George H.W. Bush - Classic or Dud

http://media.kansascity.com/smedia/2012/11/29/13/42/oJ2at.SlMa.81.jpeg

Our first vice president since Matty Van Buren to get elected in his own right following the end of his running mate's term, he's not looking too well lately. Should he die, lots of obits will acknowledge him as a "moderate" and the Last of the Pragmatists when aside from cutting a deal with the Dems over tax hikes and signing the ADA he groveled before Reaganism and conservatives since Ronnie beat him for the nomination in 1980. It doesn't help that no decent bios exist (a shock actually).

Does he deserve a second look?

In the end, his bio will be: one errant sperm of his led to the worst presidency of our lifetimes.

haha yeah his sex life ended up being a lot more damaging than clinton's

now there's an obit

iatee & Eric H otm

Handled the Gulf War tolerably well. "Voodoo economics". ADA. Not a neo-con (at least in its present incarnation). Otoh, Dan Quayle.

The only way Poppy Bush looks any good is if you compare him to his son. Or to Reagan. Remember that millions of voters, upon reflection, preferred Ross Perot to this guy.

He was largely an empty suit his whole political life. It's his post-presidency years, buddying up with Clinton and occasionally disagreeing with his son that made me think he wasn't such a bad guy (relatively speaking).

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mg7D3kYysfw/Rp2PiFfXMXI/AAAAAAAACXA/9Bb1hAwWwQ8/s400/clinton_bush0508.jpg

he also ditched the nra over jackbooted thugs comment.

Wimp or simp?

he wasn't such a bad guy (relatively speaking)

He's the only president in my lifetime I could imagine being related to, for better and for worse.

lol Clinton kind of reminds me of some of my extended relatives.

WILLIE HORTON should be in the lead of his obits

morbs' favorite president! he is an old dude, hope he goes peacefully

I get the "not a bad guy" thing but can't square it w/his ruthlessness and opportunism. He voted against civil rights in the 60s, engineered Iran contra...actually he was a prick

always professed to not remember where he was/what he was doing when JFK was shot

Hell I don't remember where I was then either

He didn't engineer Iran Contra -- he was a willing co-conspirator, meeting with Arab leaders to get their dough.

The ultimate Company Man - one so professionally boring that even after years of wearing the dual hat of Oil Man and CIA Operative you actually did kinda believe him when he said that he was "out of the loop" on Iran-Contra. Being the father of George W., Neil & Jeb is probable cosmic blowback for being the son of a Nazi financier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnOnDatqENo

"Sadd'm"

Highlight of the presidency

pretty indefensible for his role in iran-contra -- including (especially) pardoning the main players. i'm kind of amazed at how completely that's been forgotten (along with everything else about iran-contra,).

i'm not so keen on the gulf war either, tbh.

http://www.topchinatravel.com/pic/about-us/world-vip-travel/-US-ex-president-George-Bush-and-his-wife.jpg

He seems like maybe a less terrible person than his older son or his wife, but that's a low bar. The least-awful Republican president of the past 50 years is not high praise either. Can't think of any grounds on which he's actually somehow defensible.

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/WL010925/george-bush-and-jennifer-fitzgerald

Barbara hasn't aged a day since 1975. Of course, she already looked about 100.

Image keywords

Caucasian ethnicity

http://www.corbisimages.com/images/Corbis-IH055332.jpg?size=67&uid=588acb60-23e7-4932-b50f-2e7583ee76b8
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01384/Bush_Snr_and_Pups_1384851i.jpg

rather symbolic donchathink

http://www.eyerocketbooks.com/images/Bush_Guitar.jpg

I love the line in The Final Days about how Al Haig told RNC Chairman Bush that the smoking gun had been found in the Watergate tapes and the president would likely have to resign.

When asked what Bush's reaction had been, Haig said that "he opened himself into assholes and shit himself to death."

First president since Truman? LBJ? to wear glasses in public on a regular basis.

Last one too.

Bwah ha! xp

I really miss the days when you didn't have to include the "H.W." when referring to this guy.

don't we all.

i kinda feel like no one can be director of the c.i.a., even for a year, and not be a complete asshole.

don't forget we have him to thank for Clarence Thomas

Oh shit, that's right.

don't forget: we have him to thank for loathing broccoli.

never forget:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ervjj_qRXXQ

2 Bad Neighbors

"It's your sons, Jeb Bush and George Bush Jr.!"

http://www.hwdyk.com/q/images/twobadneighbors_12.jpg

http://youtu.be/GkyBfJfcIoM?t=23s

ebruceii 9 months ago

This video makes me want to punch that old man Bush in his effing face. HE was the person running the CIA when THEY brought that shit into our cities to pay for wars in Central America under President Reagan. Glad that old scumbag is dead.

ebruceii is clairvoyant.

Poppy Bush never had an Alec Baldwin tell him "Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good father? Fuck you. Go home and play with your kids!

Being the father of George W., Neil & Jeb is probable cosmic blowback for being the son of a Nazi financier.

Also ironic for him being the son of the first national treasurer of Planned Parenthood.

'never understood lemonade myself...not my forte.'

morbs' favorite president!

he's loathsome... just less so than the 3 who've followed.

(weighing everything, that is)

On one of the modern rock chart polls we tossed around the idea of the 1988-1992 musical interzone when certain ideas about presentation and arrangements reached their apex then started to slowly wilt until the next set of jolts. Poppy's presidency was a perfect match: a purported continuation of Reagan, only not so; a sense of sitting in a waiting room for the Next Big Thing. Reagan of course is still with us, the corpse that keeps getting exhumed; so is the Lobster of Hope. Bush will never be reexamined though...except when Obama refers to his foreign policy as a model of excellence.

i kinda feel like no one can be director of the c.i.a., even for a year, and not be a complete asshole.

― packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad)

sums it up for me, there's plenty we'll never know about.

So he's the unplugged "Layla."

He's Richard Marx's "Angelia."

JCM's Whenever We Wanted might have been his best.

what's that painting of him and clinton in front of the mosque upthread?

I think it was part of the 2004 Tsunami Relief fund?

Bush tried to surprise Clinton with a visit to his friend's office in New York City's Harlem; when Bush arrived, he found Clinton was overseas. So Bush sat down in his successor's office, put his feet up and called him on the phone. "Bill! It's George. Nice view! Nice desk!"

Ha, what is this, trying to get there first to hold open the door?

http://news.yahoo.com/famed-gulf-war-u-general-schwarzkopf-dies-former-012253521.html

weird times, those were.

http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/image.php?id=1168&filename=P22412-16.jpg

http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/image.php?id=2261&filename=HS767.jpg

Bar?

open and wet

During the 1988 presidential campaign, Donna Brazile, a campaign aide to Bush's opponent Michael Dukakis, was asked to resign after she told reporters that George H.W. Bush needed to "'fess up" about unsubstantiated rumors of an extramarital affair. Said Brazile, "The American people have every right to know if Barbara Bush will share that bed with him in the White House."

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ipk3HlMEmp8/Tta3aCfE74I/AAAAAAAACnI/jH3b6dZd7v8/s1600/pict435.jpg

Looks like No. 3 is aping No. 5's hairstyle.

http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/16/42/57/3812324/3/628x471.jpg

How this picture features not one, but two future presidents shows that America has a lot to answer for.

http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/17/03/43/3946702/3/628x471.jpg

http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/16/42/56/3812239/3/628x471.jpg

"Of course not, Biff. Now, I wouldn't want that to happen."

Anyway. The funniest about this thread so far is that we're all pretty much doing this:

http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/06/33/03/1683672/3/628x471.jpg

Damn, no video of "Message: I care" on YouTube.

The death watch:

Mr. Bush’s single term, from 1989 to 1993, proved a pivot point at home and abroad. The last president to have served in World War II, he managed the end of the Cold War, reunified Germany and expelled Iraq from Kuwait. He reauthorized the Civil Rights Act, updated the Clean Air Act and signed the Americans with Disabilities Act. But he broke his “read my lips” promise not to raise taxes and lost re-election when he seemed disengaged from a troubled economy.

and:

The nostalgia for Mr. Bush may say as much about these times as his. Those were the days when America went to war with Iraq and then got out, when the two political parties struck grand bargains tackling the budget deficit, when Russia was a newfound friend retreating from confrontation rather than provoking it.

Just as telling are Mr. Bush’s current friends and foes. Among the friends are some of the same Democrats who tormented him but now lavish him with praise. Among the foes are some of today’s Republicans, who see him as the epitome of everything they do not want to be.

“You never hear anyone point to Bush 41,” said Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, a Tea Party group. “By definition, a one-term president is a failed president. The American people rejected his economic policies.”

On the other side of that argument is Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, who ran for the Democratic nomination to challenge Mr. Bush in 1992. “I know they’re building statues of Ronald Reagan at airports,” Mr. Harkin said, “but in terms of their lives and their life’s work, to me, Bush 41 is much more integral to the development of American government and the process of democracy.”

