|
Government
Service
Former
Governor of Texas
Texas Air
National Guard
Corporate
Connections/Business Interests
Texas Rangers:
former co-owner
Involved
in various oil ventures, including Arbusto Energy, Spectrum
7 Energy, and Harken Energy
Education
Yale
University: B.A. (1968)
Harvard
Business School: MBA (1975)
|
Highlights
& Quotes
Originally,
Right Web considered not doing a profile on George W. Bush. After
all, Dubya's only substantial contribution to politics before becoming
president was to champion the misnamed notion of "compassionate
conservatism"--an idea that clearly stopped serving any purpose
after he was "elected." And since the election, hasn't
he simply been a puppet?
Al Franken
set the record straight for us.
In his knee-slapping
2003 book Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them), Franken relates
an encounter with Barbara Bush on a flight to Washington. After
describing his unsuccessful effort to pick up a conversation with
Bush--the former First Lady rebuffed each approach with, "I'm
through with you"--Franken quotes several unnamed "Washington
insiders," both Republicans and Democrats, who thought it was
funny that Franken regarded Bush's dismissive attitude of him as
a form of kidding. Franken writes that at a Bat Mitzvah in Washington
soon after his Barbara Bush encounter, "I kept hearing things
like: 'Oh no, she's a horrible bitch.' 'Omigod, she's the worst
bitch on earth.' 'She can be very charming, but Barbara Bush is
the Queen Bitch.'" Then he writes, "But another, even
more interesting, insight came from everyone who knew the Bushes.
They all agreed. 'Dubya is her son.' He's mean."
This last "insight"
leads Franken to the conclusion (with apologies to Mr., Franken
for the long quote): "I think we're all too ready to blame
Karl Rove, or Dick Cheney, or Ari Fleischer, or Gale Norton, or
Donald Rumsfeld, or John Ashcroft when this administration does
something despicable. When South Carolinians get push polls saying
John McCain fathered an illegitimate black child, you know Karl
Rove had something to do with it. But it's really Bush. When our
energy policy is set by cronies from the oil, coal, and automobile
industries, you can shake your fist at Dick Cheney. But it's Bush.
When Ari Fleischer feeds rumors that the Clinton people vandalized
the White House, doing $200,000 worth of damage, but months later
a GAO report says that ain't true, you can say that Ari Fleischer
is a chimp. And he is. But it's Bush. When this administration reinterprets
the Clean Water Act to allow polluters to dump into creeks and streams,
you can blame Gale Norton or Christie Todd Whitman all you like.
But it's Bush. When Donald Rumsfeld refuses to apologize for our
military accidentally killing a wedding party of fifty in Afghanistan,
you can bet that swaggering callousness emanates from the Oval Office.
When an American citizen can be put in prison indefinitely without
charges being filed and without access to a lawyer or a judge, you
may think 'John Ashcroft is out of control.' And you'd probably
be right. But the rest of the time, don't kid yourself. It's Barbara
Bush's son." (2)
|
