I’m a big believer in the idea that most people love to gossip. Not everyone loves to gossip about celebrities and fashion, which is fine, but most people want to gossip about something, whether it’s celebrities, royalty, politics or sports. I was thinking about that as I read the coverage from Jon Meacham’s new book about former president “Poppy” George HW Bush, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush. This is an authorized biography and Meacham conducted on-the-record interviews with HW Bush, his family and his associates. And let me tell you… HW Bush is a gossipy Mean Girl who ran out of f—ks many years ago. HW Bush is 91 years old and he’s gotten to that truth-telling stage of life. Here are some assorted Mean Girl quotes from Poppy Bush:
Barbara Bush & Nancy Reagan didn’t get along: “Nancy does not like Barbara.”
On Michael S. Dukakis: “Midget nerd.”
On Dick Cheney’s transformation when he was VP: “He had his own empire there and marched to his own drummer. It just showed me that you cannot do it that way. The president should not have that worry. He just became very hard-line and very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with… Just iron-ass. His seeming knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get our way in the Middle East. I’ve concluded that Lynne Cheney is a lot of the éminence grise here – iron-ass, tough as nails, driving.”
On how everything was George W. Bush’s fault: “The big mistake that was made was letting Cheney bring in kind of his own State Department. I think they overdid that. But it’s not Cheney’s fault. It’s the president’s fault … The buck stops there.”
On former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. “I think he served the president badly. I don’t like what he did, and I think it hurt the president having his iron-ass view of everything. I’ve never been that close to him anyway. There’s a lack of humility, a lack of seeing what the other guy thinks. He’s more kick ass and take names, take numbers. I think he paid a price for that.” He also called Rumsfeld an “arrogant fellow,” in case he didn’t make his disdain clear.
Poppy hated his son’s rhetoric: “Hot rhetoric is pretty easy to get headlines, but it doesn’t necessarily solve the diplomatic problem. You go back to the ‘axis of evil’ and these things and I think that might be historically proved to be not benefiting anything… He’s my son, he did his best and I’m for him … It’s that simple an equation.”
What Poppy thinks of gay marriage these days: “Personally, I still believe in traditional marriage. But people should be able to do what they want to do, without discrimination. People have a right to be happy. I guess you could say I have mellowed.”
What George W. Bush has to say about being criticized by his dad: “[He] would never say to me, ‘Hey, you need to rein in Cheney. He’s ruining your administration.’ It would be out of character for him to do that. And in any event, I disagree with his characterization of what was going on. I made the decisions. This was my philosophy.”
Rumsfeld thinks Poppy is TOTES old: “Bush 41 is getting up in years and badly misjudges Bush 43, who I found made his own decisions. There are hundreds of memos on www.rumsfeld.com that represent advice DOD gave the president.”
[From NY Magazine, the NYT]
I don’t have any doubt that Poppy Bush loves all of his children and grandchildren, but it’s fascinating to me that he’s still so engaged and that he’s still turning over his many disappointments with his son’s presidency. The hope for George W. in the early years especially was that things couldn’t go too badly because he surrounded himself with all of his dad’s old cronies. But even Poppy Bush is throwing Rumsfeld and Cheney under the bus. Also: Midget Nerd? Amazing.
Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.
Bush Sr is more open mind that he says it about the gay marriage: he was the witness of his grocer’s same sex wedding in 2013 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2013/09/25/george-h-w-bush-is-witness-at-same-sex-marriage-in-maine/
While I believe everything that Bush Sr. has said, I believe the release of this information is politically expedient for creating some daylight and distance between George W. and Jeb for the forthcoming election. Because Jeb and the Bushes in general are almost universally thought of as having the same thoughts on foreign affairs, domestic policies, etc., this is an attempt to show that there is a diversity of opinions amongst the Bushes so that a vote for Jeb isn’t necessarily Bush 3.0…and, more importantly, George W. Bush 2.0.
ITA. My first thought too.
I disagree@ Christo. Bush Sr. is VERY close to the Clintons. His statements are very much in line with the Democratic party and not in line with Jeb or the hot mess which has become the Republican Party.
It seems his statements are NOT inline with the present Republican Party that has become very Hawkish and Rigid
I fully agree. He’s trying to help Jeb get some traction.