Mr. Harkin will attend this weekend’s events at the elder Bush’s library at Texas A&M University, organized by Frederick D. McClure, chief executive of the library foundation. Mr. Harkin will appear on a panel to discuss the Americans with Disabilities Act, on which he collaborated with Mr. Bush.

Also on hand will be another Democrat, former Representative David R. Obey of Wisconsin, who helped broker the 1990 budget deal that included tax increases. “If there’s a single word that you can use to describe Bush’s approach to politics, it’s governance,” Mr. Obey said. “It was a case where the adults ran the show.”

Other Democrats are quick to add praise. “I actually have a high opinion of Bush 41,” said former Representative Richard A. Gephardt, Democrat of Missouri, who ran for president in 1988. Mr. Bush showed “strong presidential leadership,” Mr. Gephardt said, in taking on his own party over taxes and not pursuing Iraqi troops all the way to Baghdad.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/04/us/politics/hindsight-proves-kinder-and-gentler-to-bush-41.html?ref=politics&_r=0

Two bad neighbors

Say what you will about HW but there's no denying
he puked on that Japanese dignitary that one time

'and that is why i will continue to oppose teen alcoholism in all its forms.'

http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/streams/2014/June/140612/2D274906094889-today-george-bush-skydive-140612-02.blocks_desktop_medium.jpg

mission accomplished.

did he die

George H.W. Bush - Classic or Dead

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/380298/ghwb-then-and-now-jay-nordlinger#comments

http://i.imgur.com/ZUuq0yu.jpg http://i.imgur.com/agiUXUd.jpg

eaten by dogs

has there ever been a decent biography of this guy?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41URrtJNQJL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

I'd like to imagine it's a book written by W.'s ghostwriter about Poppy's ghostwriter.

There's also

http://i.imgur.com/6kwFJ6k.jpg

You probably would have to wait around for the guy for whom the CIA named its headquarters to die first before you can even think about publishing half of the good stuff, if that.

has there ever been a decent biography of this guy?

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.),

Ignore the shitty title: http://www.amazon.com/George-Bush-Life-Lone-Yankee/dp/068419452X/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1417205518&sr=8-17&keywords=george+bush+biography

Would love to see Perlstein do a book focused around this guy.

A dying Babe Ruth meets Yale baseball captain Bush, June 1948. (I think he's giving him a debate cheat book for 1988.)

http://images.politico.com/global/2012/12/03/george_h_w_bush_ap_17_605.jpg

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1699775/images/o-GEORGE-HW-BUSH-facebook.jpg

Kind of amazing that the craziest he got, statement-wise, was about atheists not being real citizens - that shit wouldn't even get you a round of applause at a GOP rally these days.

Let's not get into the Pledge of Allegiance and Willie Horton.

I fully expect that when he dies and they cut him open, swarms of cockroaches will come flying out. god only knows the dark shit he's kept his trap shut about.

like, for example, what they discussed at these Thursday luncheons:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Photograph_of_President_Reagan_and_Vice-President_Bush_eating_lunch_in_the_Oval_Office_Study_-_NARA_-_198591.jpg

"These poor people are delicious!"

a president who also served as director of the cia is guaranteed to carry an especially heavy load of darkness

Definitely knows where the bodies were dug up and reburied.

He has given up his “C.S.I.” reruns, consuming campaign coverage on Fox News — intently but fretfully — when he is perched in front of the television in his Houston home.
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He reads three print newspapers daily, dials into briefings given by advisers to his son Jeb’s presidential campaign and stays up late to watch prime-time debates — after sitting through the so-called undercard, too.

Former President George Bush, 91 and frail, , is straining to understand an election season that has, for his son and the Republican Party, lurched sharply and stunningly off script. And he is often bewildered by what he sees.

“I’m getting old,” he tells friends, appraising today’s politics, “at just the right time.”

These are confounding days for the Bush family and the network of advisers, donors and supporters who have helped sustain a political dynasty that began with the Senate victory by Prescott Bush, the older Mr. Bush’s father, in Connecticut 63 years ago. They have watched the rise of Donald J. Trump with alarm, and seen how Jeb Bush, the onetime Florida governor, has languished despite early advantages of political pedigree and campaign money.

boo hoo:

“I have no feeling for the electorate anymore,” said John H. Sununu, the former New Hampshire governor who helped the elder Mr. Bush win the 1988 primary there and went on to serve as his White House chief of staff. “It is not responding the way it used to. Their priorities are so different that if I tried to analyze it I’d be making it up.”

Mr. Sununu, like many establishment-aligned Republicans, is especially mystified by Mr. Trump’s appeal. “He supports single-payer federal health care and he loves eminent domain, and the Tea Party hates both of those things,” he said. “So explain to me how people are voting on issues.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/politics/watching-gop-race-bush-41-is-glad-to-be-old.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

good to know there is an actual script for election season, things make more sense now.

“So explain to me how people are voting on issues.”

LOL @ people voting on issues

“I have no feeling for the electorate anymore,” said John H. Sununu, the former New Hampshire governor who helped the elder Mr. Bush win the 1988 primary there and went on to serve as his White House chief of staff. “It is not responding the way it used to. Their priorities are so different that if I tried to analyze it I’d be making it up.”

Mr. Sununu, like many establishment-aligned Republicans, is especially mystified by Mr. Trump’s appeal. “He supports single-payer federal health care and he loves eminent domain, and the Tea Party hates both of those things,” he said. “So explain to me how people are voting on issues.”

wish nixon was alive instead of these dweebs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSrMOm1roVs

lol that picture looks like what about bob

Nixon gets best one-liner about Bush: "President? He's just a person you appoint to things."

gwb just listing states he's recently been in. "george."

i mean ghwb.

The only dude alive who can't recall where he was on November 22, 1963.

Sez more stuff, mostly forgettable. Didn't know Meacham had an oleaginous biography ready for publication.

He said he thought Mr. Cheney had changed since serving in his cabinet. “He just became very hard-line and very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with,” Mr. Bush said. He attributed that to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “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.”

He speculated that Mr. Cheney was influenced by his wife, Lynne, and his daughter Liz, both strong conservatives. “I’ve concluded that Lynne Cheney is a lot of the eminence grise here – iron-ass, tough as nails, driving,” he said.

Still, he called Mr. Cheney “a good man” who pushed boundaries too far. “The big mistake that was made was letting Cheney bring in kind of his own State Department,” Mr. Bush said. “I think they overdid that. But it’s not Cheney’s fault. It’s the president’s fault.”

By that, he meant his son. “The buck stops there,” the elder Mr. Bush said.

He was even harsher about Mr. Rumsfeld, who had been a rival of his since the 1970s, when both served in Gerald R. Ford’s administration. “I think he served the president badly,” Mr. Bush said. “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 added, “Rumsfeld was an arrogant fellow and self-assured, swagger.”

iron-ass

^^
"Bar, toss me the remote. Tired of this iron-ass guy on here thinking he can solve all the puzzles without buying any vowels."

HW preferred Cheney's ass when it was soft and supple

http://static01.nyt.com/images/2009/06/28/books/wheatcroft-600.jpg

http://cdn.billmoyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/AP060621018963.jpg

isn't iron-ass what nixon's navy "friends" called him because of his irritatingly patient poker tactics

the latest chapter of oedipus rex of the 21st century

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0quUM-Nr2c

http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article127162609.html

Think his window for dying without a Trump eulogy expired last weekend.

"I know that Jeb and I didn't always see eye-to-eye--frankly, we hate each other--but I admired the former president very much. I gotta tell you, though, when it comes to low-energy, you can't get any lower than being dead. Not good, folks."

"You know, I won more counties than he did, in fact some say it was a movement, I got more primary votes than all these guys, anyone in history, really. And a lot of people have called to tell me how amazing that was. But we love George Bush, don't we? Terrific guy."

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/george-h-w-bush-apologizes-055154853.html

He actually did the same thing to an acquaintance of mine a year or so ago after seeing her in a musical.

does he have dementia yet? he looks like he does.

for some reason I remembered:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/5f/43/c4/5f43c4b86c01f0d452547c3a61bc4af0--funny-old-people-funniest-jokes.jpg

Dirty Old Men In Wheelchairs

when this thread got revived I thought he'd died and the cockroaches flew out

the second apology from his team makes this worse than it sounded in the first place. "he's old and his arm is in a lower place than most peoples. also sometimes he pats women on the ass. sorry"

I hate to think about the sickening overpraising treatment he'll get when he does kick off. His most "pragmatic" moves were usually craven attempts to evade whatever principles he possessed.

Malapropisms are a Bush gene:

"If you're worried about caribou, take a look at the arguments that were used about the pipeline. They'd say the caribou would be extinct. You've got to shake them away with a stick. They're all making love lying up against the pipeline and you got thousands of caribou up there." —speaking in 1991 about the Alaskan pipeline.

