook and Fitzgerald, having to show something for his effort, entrapped Scooter Libby, Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff.
Libby’s recollections of a conversation with NBC’s “revered” reporter Tim Russert and Matt miller about the so-called outing of Blame as a CIA undercover operative differed. Fitzgerald preferred to accept Russert’s version and charged Libby with perjury and obstruction … “process crime”…even though the Special Prosecutor knew that Libby was guilty of nothing.
Libby was thus the only person charged in the Plame investigation. He was charged and convicted of perjury and obstruction for ‘lying to the FBI’ (ever heard of that one?).
Eventually and reluctantly, after repeated pleas by Cheney on Libby’s behalf, Bush commuted the 30 month prison sentence …he did not, however, grant Libby ‘full clemency’ , leaving Libby with 2 years’ probation and a $250,000 fine!
It wasn’t until the 2016 campaign, however, that my views of the Bush clan seriously began to change. With JEB’s humiliating defeat, the Bush family clearly demonstrated that they could be as petty and devious as most politicians. Their image of grace and elegance took a big hit.
When JEB’s departure from the GOP race for the nomination became a reality, the true “Bush character” began to emerge.
When early indications surfaced that JEB couldn’t become president, the Bush family was unabashed in their obvious preference for Hillary. It was already apparent that the Bushes had a great affection for the Clintons. Bill was already a ‘member’ of their ‘adopted’ family, welcomed as a great good buddy of GHWB and a “brother by another mother” according to GW.
There was JEB’s warm 2013 introduction of Hillary at the National Constitution Center awarding her the Center’s “Liberty Medal” for all her wonderful public service.
(“Possible 2016 Republican contender Jeb Bush is presenting Hillary Clinton, the presumptive front runner for the 2016 Democratic nomination, with an award Tuesday, Sept. 10 in Philadelphia — and it has one conservative group criticizing the ceremony:
” …(JEB)Bush, the chairman of the National Constitution Center…(presented)…Hillary Clinton with the organization’s 2013 Liberty Medal.
“Former Secretary Clinton has dedicated her life to serving and engaging people across the world in democracy,” Bush said in a statement released earlier this summer. “These efforts as a citizen, an activist, and a leader have earned Secretary Clinton this year’s Liberty Medal.”)
Before then Bush 43 and JEB had made it clear that massive illegal immigration was OK with the family (“an act of love”, was JEB’s description), even if voters made it clear during GW’s administration that legalizing ‘open borders’ was not wanted.
With Trump’s election, the Bushes decided to drop all pretense of who they really were.
Bush 41 publicly announced that he had not voted for the Republican nominee. Then there was GW’s very public “weird sh-t” assessment of Trump’s inauguration remarks.
We were also learning that members of the family supported gay marriage, something not all suspected during either former president’s tenure. And then, G W’s daughter, Barbara Bush Pierce delivered the keynote address at a Fort Worth fundraiser for Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas!
Earlier it was reported that she had attended a fundraiser for then presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton!
And, now we get USA Today’s gleeful report on a book soon to be released by USA Today ‘s Susan Page about the Bush family’s Matriarch, the late Barbara Bush.
The ‘big reveal’ by USA Today seems to be how much she despised Donald Trump!
Wow! A shocker!
Seems the former First Lady was understandably a bit miffed that President Trump defeated her “low energy’ offspring, and had even offered some unkind comments about JEB during the campaign.
But now we learn how deep her resentment and dislike for Trump ran:
(adapted from The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty, which will be published April 2 by Twelve Books. Author Susan Page, the Washington Bureau chief of USA TODAY, spent hours interviewing the former first lady during the final six months of Bush’s life and was given access to her personal diaries spanning decades:
“Barbara Bush blamed Donald Trump for her heart attack.”
“It wasn’t technically a heart attack, though she called it that. It was a crisis in her long battle with congestive heart failure and chronic pulmonary disease that hit her like a sledgehammer one day in June 2016. An ambulance was called to take her to the hospital. The two former presidents who had been at home with her that day, her husband and her oldest son, trailed in a car driven by the Secret Service. The tumultuous presidential campaign in general and Trump’s ridicule of son Jeb Bush in particular had riled her. “Angst,” she told me. )
For me this will hopefully conclude any speculation that the two former presidents and their families were full-fledged “Establishment” . . . and even very questionable “Republicans”! Like many other American voters, there should no longer be any belief that the would-be Bush “dynasty” shared our traditional values, culture, and beliefs in America. To them, as with Obama and today’s radical leftist Democratic party, ‘it needs ‘fundamental transformation’! I make one exception to my disenchantment with the Bush clan. Both “Georges” were supportive of our military, and GW continues to this day.
While each gave our nation some admirable public service and could rightfully claim certain accomplishments, they were not very close to what they presented themselves to be.
For the Bushes, in the end, it was still all about the Establishment, and, whether in error or in a cynical commitment, it was not about preserving America as it was founded, with all its past history, warts and mistakes, accomplishments and great contributions to a better world…and ultimately its Greatness. It was all about power, getting it and keeping it.
As one well known public figure often says, “so sad”! DLH
I have to admit my feelings towards the two Bush presidents have evolved. 41? I was always ambivalent. The W? I really liked him, but was disappointed by his lack of fight. It was hard for me to understand the “Respect for the office” reason for not countering the “disrespect for the office” shown by his opponents. An oxymoron I have not yet reconciled.
As to the Bush/Trump dynamic? He whupped their boy. “Nuf said.
“It was hard for me to understand the “Respect for the office” reason for not countering the “disrespect for the office” shown by his opponents.” Perfectly said.