Yep. Some Poppy Pee-Paw triangulation going on right here.
bingo
I don’t know how much. He’s made these statements to Meacham over several years as JM prepared the book. I don’t know if they even knew then when the book would be scheduled for release. (This goes back to his serving as witness at the gay marriage ceremony–he may have made the ‘mellowing’ statement before or after the event.)
Never thought of that!!!! Great point!!
Agreed. To hell with all of them! They must be fuming that Jeb! isn’t the automatic frontrunner, and scrambling to try to fix that.
That said, Cheney and Rumsfeld were the real “axis of evil.”
Yep.
Good call. I almost fell for it.
At one point in time, the Republicans were actually amenable to working with the other side to solve the country’s problems. I would put that circa HW Bush’s time. They were flexible. Not so now. I don’t know when religion entered the equation but if the Republicans were smart, they would dump the zealots and tell them to form their own party. The nutters have ruined the Grand Old Party.
I got a good laugh at HW’s pointed comments. He really doesn’t GAF!
Bush Sr. was so much more pragmatic and reasonable than the current batch of Republicans.
“Midget nerd” and “iron ass” – on the short list for recognition in the OED.
“Midget nerd” is my next Halloween costume.
I just guffawed.
Not iron-ass?
Along with eminence grise
I did a case study on part of State during that period….it was emptied out of career personnel and stuffed with robot political appointees. George HW knows what’s up. his comments about Cheney and Rumsfeld in particular–spot on. Rumsfeld always comes off looking like the cat that ate the canary, but this is a man who fundamentally misunderstood the task.
“…emptied out of career personnel.”
Did they quit? Or were they fired/transferred?
It was bureaucratic wrangling. Departments were merged, personnel let go, and people who resisted the changes were replaced. People left in droves because the environment grew toxic as any sort of hesitation or critical analysis was seen as disloyal. There’s a number of Arms Control Review (Today?) articles on the shake up at State ca mid 2000s–it was calculated to push forward the nuclear deal with India as part of a broader agenda. Anyway, all part of how the administration worked: formulate a vision, operate in secret, reward loyalty over competence, and force agendas through. Is that unusual? Not really, but the extent to which they took it was.
IIRC, this is at least partly why Collin Powell left. And when Rice took over, that’s when it all got rolling.
^^here’s a link (can’t believe I remember sources after all this time!!):
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2006_06/ReorgRunAmok
Interesting. I know someone who got a job as an economic adviser in the administration, who seemed unqualified but very loyal. Despite the disaster that was the economy in and after that period, he parlayed it into a cushy post-administration professorial gig.
Yep. 43’s administration was famous for their ‘either with us or against us’ mentailty, though of course don’t forget the role Rove played. It made 43 a terrible president – how can you improve anything when questioning decisions is deemed disloyal and swiftly punished? And it’s had last affects on the Republican party as a whole, as some of the 43-era leftovers now consider themselves the king makers of the party. I think there’s a direct connection between the W/Rove/Cheney style of leadership and the dumpster fire the 2016 primary has become.
“reward loyalty over competence”
That could not be more true. Remember, “Heck of a job, Brownie”?
I love reading your comments on this. You seem to really know your stuff! 😉
People in the Justice Department were outright fired without justification. At least the firings of the US Attorneys did result in hearings, during which Senator Kennedy read into the record the annual evaluations, signed by Bush 2’s attorney general just months before he fired them, all of which were positive.
Oh man..I would LOVE to pick your brain about this..
I think Bush 1 was absolutely right in his characterizations of both Cheney and Rummy. He was a soldier himself and I think he totally understands the M.E. in ways that neither his son or Chaney or Rummy did then or do now. I bet your case study was really interesting with so much happening at the time.
Let’s not forget HW served as a UN ambassador so he knows all about working with people and not being a hardliner. Too bad sonny didn’t follow his advice.
Not surprisingly, career staff at EPA fled in droves as well.
Greenieweenie, that is a really interesting analysis, and I think it provides some clarity about how that circus operated. Thank for that!!
I always thought daddy was way more reasonable then his twit son. I’d almost consider daddy more moderate then W. W’s regime wasn’t a great time in American politics. I’m glad Daddy didn’t drink the kool aid.
I agree. GHWB actually served in the military & understood the difference between diplomacy & military actions & which needed to be placed forefront. The perfect example was the 1st gulf war. GHWB understood that removing Saddam would cause what his son’s actions eventually did. The destabilization of the region. GHWB knew that while Saddam was bad he was the region’s Tito. Once removed the area would split into factions (as it has) much like the loss of Tito is why there is no longer a Yugoslavia.