"You cannot be president of the United States if you don't have faith. Remember Lincoln, going to his knees in times of trial and the Civil War and all that stuff. You can't be. And we are blessed. So don't feel sorry for — uh, don't cry for me, Argentina."

In the end, his bio will be: one errant sperm of his led to the worst presidency of our lifetimes.
― Zero Dark 33⅓: The Final Insult (Eric H.), Thursday, December 27, 2012 2:23 PM (four years ago)

haha yeah his sex life ended up being a lot more damaging than clinton's
― iatee, Thursday, December 27, 2012 2:24 PM (four years ago)

iatee & Eric H otm
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, December 27, 2012 2:27 PM (four years ago)

I am fortune's fool!

http://time.com/5019182/george-hw-bush-groping-allegation/

he's ailing again

https://i.imgur.com/iG9sZb1.png

And yet they say he is recovering already.

He is a dud--Al your many glorious postings on this thread are everything I love about you in one place.

He's going to be (deservedly) the least lionized president of my lifetime.

Dunno! The fictional bipartisan era he represents is gonna get another airing when Jon Meacham, "Morning" Joe, et al command the airwaves for a couple days.

A friend pointedly reminded me on FB last week that he (willingly) signed and showed executive muscle to get the ADA.

my parents were poppy supporters during the 1980 gop primary; they lived to regret it for his offspring, not specifically him

he oversaw the end of the cold war and didn't make any drastic errors. maybe the best republican president of the last . . . idk, eisenhower? teddy? pretty low fuckin bar

the least lionized president of my lifetime

When he dies, he'll get the full praised-to-the skies treatment. He won't get a flag-draped caisson down Pennsylvania Avenue, but in eulogy he'll become a towering statesman, a strong and visionary leader, a paragon of every virtue, and the symbolic kindly father of us all. It's mandatory.

He seems like maybe a less terrible person than his older son or his wife, but that's a low bar.

pretty low fuckin bar

Hey listen guys, but I don't know how she could get any lower!

I met Poppy multiple times in 1988 and drove a car in his motorcade. Met all the Bushes, including young W. That experience is what led to my immediate, permanent hiatus from the Republican party. For every sensible thing that Poppy did, there was a Lee Atwater to counter balance.

BUSH HOLDS ON TO LIFE https://t.co/faHXAUxeJO

— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) April 24, 2018

he raised taxes, so not too many modern Repugs are gonna weep

still, for AIDS, Iraq and Willie Horton, fuck him

not too many modern Repugs are gonna weep

he was the ruler of the tribe. he'll get his day or two of synthetic tears.

(xpost)

Had to look up Willie Horton. I'm assuming this covers the issue?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTdUQ9SYhUw

☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️

Cue the media nostalgia for the days of the “good” Republican Party.

Barbara kicked it last April, so there wasn't much propping him up any more. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter outlived them both. A small justice. I can do without the media hagiography that will surely come now, as it did for McCain.

which will surely be even more lachrymose now with concurrent Trump/Mueller news

surprised he lasted 7 months after Barbara tbh. he looked like a bag of bones and jelly getting wheeled out at the Superbowl in 2017

Grabbin' Ass In Heaven Hell Now.

when this thread got revived I thought he'd died and the cockroaches flew out

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, October 25, 2017 9:48 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh yeah he got MeToo'd lmfao

too late to do anyone any good

could've at least won in '92 and spared us Billary

It doesn't help that no decent bios exist (a shock actually).

is this still true, Alfred?

I had no use for him

I have no real perspective on him. I’m not American, and I was a tween during his presidency, so he was basically Dana Carvey’s SNL impersonation, for me.

The first thing I ever read about him (in The Final Days, cited by pplains above) remains the most memorable: "He broke out in assholes and shit himself to death."

oh yeah he got MeToo'd lmfao

In the end, his bio will be: one errant sperm of his led to the worst presidency of our lifetimes.

― Zero Dark 33⅓: The Final Insult (Eric H.), Thursday, December 27, 2012 3:23 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

how optimistic we all were

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9-V7A4NIys

https://media.popculture.com/2018/08/john-mccain-george-hw-bush-getty-20043580-1280x0.jpeg

missing u

My moderate-liberal mom always liked this guy for some reason. Can anybody (e.g. Alfred) explain the fuck why to me?

I was 10 when he left office - literally the only things I remember firsthand are that he barfed in Japan, spoke in my town during the '92 campaign, and had the "No New Taxes" pledge thrown back at him at about the same time.

I wonder how Jennifer Fitzgerald is feeling right about now...

Heaven and Hell on baited breath, will he be bringing the coke with him?

IT was just emerging that he had helped out Spiro Agnew when he was in trouble. Tried to suppress word that was getting out or something to that effect. Or was it conceal evidence.
So seem sto have been far from good from an early stage.

rip big man, heaven needed a former cia ghoul whose family line includes both an attempt at a fascist coup in the usa and an illegal middle eastern intervention which killed hundreds of thousands of people

good morning!

"not the worst, in retrospect"

have to be honest id take that on the gravestone if twas offered now to me

https://www.nydailynews.com/resizer/KLSEJUQudqs4OkNnIm7rkcWopH0=/1400x0/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-tronc.s3.amazonaws.com/public/GTFH3FNN3XG5HQL6OPOTFR7PIU.jpg

rip dag man

illegal middle eastern intervention which killed hundreds of thousands of people

Rest in piss. Keep 'em coming

Here's the notorious Willie Horton ad. Before the norms eroded. https://t.co/hXSzI0MdAW

— corey robin (@CoreyRobin) December 1, 2018

Last sane Republican, before the evangelical brainrot took over.

I voted for him in 1988 a few weeks after my 18th birthday. I was recovering from Ayn Rand-y delusions at the time, and its the last time I voted GOP.

Bush could have supported the 1989 Panamanian coup attempt against Noriega, and prevented the hundreds of civilian deaths caused by his intervention two months later.

Bush could have vocally intervened as intel and the ambassador to Iraq announced Saddam massing to invade Kuwait, and prevented tens of thousands of civilian deaths caused by the 1991 Gulf War and its aftermath in the suppression of Sh'ia / marsh Arab insurrection. In doing so, he would have also preserved the Iraq/Iran balance of power that had been a goal of U.S. foreign policy since the 1960s. Instead he created the preconditions for the still ongoing Saudi-Iran proxy war.

So, contrary to popular conceptions, he wasn't that good at foreign policy. OTOH, James Baker was probably the most effective secretary of state in the last 70 years.

Weird how this pic is the one where I finally see the resemblance between HW and Jr.

https://i.imgur.com/ZOADQtW.jpg

He wasn't the last sane Republican so much as one of the old guard's most conspicuous victims of the Reaganist brain rot.

My God, they are going to hold Bush up as John Adams. Trump won't be let in the door and he'll crack up.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) December 1, 2018

I am taking a group of Italians round London today and have just realised why the flag on Buckingham Palace is at half mast. They had better not do that when trump dies.

He was relatively tough on Israel? at least to a degree you'll never see again

I read and reviewed When the World Seemed New about six months ago: a thorough study of Poppy's stewardship of the end of the Cold War. The scene that stays with me: the forty-first president guzzling two martinis on Air Force One in response to a kind of war-induced postpartum depression.

It won't happen, but I'd be interested in hearing from Ross Perot today. He had such a hate-on for Bush in '92--I think the general consensus is that Clinton would have won anyway with no Perot, but maybe not.

As president, George H. W. Bush unilaterally reduced the US nuclear arsenal by about half, without ill consequences. RIP

— Graeme Wood (@gcaw) December 1, 2018

Bush once again with the ill behaviour.

Gore Vidal called William F. Buckley's family the Sick Kennedys, but the Bush family better fits that role.

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) December 1, 2018

Thomas Mallon in The New Yorker: "George H. W. Bush is likely to be remembered as the last President of the republic not to have been intensely despised by a significant portion of its population." Not sure I believe it.

Worth a read. What boggles is that these men served in two GOP administrations and lost their fucking minds.

xp

That sounds right to me. Before that, Eisenhower? (Not counting ford)

Intensely being the key word

I will say that he was the last competent Republican president of my lifetime, and set against Ford and his two successors he looks like FDR.

This has probably been posted before somewhere on ILX (can't see it on this thread). Great photo:

http://usatftw.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/babe_ruth_george_bush.jpg?w=776&h=1024

His stats at Yale for '46/'47/'48

G - 76
AB - 263
H - 59
R - 43
RBI - 28
BA - .224

I hope he was Keith Hernandez with the glove.

http://sabr.org/research/complete-collegiate-baseball-record-george-hw-bush

His son was Keith Hernandez with the blow.

This is a major part of Bush’s legacy. It’s what his War on Drugs did to just one person. But it shows the human costs of that war in miniature detail. A high schooler was lured to the WH to sell crack and spent 7+ years in prison, so that the President could make a point on TV.

— Joshua Clark Davis (@JoshClarkDavis) December 1, 2018

Reagan-esque!