I adore that he is a gossipy little bitch (meant as huge compliment!!)
However he is responsible for Cheney/Rumsfeld & their rise to power, contra, etc. but he was a lesser evil than his son.
Whatever people’s political opinions on GHWB he was very intelligent on foreign issues. You may not have agreed but he wasn’t an ideologue or stupid. That’s a large part of the reason why Clinton brought him in early and often during his administration. He respected his foreign policy bona fides and knew that he himself didn’t have the same experience. It helped formed the close relationship they have now.
I’ve actually always liked HW so much more than his sons. I don’t agree with his politics but I think he was a much smarter man than his predecessor and his sons. Even if he is also the product of nepotism he was very qualified and capable of being president, and of course now he would be considered a liberal democrat.
On paper he is the most qualified President of recent history. He was a successful business executive; Representative in Congress; Ambassador to the UN; Envoy (really Ambassador but we didn’t have official relations then) to China; part-time professor of business; Director of the CIA (in the wake of the devastating Church Commission findings); head of the Republican National Committee (taking over smack dab in the middle of the Watergate mess); war hero; very good educational background (finished Yale in 2.5 yrs); Vice President (2 term). These things don’t always translate and Presidet was probably one of his least successful ventures but he certainly was *very* qualified–especially when you look at the yahoos running now.
I am so thoroughly entertained by this. I already enjoy old people leaving all their fcks at home, but adding politics to it just makes me squeal with glee.
Me too! CB covers politics reasonably well, but I wish there was more gossiping by older school politicos.
Excuse my language, Poppy Bush, but f*ck you. The only time anyone should be giving this geezer an audience is if he is apologizing to the world for foisting his evil moron son on us all, and furthermore, Darth Cheney and the rest of those dangerous henchmen were Bush Senior’s protégés and inner circle hangers-on, so besides being a gossiping fishwife, he has zero place to talk. Also, when a person makes me come to Cheney’s defense, it’s time to reevaluate life on planet Earth, because something is wrong.
Let’s not forget that Poppy gave us the Gulf War, the Contras, and a trashed economy. Not to mention his CIA activities
Hear, hear! October Surprise.
Poppy also engaged in inflammatory language and outright lies to get the first Gulf War rolling. I always wonder if that was a medication problem- he was having some medical issues at the time, a friend who was a counselor agreed with my feeling that he changed at that point, that he had seemed reasonable enough before that. But at least he didn’t end up invading and occupying the country, which is what really turned everything upside down in the area. Kept bombing them even when they were trying to back out of Kuwait, though. Lots of cowardly actions during those wars and lots of lies at the top in Washington DC. It is also interesting that the story about his son’s involvement with the Savings & Loan scandal hit the front page and the very next day- hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops were sent to Saudi Arabia. Since U.S. media can’t seem to focus on two big stories at once, the S&L/ Bush family tie-in sort of vanished.
HE did not have a choice – remember Iraq invaded Kuwait and he was smart enough to stop and not invade Iraq- History will be kind to him. Great respect for this man, zero respect for his son, the worst president of modern times!
He technically didn’t invade Iraq, Just had the military in Kuwait. Iraq invaded Kuwait. Also way back in the Darth Cheney & Rummsey wanted to take out Saddam and he got lambasted in the media for not invading. Bush Sr, had enough sense to leave them alone and for us not to invade. He didn’t listen to the warhawks and we didn’t get the mess we have now. His son however licked their boots and did everything they wanted. Him being in the CIA he knew to leave them alone, he knew it would collapse the region if they went in. @jwoolman the region was stable after Persian gulf. The mess we have now is because we invaded and destabilized everything and brought down the government. Saddam as horrible of a human he was knew how to keep monsters like ISIS out. Now they have free reign in the region.
But at least they were smart enough not to get into a quagmire in the first Gulf War! It takes BALLS to limit a military action, because the military industrial complex monster always wants to go further, do more.
Also, the trashed economy was due in large part to Reagan’s economic policies (where he was VP). Reagan’s economic failures are laid at the feet of Bush Sr. He contributed, but Reagan was way more influential in the creation of the recession.
“the region was stable after Persian gulf. The mess we have now is because we invaded and destabilized everything and brought down the government”
Exactly!
Bush 1 most certainly DID have a choice as far as the Gulf War was concerned. Kuwait was not one of the 50 states. There was a family feud between the Hussein and Bush administrations going back decades and he used Kuwait as an excuse to kick it up a notch. Stopping at the border of Iraq does not absolve him of anything.
My father always said that the world should have agreed to find a deserted island somewhere, far from any other shore, and airdrop the entire Hussein clan and the entire Bush clan there, stark naked, with no weapons, and let them fight one another and leave the rest of the world in peace.
Not to mention he was involved in the shadows of the Kennedy assassination and many other atrocities.
Just an aside, no wonder Nancy didn’t like old Babs and her beautiful mind. She’s still one evil old crone.
But if Hussein was dropped on an island, we’d be where we are today: the Kurds, Shiites, and Sunni all fighting for dominance in a heavily contested area of the world.
@Tiffany, but tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians would not have been killed by US bombs and nearly 5,000 American military would still be alive and thousands more uninjured.
Tiffany :): we’re only where we are today because the West chopped up the Ottoman Empire piecemeal after WW1. Had artificial states and borders not been created in the first place, there’s a good chance the region would have been significantly more stable.
Lilac, I completely agree that the Iraq war was a horrible thing and should never have happened. If only that could be undone. Sadam was a horrible person, but the war was not the answer to deal with him.
Bridget, I agree that bad choices made decades ago have greatly contributed to where the region is today. I really like your use of the phrase “artificial states and borders”, because it applies to what you were referring to and also to Iraq now. You can’t just tell people that they are now a united country and must have a national identity and common goals. If the people had been able to work out their groupings on their own, there would have been less conflict and suffering.
I agree. A lot of these tyrants, daddy introduced to us.
And it would be a cold day in hell before I’d defend Cheney and his cronies.
Hahaha I know what you mean! I just find it a little precious that Bush Sr. gets to act all “but that Dick, not the Dick I knew, shucks!” when there’s an established history between them that wasn’t based on a mutual bowling club, you know?
Bush Sr didn’t introduce Cheney–Richard Nixon and then Gerald Ford did. And by all accounts Cheney was a LOT different then. And I borderline-hate Cheney (I try not to outright hate anyone)
It’s called accountability. GWB should be held responsible for GWB – not his father. Yes, these two men were close to GHB but in the article above he makes it clear that he himself did not agree with their tactics and that they were not the same men under his command. As a matter of fact, he says the buck should have stopped with his son.
Sure, Dubya is responsible for Dubya, but who created the conditions to usher Dubya into politics? Never would have happened without his father. The people surrounding Dubya in his cabinet and wreath of advisers? Check out their connections to Bush Senior. I understand that he’s disappointed that people he thought were just a little evil turned out to be extremely evil, but this effort to put some daylight between him and them is weak.
This completely.
Calm down. You’re coming across as defensive by calling my “effort” weak. Hardly. It was my opinion. I didn’t try to camouflage it with facts because normally an opinion doesn’t require it. I’m not defending either of them but I think by blaming the other during their individual terms as president would be absolving them of their individual choice to be horrible presidents. Influence will sneak up on us but at the end we should all be held accountable for our actions.
Eta: I just reread your post & now I see what you were referring to. Gotcha! My apologies. For what it’s worth, I agree… to an extent. I’m of the thinking that names like Bush & Clinton in politics need to go away. I do however have a soft spot for the Kennedys so there’s that…
Actually I remember listening to an interview on Democracy Now about this dynamic way back when GWB was president. Within HWs cabinet Cheney and Rumsfelds were considered crazies with fringe ideas . The moderate, smarter more nuanced, (and one could argue more diabolical because their policies actually worked) members held sway. GW not as smart, and looking to make up for his fathers’ mistakes basically went to those fringe players and was under their thrall.
Craig Unger wrote extensively about the Bush presidencies and the inner circles in his House of Bush, House of Saud and Fall of the House of Bush books (which were awesome), and you’re right, guys like Rumsfeld and Cheney were considered extreme, and were widely known as having fringe ideas. All the more it gets my gander up that they weren’t drummed out of Washington circles at the time!
And yet, they were IN his cabinet
I’ve never been willing to give Bush the Lesser any kind of pass on being hoodwinked by the Neocons. If you ask me, it’s always boiled down to one thing — he is just plain lazy. Period. More vacation time than any President in US history, intellectually incurious, completely unwilling to learn or modify any existing “gut” feeling, always with the implication that said feelings came from the almighty, hence, no reason to do so — on and on. It’s just as plain as that. He doesn’t care about government, doesn’t need anything government can do owing to his wealth, and is disinterested in the consequences of his actions because they don’t effect him personally. A selfish, lazy, spoiled child who never grew up.