I think history is gonna judge every member of the 'sensible-gop' by whether or not they came out publicly against trump. the bushes could have used their stature to do something that was actually in the best interests of 'their legacy' and the long-term of the gop and they didn't.

I'm not sure, given his age and exile by the GOP, what strings Poppy could've pulled to stop Trump, but then he would know what it's like to have one's strings pulled.

I thought they did more or less come out publically against Trump (made easier because none of them actually held office, so they didn't have put that to the test, like Jeff Flake and the rest who criticize publically and then vote with Trump--plus one of them ran against Trump).

didn't Dubya actually admit he voted for Clinton? I have to check.

I think history is gonna judge every member of the 'sensible-gop' by whether or not they came out publicly against trump

it would be nice if they were also judged by like, their actions, but I guess this'll have to do

I remember feeling a deep sense of shame and anger when I visited the Amiriyah shelter in Iraq. George HW Bush killed more than 400 civilians huddled there on February 13, 1991. These are the crimes we should be discussing today.

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) December 1, 2018

And here's this from @MarkKUpdegrove's 2017 book called The Last Republicans. https://t.co/CYYhEkiMLv pic.twitter.com/QosOjCI3RR

— Michael Kruse (@michaelkruse) December 1, 2018

h/t Ned

(xpost)

H.W. voted for Clinton, but it sounds like he didn't say so publically:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/04/george-h-w-bush-voted-hillary-clinton-called-donald-trump-blowhard/

Trump going to the funeral. God if only he were able to get to the mic to give an euology, that would be 10-20 minutes of fucking disaster I'd love to see

goddamn that Josh Clark Davis tweet thread is infuriating

My moderate-liberal mom always liked this guy for some reason. Can anybody (e.g. Alfred) explain the fuck why to me?

He was good at projecting a mild-mannered and polite persona to the public. And, of course, the media played along and made him seem pleasant and generally harmless.

and now of course the mild-mannered mien looks like a master class in presidential timbre or something

I thought they did more or less come out publically against Trump (made easier because none of them actually held office, so they didn't have put that to the test, like Jeff Flake and the rest who criticize publically and then vote with Trump--plus one of them ran against Trump).

W has criticized Trump obliquely but the best quote was after the inauguration when he described the proceedings as "some weird shit" or something like that. I hope they seat Trump between him and Jeb at the funeral. Maybe throw the McClains in there too.

guess she's running for president

George H.W. Bush was an American patriot who lived his life and served our country with dignity. From joining the Navy during WWII to the presidency, his devotion to public service was unmatched. Bruce and I send our heartfelt condolences to his family.

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 1, 2018

trump ragged on dubya constantly and made a fool out of jeb - even ignoring the 'it would be nice of you to help america avoid fascism' factor, they really didn't have a shortage of personal reasons to come out stronger against him.

xp

Lol Bushes were never gonna publicly support the family that threw them out of the WH

many xps

this would have easily swung the election.

Strongly disagree with this. Every time somebody like the Bushes spoke out against Trump, that just strengthened Trump. With has hardcore zealots, obviously, but if the argument is that the Bushes could have swayed Trump's softer support--people who voted for him more because they didn't like Clinton--I don't believe that either. I don't know how to frame it exactly, but the formulation that "strong condemnation of Trump from the Bushes tips election to Clinton," that just doesn't fit with that election at all.

Always curious what ppl expect pols like Warren to do, tweet YO HW SUCK MY DICK FROM THE BACK FASCIST PIECE OF SHIT #SCUMGANG FOR LIFE!!

Agree with clem

If anything, that's what helped lose the election for Clinton (not second-guessing--I would have made exactly the same mistake): we won't go campaign in Michigan, we'll just wait until good Republicans speak out against Trump and everybody sees the light.

Always curious what ppl expect pols like Warren to do, tweet YO HW SUCK MY DICK FROM THE BACK FASCIST PIECE OF SHIT #SCUMGANG FOR LIFE!!

you would retweet, you have to admit

Well, yeah

hoping AOC has the good sense to say nothing tbh

Lol Bushes were never gonna publicly support the family that threw them out of the WH

at this point the families are pretty buddy-buddy

Strongly disagree with this. Every time somebody like the Bushes spoke out against Trump, that just strengthened Trump. With has hardcore zealots, obviously, but if the argument is that the Bushes could have swayed Trump's softer support--people who voted for him more because they didn't like Clinton--I don't believe that either. I don't know how to frame it exactly, but the formulation that "strong condemnation of Trump from the Bushes tips election to Clinton," that just doesn't fit with that election at all.

the republican party is a mix of legitimate crazies and vanilla party members who wait for signals and toe the line. the party elite - many of whom openly, but quietly admitted they weren't voting for trump - didn't do a great job at signaling to the second group that trump was dangerous and that they actually weren't supposed to just vote straight ticket republican like they do ever other year. multiple presidents coming out against their own party would have been a pretty good signal that this wasn't just another election and trump wasn't just another republican. the crazies were always going to support him, the rest of the party wasn't a given.

last one I promise -- quote remind you of anyone

On July 3, 1988, @USNavy blew a commercial Iranian airplane out of the sky over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 civilians onboard, including 66 kids.

Bush defended this, saying, "I will never apologize for the United States of America, ever. I don't care what the facts are!" https://t.co/yofnaeOywC

— Nima Shirazi (@WideAsleepNima) December 1, 2018

goddamn that Josh Clark Davis tweet thread is infuriating

Seriously. I hadn't heard that story before.

wow, i didn't even know about that.

xp Flight 655

"Statement as Vice-president, during a presidential campaign function (2 Aug 1988)[1]. Some commenters at the time saw this as a reference to the Navy warship USS Vincennes having shot down Iran Air Flight 655 on July 3, although Bush did not explicitly mention the shoot-down in the speech. The quote of the week section of Newsweek (15 August 1988[2], p.15) described the quote as "George Bush, speaking to a group of Republican leaders about the accidental downing of an Iranian airliner", and in "Rally Round the Flag, Boys" by Michael Kingsley in TIME magazine (12 September 1988), the quote was described as "the Vice President's reaction to the shooting down of the Iranian civilian airliner"."

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush

(not to defend him, but context)

the crazies were always going to support him, the rest of the party wasn't a given

If you weren't one of the crazies, did you really need one of the Bushes to spell out for you that Trump was potentially dangerous? I assume you would have been non-crazy enough to figure that out for yourself just from observing the campaign. I think we watched different elections. The only actions that were going to change the 2016 result would have come from Clinton, not external forces. (And again--it's a hard thing to search and round up comments--I'll stand by the statement that the Bushes did speak out publically against Trump. Maybe not as forcefully as you would have liked, but I think they did.)

If 35% of his support came from crazies, then 65% of his support came from non-crazy people who voted for him after the Access Hollywood tape. George H.W. Bush: "Please, America, do not vote for this guy--that tape strongly suggests he's not someone we want as president." And with that, millions of votes--especially in those key "Democratic firewall" states--migrate back to Clinton.

Doesn't compute.

I think the only republican elite who was super vocal about opposing trump at election time was Romney.

A reminder that one of the peculiar features of the 2016 election was that then, as now, Trump's ceaseless stream of outrageous pronouncements sucked almost every bit of public attention into its vortex, so that a choir of prominent Republicans leaders could have assembled on the steps of the Capitol and sung their disavowal of Trump in harmony and a week later few people would have remembered what they'd said. The man is an expert shit-stirrer.

If you weren't one of the crazies, did you really need one of the Bushes to spell out for you that Trump was potentially dangerous? I assume you would have been non-crazy enough to figure that out for yourself just from observing the campaign. I think we watched different elections. The only actions that were going to change the 2016 result would have come from Clinton, not external forces. (And again--it's a hard thing to search and round up comments--I'll stand by the statement that the Bushes did speak out publically against Trump. Maybe not as forcefully as you would have liked, but I think they did.)

it can be hard to get outside of our own reference point here and accept that most americans don't care about politics and certainly don't follow day-to-day events the same way that anyone on ilx does. if you're a longstanding member of the republican party in 2016, every presidential candidate you've voted for since 1988* is currently opposed to the current nominee and isn't voting for them. I would be surprised if 1/10 of them could have told you that fact.

I think it's nuts to believe that a coordinated effort by 3 decades of party figureheads wouldn't have had an effect in the election, and not just because the election was so close that anything would have swung it. I think they ultimately didn't because they thought trump was going to lose anyway and they didn't want to deal w/ the crazies.

*okay except bob dole

When he was in office I hated GHWB and his policies, and I didn't like him as an elderly ex-president either, but that Graeme Wood tweet upthread made me dig around a little and increased my respect on one (1) point; unilaterally cutting the US nuclear arsenal in half, over the heads of his Joint Chiefs and Secretary of Defense Dick Fucking Cheney, was by far his most significant act of presidential leadership:

https://ndupress.ndu.edu/Portals/68/Documents/casestudies/CSWMD_CaseStudy-5.pdf

most americans don't care about politics and certainly don't follow day-to-day events the same way that anyone on ilx does

Probably true, I don't know, I'm not American. But are you saying that such people weren't aware of the Access Hollywood tape (but one example out of many)? You'd have to be living under some kind of gargantuan rock to have dodged that story. And if you did see it, and went ahead and voted for Trump anyway, I don't see how any kind of coordinated effort to tell you not to was going to make one bit of difference.

Impasse--again, we observed different elections. (And I again plead guilty to the same kind of benign stupidity. Fifteen times during the election I concluded, "That's it--Trump can't win now.)

Actually nvm he was cool

Other people seem to be covering George H.W. Bush's life of lies and war crimes. So I will warmly remember when Bush told Gorbachev that all of America's "blockheads and dummies" loved Reagan because Reagan was "an extreme conservative." pic.twitter.com/gqquFDA8Nd

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) December 1, 2018

Probably true, I don't know, I'm not American. But are you saying that such people weren't aware of the Access Hollywood tape (but one example out of many)? You'd have to be living under some kind of gargantuan rock to have dodged that story. And if you did see it, and went ahead and voted for Trump anyway, I don't see how any kind of coordinated effort to tell you not to was going to make one bit of difference.

sure they heard about the hollywood tape, but they also heard about the clinton email scandal and BENGHAZI.

when discussing what it was like to experience the clinton/trump election, as well as every day since then, the AP Stylebook strongly recommends inserting ~^TRUMP~! with a semi-random frequency averaging between every 2-3 words. for example the last exchange between clemenza and iatee should instead read something like:

----AP Stylebook Approved------

Probably true~^TRUMP~!, I don't ~^TRUMP~! know, I'm not ~^TRUMP~! American. ~^TRUMP~! But are ~^TRUMP~! you saying that such ~^TRUMP~! people weren't aware ~^TRUMP~! of the ~^TRUMP~! Access Hollywood tape (but ~^TRUMP~! one example ~^TRUMP~! out of many)? ~^TRUMP~! You'd have to be ~^TRUMP~! living under ~^TRUMP~! some kind ~^TRUMP~! of gargantuan rock to ~^TRUMP~! have dodged that story~^TRUMP~!. And ~^TRUMP~! if you did ~^TRUMP~!see it, and went ~^TRUMP~! ahead and~^TRUMP~! voted for Trump ~^TRUMP~!anyway, I don't see how any ~^TRUMP~!kind of coordinated~^TRUMP~! effort to tell ~^TRUMP~!you not to was ~^TRUMP~!going to make ~^TRUMP~!one bit of difference~^TRUMP~!.

~^TRUMP~! sure they heard ~^TRUMP~! about ~^TRUMP~! the hollywood ~^TRUMP~!tape, but they also ~^TRUMP~! heard about ~^TRUMP~!the clinton email ~^TRUMP~! scandal and BENGHAZI~^TRUMP~!.

------

note that some stylebooks allow for ~^TRUMP~! to be inserted into the middle of words (ie consti~^TRUMP~!tution), and all stylebooks recommend that a ~^TRUMP~! be placed at the end of the sentence as the final word

Oh, I know, it's tiresome. This just seems like such a basic point to me. But I'll duck out and leave it to anyone else who wants to pick up the argument. (Rest easy about 2020, though: don't worry about nominating a good candidate to run against Trump, all you need is a coordinated effort from the likes of James Baker and David Frum to send Trump packing.)

If the media were willing to be more critical of dead elder statesmen, perhaps living ones would think harder before committing atrocities

— Natalie Shure (@nataliesurely) December 1, 2018

oh no, i'm with you clemenza. there was coordinated pushback against trump from many republicans, old guard and new, during the campaign. it wasn't very effective because ~^TRUMP~

Xpost

Narrator: ...they wouldn't be

True romance. pic.twitter.com/cq9dp7BNPe

— Christian Lorentzen (@xlorentzen) December 1, 2018

cmon if hilz had written that we'd have been wading through retweets of it for a fuckin month

oh he was a master of the creeping hand alright

in what universe does the recipient of that note not burn it up immediately, as soon as they read it, unless they were planning on filing for divorce

imagine Lindsey Graham writing that to Trump

https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580069-6.pdf

Oh man. Watch a couple minutes of this masterpiece of awkwardness. No one likes anyone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUTfwTVXlto

I am practicing the loving look, and the creeping hand.

I've steadfastly avoided the American news media since word of his passing (more so than usual, anyway) but I just walked by a room with CNN on and it was mostly career highlights--Iraq, "read my lips," etc. A few months ago, these same outlets were using Barbara's death as a way of lamenting the "decency" of the Republican party of old; are they pulling that same shit this time out?

Yes

Would've been funny in that video had RR started waving that red bandana behind his head as soon as the Bushes pulled up.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DtWIxnvXoAE66Dt.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHGz6IEDvkM&feature=youtu.be

ugh, that didn't work. well, here's the tweet i got it from:

George HW Bush on Watergate: "It is wrong for the President to resign...[and] be forced out of office. The system has got to work...and I remain rather convinced that the system will not compel the President to leave office..." https://t.co/iNgbVVNqi8

— Shane O'Sullivan (@e2films) December 1, 2018

I wonder if he ever remembered where he was the day JFK was shot

^^Grassy knoll, iirc.

Just found out Poppy felt up another one of my friends. #HoustonLife

he wasn't a bad-lookin' man for his time

This was drooling senile wheelchair Poppy doing the groping tho.

A poster at LGM wrote the following about Jennifer Fitzgerald, whom I've read about over the years:

Jennifer Fitzgerald became GHW Bush's secretary in 1974 when he was appointed US ambassador to China.

She followed him to Langley as his assistant when he was named Director of the CIA.

When Bush left for the private sector he arranged for Fitzgerald to become special assistant to Kingman Brewster, then US ambassador to the United Kingdom. Bush worked at that time as a corporate director and often travelled to London.

In 1980 Bush hired Fitzgerald as a staff member once he was named as Reagan's running mate. During his vice presidency Bush and his paramour were in car accident together, were in flagrante delicto when her apartment building caught fire in DC and Bush had to escape out the back, and shacked up together on Lake Geneva during disarmament talks in 1984.

Bush assigned her to be his chief lobbyist in Congress during his successful run for the presidency in 1988. Once president, Bush installed Fitzgerald as deputy chief of protocol at State, under James Baker.

Fitzgerald was said to have considerable sway with George HW Bush, and many of Bush's aides over the years tried to isolate her influence with the boss.

In short, Jennifer Fitzgerald served George HW Bush in many and various positions over the years, and yet I've not read a single reference to this woman in all the encomia.

https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/director-george-bush-sits-beside-jennifer-fitzgerald-the-pair-is-to-picture-id576838970

CIA Director George Bush sits beside Jennifer Fitzgerald. The pair is rumored to be romantically involved. George Bush's wife, Barbara, sits behind him. (Photo by © Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/director-george-bush-sits-beside-jennifer-fitzgerald-the-news-photo/576838970

Bar's got a notion.

https://i.imgur.com/D1FrDOM.jpg

everyone in the previous pic has george bushs face and i cant unsee it

surprised Shakey didn't know that Bill Clinton became good buds with both Bushes

that's how you can tell he's subhuman shit

btw the four presidents beginning with Ford all lived to be 90? Only the good die young.

Lotsa talk of bushes itt

Incumbent pres getting 37% of vote in re-election bid is always lol to me

A solid obit.

n the end, Bush was probably an average president, but that’s really more about most of our presidents having been between bad and Trump. There’s nothing particularly wrong with being an average president. But he’s also been more than a touch romanticized by liberals because a casual glance makes it seem he led a Republican Party far to the left to that today. That’s not wrong per se, but it also lacks context. Bush pushed the party to the right from his first engagement with politics. His nomination of Clarence Thomas, his pushing Dan Quayle on the national scene, his Lee Atwater ad, the War on Drugs, naming Dick Cheney Secretary of Defense, and leaving Iraqi rebels out to dry—these are very bad, no good things. And they need to be remembered more than an imagined moderate Republicanism of 1989.

That was good, best thing I've read since he passed

I'm listening to Schwarzenegger talk about Bush on CNN, and all I can think about is Albert Brooks in Broadcast News: "Arnold just said that he's been making three million a movie now. But he's not ever gonna change. He's still the same person when he was making two million dollars a movie. He feels no different. He also bought a brand-new condo with Maria, they gonna furnish tastefully."

My second groped friend said that was a common occurrence between Bush and actresses in the employ of a particular major Houston theatre company when he did photo-ops. She showed me the photo taken during her incident and BARBARA WAS RIGHT THERE BEHIND THE WHEELCHAIR.