So…basically what they’re all getting at is 1. They fcked up and 2. Dubya was a terrible President. I appreciate that admission.
Brava. And most of those people should be locked up, instead they’re collecting fat consulting fees and driving around in golf carts.
Rumsfelt has a website where he posts his defenses? What is it, http://www.knownunknowns.com?
Let us also not forget that Bush 1 ran the most racist ad in the history of presidential campaigns. Willie Horton
Midget nerd. Funny stuff. Wasn’t a fan of his, mainly for producing his son Georgie. But anyway he is 91 years old, does cool stuff, jumping out of planes and saying things he shouldn’t. I give him a pass. Barbara….not so much….can never forget her words about the poor during Katrina. Oh those Bush’s and their baked beans, no one has the recipe.
what did she say?
She made reference to the Katrina victims being relocated to Houston as “lucky” or some such nonsense. Very much in the context of “what do these people have to complain about?!?”
It was viewed as a ” let them eat cake” variety comment. Which is EXACTLY how she’s always come off to me. In several bio’s on the Bush family it’s always commented that Babs was the vindictive, nasty one.
lolamd: When people were being sent to filthy shelters, with no water and limited resources or being relocated to sites unknown she said that the evacuees were underprivileged anyway. To me it was one of the most despicable things to say imaginable during that horrible time. I honest to God believe she thought what was she was saying was fine and didn’t have a problem with it. Can’t stand the old hag.
Oh thanks for reminding me about that, Nancy. I almost forgot what a privileged, ignorant assh*le Barbara is.
They were “underprivileged anyway “so living in the Astrodome on cots with thousands of people is “working well for them”.What do they have to complain about?
Of course her words were the ones in quotes.
She said being homeless and housed in the Astrodome was a step up for Katrina victims. That it was better than where they had been living in NOLA.
Let’s not forget that Barbara is said to have personally come up with the racist Willie Horton ads. The woman is so unpleasant. If you can believe Al Franken, Barbara is known to be a nasty bitch – in her own circles.
Personally, I have always appreciated that she ‘s been a pro-choice ally, so I’m not going to judge her only on the Katrina stuff. Not everyone is a complete demon or complete saint. People have good sides and bad.
But she’s a “pro-choice ally” only when they decide that they need women’s votes. Then they trot her out, point at her, and say, “well, we may be trying to control women’s reproductive health choices but Babs here is one of you.” and we’re supposed to ignore the fact that she had absolutely no influence over policy.
Exactly. It doesn’t matter what her personal views are. Her husband was pro-choice and switched to run with Reagan. When he ran on his own he could have stood for his own beliefs – he didn’t. Speaks volumes, IMO.
Where were his anti-Cheney/Rumsfeld remarks when they would have mattered? Like when speaking out might have saved tens of thousands of lives?
I just can’t when an adulterer speaks in favor of “traditional marriage”
Midget nerd was and is a class act, something sorely lacking in the Bush family. But keep right on belittling intelligence.
I agree. Dukakis was no “midget nerd.” He deserved better than that.
I remember a TV interview done just after the election where 41 lost. Some WASPy type men, very country club Republican, very wealthy, were being asked about their votes. Several said they just couldn’t vote for 41. Couldn’t do it. When asked why, the consensus was that 41 had broken a promise. He had said, “Read my lips: No new taxes,” and then raised taxes. He had reneged on a vow. Here’s what got to me, what one fellow said:
“He’s no gentleman. He’s not good for his word.”
Bush’s campaign adviser Lee Atwater, who specialized in “dirty tricks” on Bush’s behalf against Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Dukakis in 1988, wrote an apology to Dukakis, asking for forgiveness before his death to cancer.
I saw Dukakis speak a few months ago on the infrastructure problems in this country – we are so far behind the rest of the world that it is pathetic. He did not hold back on the topic of the corruption the Bush 1 administration on the Big Dig project, from which Cheney and Rumsfeld both benefited financially.
Yeah, it’s a little late for criticism. He definitely had a hand in Cheney and Rumsfield being in their positions of power, and they did a lot of damage. A LOT.