I was on our private terrace, overlooking Sydney Bay, doing some warm-up yoga exercises, so close to the water I could almost touch it, when who should pop into view, two or three yards away, just below me on the esplanade separating the hotel from the sea, but Poppy himself, walking briskly towards the city skyline. He was casually dressed, as if about to play golf, and surrounded by a sizeable entourage – some muscled security heavies, some suited confederates, perhaps a secretary or two, all of them quietly obsequious, all of them situated at a prudent distance, respectful of an invisible protective boundary that isolated the politician who had once been the most powerful person on Earth. Closest to Bush, half a step behind him, was a bulky, crew-cut military man, with so many medals on his uniform that it was a miracle he wasn’t sagging from the burden. A general, at least, I thought.

Suddenly, the former president lifted his right arm into the air, his fingers extended backward, snapping them without, however, deigning to look at the man behind him. The officer reacted with celerity, producing, seemingly out of nowhere, a tube that he deposited in his master’s hand. It turned out to be a sun tan lotion, as George Senior, without losing his stride and definitely without thanking the aide, began to lavishly apply it to his exposed forearms and neck.

the rest of it is pretty good, too

Ew.

My BFF just shared this news segment featuring her husband, discussing GHWB and the Americans with Disabilities Act:

https://wjla.com/news/local/remembering-george-hw-bush-a-champion-for-those-with-disabilities?fbclid=IwAR3cPovgOXtBnevGe9kvVMoA9s2EjoLiux7XyGme3QDwYR9NSTYPAMJLsxI

Americans with Disabilities Act

Bob Dole was the real mover behind that.

...as I’m sure my friend’s doctoral thesis mentioned in segment points out.

I'm not going to argue with the many liberal friends on FB who loathed the Reagan-Bush era who nevertheless reminded me that his signing this act made their lives easier.

Again: least worst GOP president since Ike.

The run up to 2020 is gonna be a great time to take a break from all social media.

(That's not aimed at this thread, btw, or ILX, but more widely used social media platforms. A general statement.)

I'm not convinced of Bush's loathsomeness from Ariel Dorfman, revealing one level of #firstworldproblems against another. I'm sure there's better.

if nothing else it contains probably the best account of the process of applying suntan lotion to a former president that i, personally, have ever read

"worst GOP President since" is like rating bouts of food poisoning

i'm kind of amused at the "gop" qualifier yall are using. In the long run, Clinton was more harmful and Obama might've been too.

theeeeeeeeee supreme court tho

yeah, his most damaging contribution -- which could've been stopped by Biden and the Dems

In the long run, Clinton was more harmful and Obama might've been too.

You're ignoring that I prefer Clinton and Obama's judicial picks.

i'm not ignoring anything.

You haven't responded to my last few texts

join the club

Ran the CIA, campaigned on racist ads, lied to sell a war—real nice. https://t.co/lewiDw6p9P

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) December 2, 2018

the broad & long lasting reach of Dana Carvey's SNL imitation of Bush is pretty incredible, I think it shapes ppl's view of him even today

If, like Morbs, you take as your starting position that every POTUS is a criminal, then it makes sense to conclude that two-term presidents must do more harm than one-term presidents. However, GHWB qualifies for extra credit because of his CIA directorship.

Mission complete. #Remembering41 pic.twitter.com/rXdyXAS4lk

— Jim McGrath (@jgm41) December 3, 2018

Say what you will about Hitler, he loved his dog Blondi, who was a loyal companion to the end. #NaziPups #Awww pic.twitter.com/uYk6wycXYn

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) December 3, 2018

how big is the check that Perrin cuts you for promoting him?

In the end, his bio will be: one errant sperm of his led to the worst presidency of our lifetimes

Posts that have not aged well?

how big is the check that Perrin cuts you for promoting him?

We're talking Dennis Perrin here. At best it's enough to cover a food-truck burrito once a week.

Trump hasn't come close to GWB yet xp

agreed, wake me up when 45 has killed a million directly or indirectly thx

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Po8HEqpmUzc/U6pOhwAF4aI/AAAAAAAAMgQ/B4ihU0ipJyI/s1600/Ronald+Reagan+Thumbs+Up+Sincere+Smile+Nonverbal+Communication+Expert+Body+Language+Expert+Speaker+Keynote+Consultant+Las+Vegas+Los+Angeles+Orlando+New+York+City.png

but good manners are the important thing

xp Nothing sets a high bar for worst president like coordinating a huge misinformation propaganda campaign in order to start an unnecessary war that kills hundreds of thousands of civilians, costs more than a trillion dollars, and indirectly gives rise to ISIS, all without gaining any of its major war aims (except killing Saddam Hussein). And that's just the turkey, not the trimmings.

Like I said on Saturday, if Donald Trump has his uses, it’s to destroy the fiction that our presidents must be gentlemen.

i think 'even Hitler loved his dog' is a good general point

Disappointing news. I was really looking forward to two sentences of rote tribute followed by fifteen minutes of riffing on his Electoral College victory.

Trump will attend but not speak at this week’s funeral service for former President George Bush https://t.co/ONo7GLTijW

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 3, 2018

start an unnecessary war that kills hundreds of thousands of civilians, 

imagine his chagrin on learning that Poppy was the last GOP prez to win California.

your mistake there is the assumption that trump has the capacity to learn

oops sorry

"Some people say he's the last one to do it. Some say others could still do it, maybe me. Well, I'll just say it: I could probably do it. But right now, they're saying, he's the last one."

I forgot to keep paying attention over the weekend. Were we able to collectively as a nation shave all the rough ages off and fully rehabilitate one of the finest presidents, indeed one of the finest men, to have ever graced humanity with his beneficence and wisdom?

totally

Noice.

I forgot to keep paying attention over the weekend. Were we able to collectively as a nation shave all the rough ages off and fully rehabilitate one of the finest presidents, indeed one of the finest men, to have ever graced humanity with his beneficence and wisdom?

― all lite up and very romatic (Old Lunch), Monday, December 3, 2018 2:56 PM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they tried but perrin shut that shit down

In observance of the national day of mourning for President George H.W. Bush, the Clinton Presidential Library, 42 bar and table, and the Clinton Museum Store will be closed on Wednesday, December 5. However, the library lobby will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for visitors to sign the condolence book.

I sure hope the radio plays something besides Lee Greenwood on Wednesday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btCNAMna-PE

I just watched a piece of the laying-in-state ceremony. When the camera panned to a front row seat with Cheney, Powell, Scowcroft, et al, I almost called INTERPOL.

Pence trying on Poppy's shoes w/this eulogy...

Spent about 15 minutes on H.W. with my 3/4 class today. I told them they'd only see four or five presidents die in their lifetimes. When I did my own tally later, I realized that was way off: there've been nine die in mine (Kennedy, Hoover, Eisenhower, Johnson, Truman, Nixon, Reagan, Ford, Bush), and I'm only 57.

yes, but there will only be four or five presidents in their lifetimes

I was thinking just Trump from now till the end of time.

Bush is the sixth president to die in my lifetime (Truman, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush).

Only four for me but god willing I'll see three more.

Same with unperson. Presumably Carter will be next, being realistic.

It is weird realizing that after Carter passes, the most senior of the ex-presidents will be Clinton. (It's also weird remembering he's now 72.)

Although W is 72 as well. Huh.

Hell, spinning this all out further, given Trump is 72 as well, I'd put an even chance that within ten years Obama could be the only current ex-president still with us. Signed, Your Presidential Morbidity Bulletin.

Yeah, I'd say there's a good chance there'll only be Obama + sitting president at one point.

id put money on it that at least one of clinton and w ends up still being around in 20 years

All summer of 1946. Thanks a lot baby boom.

Oops, forgot about W...he'll be around for a while.

Huh, I didn't realize Hoover hung around until '64.

Yeah I remember seeing a photo of him with Kennedy once.

(And since Wilson, Coolidge and Harding were all gone by '32, Hoover really was the loneliest guy in terms of a unique experience for two decades.)

I realize now why I said four or five; from my own list, I was too young for the first five to have any meaning (no recollection of even Truman's or LBJ's death, when I was 11 or 12; if I were American instead of Canadian, that might not be true). So there've been four, starting with Nixon, in my adult life.

hmm making me think I should start a presidential deaths poll

so far Reagan dying was my favorite

Reagan would get all the votes.

I'd cast one for Nixon. God, was he a shit.

only Republican presidents have died in my lifetime #blessed

Huh, I didn't realize Hoover hung around until '64.

― WmC, Monday, December 3, 2018 11:20 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i remember reading that jfk gave all the living ex-presidents a call during the cuban missile crisis to let them know what was going on, and hoover was one of them. i find it so weird to think of hoover being alive during that era, his presidency feels like it happened in a different universe compared to the postwar dudes.

the Clintons are going to be on their arena tour longer than Cher

no Dem president has died in almost 46 years. spoooooky

I absolutely do remember Truman and Johnson dying w/in a month of each other. I had already read a lot of schoolboy presidential history.

The Hoover phone call is on YouTube.

Presumably Carter will be next, being realistic.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, December 3, 2018 6:10 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'll bet carter's healthier than trump despite being a 95 year old cancer survivor

Eisenhower was first to go in my lifetime, Johnson the first I actually remember.

no Dem president has died in almost 46 years. spoooooky

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, December 3, 2018 6:22 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

pact with the devil otm

More like there were just more GOP presidents

Don't Democratic presidents tend to be younger, too (or at least post-WWII)?

Bill Clinton is vegan iirc so he might be around for a while

Clinton is one blowjob away from a cardiac arrest

Best cinematic version of Poppy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZvrIiqLv7M

I dunno. He doesn't get hit in the balls in that one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS5pTyUgfxo

The Washington Post reports:

The family of former president George H.W. Bush has planned a state funeral that will steer clear of the kind of anti-Trump sentiment evident at the recent funeral of Sen. John McCain, according to people familiar with the funeral planning.

The Bush family contacted the White House this past summer to say that President Trump would be welcome at the funeral, scheduled Wednesday at Washington National Cathedral, and to assure him that the focus would be on Bush’s life rather than their disagreements, according to one former administration official.

The truce with Trump allows the Bush family, and the nation, to honor the legacy of a president who guided the United States through the 1991 Gulf War and the breakup of the Soviet Union without becoming mired in today’s toxic politics.

bury the whole family, plus Grifter

without becoming mired in today’s toxic politics.

citation needed

The truce with Trump allows the Bush family, and the nation, to honor the legacy of a president who guided the United States through the 1991 Gulf War and the breakup of the Soviet Union celebrate their power without becoming mired in today’s toxic politics having to feign morals or ethics.

looking fwd to Jeb-DJT handshake

"Please mourn."

at least people kinda remember jeb., i'd completely forgotten neil bush existed until this week and even now i'm not sure i could pick him out of a lineup

"lineup" an apt metaphor

i'd completely forgotten neil bush existed until this week

The family's plan succeeded.

I was kind of shocked by a) how much taller Jeb is than GWB (6'3" vs 6'0") and b) how much GWB looks like his father now.

would you want to be remembered for the reasons Jeb is?

i'd rather be remembered as a charmless oaf than a war criminal tbf

i'll make a note.

at this point Jeb. will be remembered for the memes, which is really the kindest possible fate

*Jeb.

huh, ILX is rejecting my exclamation points for some reason

it did the same thing for me too - can't believe the secret chiefs of ilx have made an autoreplace to dampen jebthusiasm

https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iur/?f=1&image_host=http%3A%2F%2Fi0.kym-cdn.com%2Fphotos%2Fimages%2Foriginal%2F001%2F171%2F350%2F817.jpg&u=https://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/171/350/817.jpg

¡qǝſ

Aah, I had an exclamation mark gone missing yesterday as well. What’s going on??..??..

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/animal-jam-clans-1/images/a/ac/Basta.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20161124030955

I imagine Bob Dole is not well enough to attend, or he could reprise his sobs from the Nixon funeral.

An aperitif before lunch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUQfKrt8p40

revisionism.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/12/george-h-w-bush-grocery-scanner-gaffe-false.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akLjzTisZoI

eh I didn't care at the time.

slate is here with the ultimate #slatepitch take

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/12/sully-hw-bush-service-dog-george-hw-bush-funeral.html

I saw "sully" and thought, "Oh, dear god, Andrew Sullivan is here with the tears and fellatio"

The photograph, in other words, is not proof that Sully is a particularly “good boy” or that “we don’t deserve dogs,” as countless swooning tweets put it on Monday. On its own, it says almost nothing other than the fact that Sully was, at one point in the same room as the casket of his former boss. This is simply a photograph of a dog doing something dogs love to do: Lie down.

Work email just received from our building management:

Dear Tenants,

The ______ Tenant Appreciation Holiday Reception has been rescheduled to honor the National Day of Mourning for former President George H.W. Bush.

Guess I better remember to wear black tomorrow or I am going to be such a pariah.

I honestly do not remember anyone making one quarter of this amount of fuss about Reagan, Nixon, Ford. WTF is going on, seriously.

Actually, what I meant to say is that I'm really really broken up about this and I think I should probably take the day off to collect myself.

I remember Reagan's memorial period being very prolonged and even more obsequious than this

Expect Slate to issue a correction post-haste that Sully is in fact a good boy.

I think for National Mourning Day I'm going to grill some hamburgers, make a peach cobbler, go to the water park, shoot off some fireworks...what else?

well Reagan was "transformational" as even Prof Obama pointed out

i'm going to shove some broccoli up the chute

I honestly do not remember anyone making one quarter of this amount of fuss about Reagan, Nixon, Ford. WTF is going on, seriously

The snowballing beauty of the Electronic Age

Gonna do some aggressive bush trimming.

that dog is fake

When Reagan die the orgy of mourning went on for a week. The lucky bastard proved lucky one last time, for it was 2004, an election year and the war was going badly for Shrub.

*died

the mourning for reagan felt like it went on for literal years tbh

mourning in America.

that #slatepitch is one of the only mostly-correct ones

yeah the reagan shit was such a big deal even in the uk. it really bummed me out

Ahh, see, I had no cable in '04, and internet news wasn't quite as In Your Face at that time iirc, so it was easier to take brief note of a president's death and move the fuck on.

I hope I don't tear up when George Jr. salutes the riderless horse.

Of course, he does that every time he sees a horse, but still.

Usually with just the one finger, but I think he'll be able to rein it in this time.

There's tons of pernicious political correctness in the US. 94% of it is stuff like this, which is never called political correctness because powerful people like it. https://t.co/zSPFfRhxj9

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) December 3, 2018

That grocery scanner: read somewhere earlier this year that that was misleading, that he was being shown some new model that was different than whatever had been previously used. No idea if that's true.

And also the correct answer to "How has the National Debt affected you personally?" was "It messes with my approval ratings. How has it affected yours?"

Dole made it! always there for WW2's worst veterans.

WATCH: Former Sen. Bob Dole is helped out of his wheelchair to salute the casket of George H.W. Bush in the U.S. Capitol. pic.twitter.com/BeIz3USrHr

— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 4, 2018

stop lying about my record

lol

you can't hear Dole saying "WE BELONG DEAD"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ypzRDq3PGI

Charlie Pierce and Jennifer Rubin go at it.

While crediting him for raising taxes despite a campaign pledge, Pierce went on to slam Bush for changing his positions on abortion and “voodoo economics,” and said that “The primary legacy of George H.W. Bush, as president, is that battlefield courage does not necessarily translate into political courage.”

Rubin, who has become one of the most prominent anti-Trump conservatives, leapt to defend Bush.

“Oh my, I couldn’t disagree more,” Rubin said, adding that “you can pick small things, small mistakes in anyone’s career,” but praised Bush for his handling of the end of the Cold War, his decision not to occupy Iraq after the first Gulf War, the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, and his signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“He bent the knee of fealty to the elements that created the modern Republican party,” Pierce said.

“No, I don’t think so. The far-right was there when Ronald Reagan was there, he just came along after him,” Rubin replied, then took aim at Trump by contrasting Bush’s foreign policy chops with Trump, whom she said is “so disruptive and so at odds with our allies.”

“Donald Trump has never been part of a conspiracy to sell missiles to the Ayatollah,” Pierce blurted out, a reference to the Iran-Contra scandal.

what they actually want is for us to hush so they don’t have to think about what it means that they *still* adore someone who voted against the civil rights act, pushed the drug war and resorted to “hey, black crime” in an effort to retain political power.

— Joel D. Anderson (@byjoelanderson) December 4, 2018

“Donald Trump has never been part of a conspiracy to sell missiles to the Ayatollah,” Pierce blurted out, a reference to the Iran-Contra scandal.

it's true, Trump's conspiracies are generally worse

meanwhile, over in the nyt, ross douthat longs to feel once more the reassuring pressure of the white anglo-saxon protestant jackboot upon his eager, panting throat

Put simply, Americans miss Bush because we miss the WASPs — because we feel, at some level, that their more meritocratic and diverse and secular successors rule us neither as wisely nor as well.

not sure I have the intestinal fortitude for this take this morning

Uh, I highly douthat, Ross.

i'm savouring the extremely spicy thought that people who got to their station in life on merit are nonetheless unquestionably inferior to someone else of a white anglo-saxon protestant persuasion who could be - should be! - holding that station instead

the new york times, folks - it's good

sweet! I can't wait!

It kinda all depends on your perspective. If you're an accelerationist who believes we should purge human life from the planet ASAP, Anglo-Saxon leadership kinda seems like the way to go.

my god, than you! That Douthat column was an even better than my most lurid imaginings.

I can't even type straight!

it's a glittering gem of a piece, i'm glad someone else was as moved by it as i was

I will defend to the death Douthat's right to indulge whatever kink tickles his particular fancy so long as he refrains from getting all prescriptive about it.

douthat - marquis de sade of op-eds

Every VP since 1977 is at President Bush’s funeral, except one. Mondale, Quayle, Gore, Cheney, Biden, and Pence are there. The only one missing is President Reagan’s VP, George HW Bush.

— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) December 5, 2018

He’s there

what a horribly formed "joek"

wow ari fleischer is blowing the lid off this whole fuckin' scam - bush faked his death and has joined jfk jr and trump to expose the international elite's paedophile ring #qanon #WWG1WGA #GreatAwakening

TBF did anyone get close enough to say with 100% certainty that the casket didn't just contain an animation cel from 'Two Bad Neighbors'?

If I could have had a few days of Bush lying in state wearing a shaved-down rainbow afro wig, I could have died happy.

Oh god, and this was our very last opportunity to make that a reality.

At last, I am in mourning.

a good mourning, I trust

“Donald Trump has never been part of a conspiracy to sell missiles to the Ayatollah,” Pierce blurted out, a reference to the Iran-Contra scandal.

it's true, Trump's conspiracies are generally worse

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, December 4, 2018 2:14 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

come on

i see W broke down

boo fuckin hoo

reunited with Saddam

it’s a regular shot shots part deux! up down there

so is he still dead, asking for a friend

tell your friend he is

is your friend Manuel Noriega? Tell him Poppy's on his way.

(my friend is Lee Atwater fwiw)

maybe i jut didn't pay enough attn to Ari back in the day but i gotta say it's a little odd to see him become one of the brain-wormiest of the OG W crew

was Reagan at the funeral or

lololol the body language

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-YCbWZlRrw

xpost No he wasn't and I don't know how these republicans can claim to be about values when neither he nor his veep could be bothered to attend.

haha hillary's ice stare is so great

You can see Trump opening his mouth to take a gulp of air as he moves, like a big fish.

This is your "Christian" evangelical president. pic.twitter.com/u0478FoSyR

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) December 5, 2018

^this won't be even discussed in the "liberal" media, i.e. the same folks who would have shat their Depends every bit as full as Fox if this had been Obama

yeah but Obama was ARROGANT whereas Trump carries the world on his shoulders, probably thinkin bout tariffs

So, joeks aside, now that this man is almost in the ground, what's his legacy: approving new taxes, giving Kohl the okay to push for German reunification, giving Gorby support for post-glasnost (and dithering after the '88 election so as not to piss off the hardliners Reagan had already pissed off)? I've written my own denunciations but it's good to clear the air.

Souter

the last "who knows what this guy's even about?" SC pick

lol that grand asshole John Sununu vouched for Souter; bet he's had a few sleepless nights.

Carter is sort of an Old Testament figure. He has a limited feel for practical politics, and the high horse can be tiresome, but his force of will is like the God of the Jews. He remembers slights, and he comes with both the olive branch and the sword. https://t.co/SNMF1S3IIT

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) December 5, 2018

dick nixon is such a dork

jeez if he'd had a sword all along he shoulda whipped it out when he was campaigning for re-election

dick nixon is such a dork

― The Poppy Bush AutoZone (upper mississippi sh@kedown),

as Nixon said about Ike: "...in the best possible sense."

LGM alerted me to this long essay about the history of climate change politics published last August, and the Bush I administration's attempt to quash the science: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html

there was some semi-interesting stuff in that Bag Man podcast about how HW tried to quash the investigation into Spiro Agnew

Don’t go all wobbly on us Claire. https://t.co/rRwmjT9bgc

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) December 6, 2018

it's so lame to feel compassion toward others

I’m with @tenuredradical. I really hate the whole “rest in hell motherfucker!!!!” 🔥🔥🤘🤘🤘🔥🔥 trend but I guess I would be.

Think the cure for this is go talk to a long, long line of people whose close family are dead because of his fucking wars?

yeah if anything the rest in hell motherfucker trend is a sign of increased awareness and worsening allergy to false narratives

Uh...

I do too, then I think: w/ drones strikes, Obama killed vastly more Afghans, Iraquis and Pakistanis - children & parents, leaving 1000s of orphans - than Bush, also deporting an unprecedented number of immigrants, & so presidential virtue is pretty damn complicated, isn't it?

— Claire Potter (@TenuredRadical) December 6, 2018

Anyone who had her for a history professor should get a refund.

there is no way that is remotely accurate

Obama didn't have anything like this on his hands:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_chemical_attack

her tweets are bad, but who is she?

she's right that presidential virtue is pretty damn complicated. no one gets into or out of that office with clean hands. but there is such a thing as factual accuracy and that "vastly more" has no contact with reality.

Presidential virtue isn't complicated, there is none.

yep

no president can be an "american hero" - another thing that bugs me with all this pagan death cult shit

there are very few indisputable "american heroes"

Bill Wilson
MLK
Jackie Robinson

that's off the top of my head. anyone else?

Obama didn't have anything like this on his hands:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_chemical_attack

― Οὖτις, Friday, December 7, 2018 11:29 AM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bush didn't really have direct responsibility for this in any way. improved relations with iraq and exports of chemicals, weapons etc. were a policy instigated by reagan

I think there's a not-small number of heroes - abolitionists, civil rights workers (from women's rights to gay rights and all stops in between), labor organizers, etc..

Bill Wilson
MLK
Jackie Robinson

Dawn Powell

to say there is no such thing as presidential virtue is facile and incorrect. each president makes thousands of consequential decisions that affect millions, if not billions of people. some percentage of these are intentionally beneficial and not based wholly upon cynical political calculation. pretending every president is being of pure viciousness is stupid and just reinforces a false conservative narrative about progressives.

Otm

That’s bably a controversial opinion on ilx though

Probably*

Committing or actively aiding crimes against humanity tends to zero out "intentionally beneficial" acts IMO. John Wayne Gacy made a lot of kids happy when he did his clown act.

To disregard those acts, one must assume that you can't be President without doing horrible, inhuman things for indefensible reasons. If true, then we deserve to be wiped off the face of the planet.

heroism is generally portioned out in small doses, but to a surprisingly large number of people. it's nearly impossible to maintain a conspicuous heroism consistently over decades, and we should never expect it of anyone. but ascribing more than the ordinary amount of heroism to G. H. W. Bush is just the usual political posturing.

I’m not saying Bush was good I just think it’s gross to gloat at someone’s death. I thought the same thing about people cheering when Bin Laden was killed.

If true, then we deserve to be wiped off the face of the planet.

It's closer to true than most of us would like to admit, but your conclusion is just more hyperbole.

Donne was wrong.

It makes the left look like assholes when they act like this for figures who 99% of America consider to be nothing like Bin Laden.

I’m not saying Bush was good I just think it’s gross to gloat at someone’s death. I thought the same thing about people cheering when Bin Laden was killed.

― Trϵϵship, Friday, December 7, 2018 11:58 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ok i was going to give you shit for your initial statement but now that you've made it clear you extend this courtesy to bin laden i find you more consistent

I think it's a positive development in the Trump era that people are much less eager to cede to media narratives about "profiles in courage" or whatever and the "gloating" is, like Simon said, more of a corrective on this sickness than simply being glad a 94-year-old man finally died

cheering when Bin Laden was killed was muted anyway because it happened a decade after 9/11 and two awful unnecessary wars. it was a dulled, cloudy, anticlimactic feeling. if he were taken out in Tora Bora I think Americans would've celebrated as they did at the death of Hitler, not that much of a stretch.

xp. my reaction is more sam jackson in a time to kill

Shakespeare was right:

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimmed in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And gilded honor shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disablèd,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill.

  Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
  Save that to die, I leave my love alone.

Jarvis Cocker was right:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd6E1JpwMj4

many xps - Alfred, why Dawn Powell?

hottake: probably at least 50% of American presidents are both war criminals AND "decent people." It's function of being at the helm of American Empire.

many xps - Alfred, why Dawn Powell?

― flappy bird,

She wrote well and was no one's fool, hence she's a hero.

fortunately i have never cared what 99% of America thinks (fuck "Family Feud")

no argument there but I think the usual definition of "American hero" excludes artists, business, and most people... it's someone that made a (largely) selfless and substantial contribution and impact on the country/world... so Bill W. is obvious, MLK as well. Jackie Robinson also an easy pick despite being paid for his work. Jonas Salk is another big one I forgot. the guy that invented air conditioning? maybe.

xp

xp we know, morbs.

the "war criminal" stuff always seems a bit glib to me. there are valid criticisms of FDR's conduct of WW2 but i still wouldn't be comfortable throwing it in the same category as W's invasion of iraq.

For me it's simple: how many Americans had their lives improved thanks to a president's leadership? Hence my not giving two shits about James Polk's comfy residence in the upper echelon.

here's a Poppy grace note I learned: James Baker snuck in a Morton's steak and a bottle of Grey Goose one time that Jefe was in the hospital.

I assume everyone who wanted to read Maureen Dowd's lengthy paean to her friendship with Bush has done so w/out a link here.

biggest yuk: GWHB referred to Dubya as "my son Quincy"

that picture of them in front of the Xmas tree is something else

Can't wait till we get back to normal. pic.twitter.com/QtdjNgKBCB

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) May 30, 2020