Typical Rumsfeld making a crack about Bush Sr getting ” up in years” as to the cause of his criticism. Assh@/& couldn’t just take it on the chin as its a much deserved assesssment.
^^ +1. I hate Rumsfeld.
Rumsfeld was probably getting up in years when he was 12. Arrogant, incompetent ass whose decisions were responsible for the deaths of millions. And yet he feels no shame.
I’ve never gotten over his ‘you go to war with the military you have’ laissez-faire attitude towards actually have any real plan or afterplan for the 2 wars lauched almost simultaeously. For all the GOP loves to attack Dems for being against the military (which is a load of crap) the Iraq & Afghanistan wars have done more harm to the active duty force (separate issue from military contractors and defense contractors) than anything since Vietnam. The expense in terms of lives lost, lives changed through loss and/or injury, the sheer drain on resources–both human and material, the utter incompetency of dealing with returning veterans and their various physical, emotional and mental states. It’s just incredible that they can run as ‘pro military’ with a straight face.
WOW. I can’t believe 41 would criticize 43 like that, but he’s spot on. Could it possibly have anything to do with Jeb being buried in the polls by Trump? It must be mortifying, and perhaps he’s trying to wake that campaign back up
Of course, it’s not like he actually took it a step further into full self-awareness and acknowledged that he helped foist his completely incompetent son to be president based on the only qualification of the last name Bush.
Right with you there Papa Bush!!
I always liked Bush Sr. I will be buying that book. He was the last of the generation of president’s who carried himself with dignity and a true sense of trying to do right by your country. A lack of shame and dignity is sorely missed. He is so right about men such as Bush Jr and now Trump who go around puffing out their chests trying to bully their way in politics. Their mouths are writing checks their asses can’t cash.
But … he raised sons who are stupid, bigoted and entitled. That’s on him and his values, too.
Cheney/Rumsfield/Rove were and still are such a triumvirate of evil, and 43 is a dunce who failed up all his life. Jon Stuart once characterized Cheney as being kept alive on IV’s of panda tears and angel blood. How else could such a horrible man still live? We know the family of the man he shot while hunting years back. After it happened Cheney was whisked away by the Secret Service, his victim went to the hospital where he was more badly injured than the public knew with shotgun pellets perilously close to his heart. Cheney never apologized. I repeat, Cheney shot an incredible man who he supposedly liked, and he never apologized.
That concept of failing up (I call it failing forward) is SUCH real talk.
Dick Cheney shot a guy AND THEN HAD THE GUY APOLOGIZE TO HIM!
Rove was more Machiavellian than Machiavelli himself. How can we consider our country to be the “good guys” when we’ve had such evil people at the helm?
@EN Take heart. We can consider ourselves the good guys b/c most regular Americans are the good guys. I think a fair percentage of even people who voted for 43 were surprised by his incompetence and the outrageous assholery of his team.
@ Giddy Triumvirate of evil is right.
I don’t think hardly anybody saw coming just how extreme and BAD those dudes were going to be.
Whether folks are D or R, like Obama or don’t, I don’t think there’s really any reasonable denying that we’ve significantly righted the ship post-calamitous 43, largely in terms of our rep around the world. Whatever Obama is or isn’t, at least we, and the world, have had our knowledge restored that at least the country is not being run by a bunch of lunatics, which was the opinion of many, domestic and abroad, of the thug triumvirate.
> @EN Take heart. We can consider ourselves the good guys b/c most regular Americans are the good guys.
No, tabasco , you don’t get a pass like that. Most regular people anywhere in the world are “good guys”. It hasn’t stopped anyone from killing them. Iraq , Libya, Syria are the recent examples.
>I don’t think hardly anybody saw coming just how extreme and BAD those dudes were going to be
Well, it was pretty obvious, wasn’t it when the whole Iraq war lies came out? Americans just ignored it – so bad, too sad we destroyed another country, we didn’t know.
> Whether folks are D or R, like Obama or don’t, I don’t think there’s really any reasonable denying that we’ve significantly righted the ship post-calamitous 43, largely in terms of our rep around the world.
Have you actually asked the people from the rest of the world? Nothing got righted. Our administration never admitted any wrong doing in anything, and keeps spouting about its exceptionalism, all the while declaring themselves immune from the international laws.
@ tabasco
The US military budget is gigantically big. It has been increased over several decades. No big army is ever being built if you don’t intend to use it.
That one alone was telling.
I am of the mindset that Cheney, Bush, and Rumsfield should all have been charged with war crimes.
1. Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld have never been charged for war crimes.
2. 350 million US Americans.
600 million guns in the USA.
3. Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld are all still alive.
4. Why?
Absolutely.
it makes me happy when hunters are shot
It is all fun and games and gossip, but let’s not forget that Poppy was also a head of CIA which perpetrated unspeakable things on people from other countries.
Both him and his son , and Chaney and Rumsfeld and the whole bunch of them are war criminals as far as I am concerned.
Not surprising, really, except who knew he favors “iron ass” so much? I’m now going to invent ways to work “iron ass” into my everyday conversations. I think it’s pretty much settled that 41 is/was always a lot brighter and more competent than his sons. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Dem and I don’t really like *any* Bush, but have always thought 41 was the best of that lot. Not really a high bar, but there it is.
“Midget nerd” is hilarious.
I would love to hear him talk about Sarah Palin.
So George HW starts with the excusing now that it becomes overly obvious how bad the results of the war on terror really are.
Pathetic. He should have stood up for his believes while they were preparing the wars and not like this afterwards. He should have prevented certain things and developments during his own presidency when he kept increasing the US military budget. He should have reigned in major corporations (hello Mon_s_ant_ O).
Then when can we expect Georg W to do some excuses?
One thing I keep thinking about is that if Gore was elected instead of Bush Jr. this country would be a very different place right now, even the world would be very different.
But then I look at presidential candidates who are complete looneys such as McCain or Donald Trump, and I think, maybe not.
it seems our politics became so toxic, so dangerous, so corrupt that the only people who have a shot at presidency are the corrupt , aggressive ones without any scruples. This doesn’t bode well for the future.
Very true. I do think things are getting progressively worse in the sense that this country has never been more divided. It’s very frightening and truly does make me consider leaving…
Oh Kitten, where you going? KAT hmandu! JK…..you’re staying right here with the rest of us! Happy Weekend!!!!
The only time in his history of a judge that Antonin Scalia ever found that somebody’s 14th amendment rights to equal protection and due process were violated.
This is fishy. It’s strikes me as ‘the new Bush won’t be like the old one”. Jedi mind tricks.
All the bushes and Clinton’s are close. I think I lost all my faith in the two party system when I saw a pic of them all vacationing together. Like politics destroy families and friendships but the people we elect are BFFs. Why are we investing so much into this?
That friendship is relatively new. The Bushes hated Clinton for beating HW out of his second term, and W. set out to avenge his daddy – against Saddam Hussein, and Clinton (via Gore). It was HW and Clinton who forged the friendship. They travelled closely for charitable reasons, and HW did kind things like pretend he wasn’t tired so recent heart surgery Clinton could sleep in the nice bed. I like to think of Poppy and Clinton discussing pressing international issues, and when W comes snickering and giggling like a perpetual eight year-old, they send him to play with Barney.
It was the work on relief for the tsunami and Katrina that brought them together. Until that time, Bush had done extremely little in the way of charity work. His appearances were usually geared to fundraising for the party while Clinton was doing lots of charitable stuff. W appointed them some sort of “ambassadors” for the tsunami aid, Clinton because everyone knew he would do it and had global good will and Poppy because he wanted to help his dad improve his image. Until that time, there was extreme bitterness from Poppy over losing the election in 1992 and both he and W had said nasty things about the Clintons.
I think one of the reasons Poppy is going so hard on Cheney is because W. and Cheney had a falling out over Scooter Libby. Cheney really expected W. to pardon him before leaving office, and for some reason, W. grew a pair and refused. Cheney is still extremely bitter to this day.
Did Bush not just emasculate Cheney by inferring that it was his wifethat had the cojones and was the motivating force (or oppressor) ? Wow. Double WOW.
@GHWB, who wrote: “He had his own empire there and marched to his own drummer. It just showed me that you cannot do it that way. The president should not have that worry. He just became very hard-line and very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with… Just iron-ass.”
So, Oliver Stone got that dynamic right in his film “W” and Richard Dreyfuss ‘nailed’ his role as Dick Cheney. George W. Bush should have been worried when Dick Cheney, who had been tasked with finding a Vice Presidential running mate for Dubya, decided that no one could do the job better than ‘he’ could (just like J.J. Abrams deciding that no one but him could direct “Star Trek,” even though he never liked and just didn’t ‘get’ the franchise).