Bushco's Bonhomie With The Fickle French

Note: I think a lot of these links have now gone behind the Times Select wall; I’ll do my best – Pinch and the gang can’t get rid of that nonsense fast enough as far as I’m concerned.

I wonder how exactly Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times ended up covering the little soiree in Kennebunkport recently? I mean, did she draw a short straw or something, or was this a beat she actually wanted?

Apparently, Dubya and 41 invited their new buddy Nick Sarkozy over from across the pond for a little “picnic,” but as Stolberg reports here, “Mr. Sarkozy’s wife, Cecilia, and two of their children missed the lunch Saturday, citing sore throats.”

Wow, that’s one heck of a sore throat affecting an adult and two children. I know that can lead to strep, which is nothing to mess with, but affecting all three people? And that excuse looks fishy anyway according to this.

And Stolberg also informs us of the following…

When the two leaders met privately to talk about what Mr. Bush called the “complicated world,” it really was a family matter: the first President Bush, who steered clear of policy talks when President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was here in June, joined the tête-à-tête. Afterward, the three took a spin on the elder Mr. Bush’s cigarette boat.

Now how exactly does Stolberg know that? Who told her that Poppy Bush decided to go out and shoot the front nine or something while Dubya tried to communicate with Putin about the “complicated world” (a laughably condescending phrase so typical of our presidential pretender)? And consider that we’re talking about our ol’ buddy Vlad who is as cold, calculating and ruthless as Dubya is egotistical and shallow.

And, as noted in the story, Dubya wasn’t happy with Jacques Chirac because he wasn’t on board with our little adventure in Iraq. So, if the preznit likes Nick now, then the new leader of France must support us on the war, right?

Not so fast…

Like Mr. Chirac, Mr. Sarkozy, 52, is no supporter of the war in Iraq. But he is much more Mr. Bush’s speed — youthful, vigorous and, in his own words, proud to be known as “Sarkozy the American.” For his summer vacation, he shunned the French Riviera, instead choosing Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, just 50 miles from here.

So, as usual, President Numbskull decides whether or not he likes somebody based on the typical “cult of personality” nonsense and how much that person sucks up to him.

Oh, how proud you red staters must feel knowing that you voted for this clown (and no, you will never escape responsibility for that, prompting me to want to give Cynthia Sneed one more good swift kick in the butt because I feel like it).

And in other Bush family news, Poppy lamented last week that he’s having a tough time on the sidelines watching his brainless prodigy getting pummeled by the likes of unkempt liberal blogger types like your humble narrator (in another Stolberg column). This was a particularly pitiable excerpt (for its pomposity, I mean…remember, these are the words of the man who looked at his watch with irritation during a presidential debate with then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton in 1992)…

These are distressing days for the Bush family patriarch, only the second former president in American history, after John Adams, to see his son take the White House. At 83, he finds it tough to watch his son get criticized from the sidelines; often, he likens himself to a Little League father whose kid is having a rough game. And like the proud and angry Little League dad who cannot help but yell at the umpire, sometimes he just cannot help getting involved.

God, and Stolberg actually gets paid to write this fawning dreck.

Well, her column about poor H.W. having to endure the legacy of our country’s ruination while he still enjoys himself riding in the northern Atlantic on his cigarette boat prompted the following responses (here).

To the Editor:

Re “First Father: Tough Times on Sidelines” (front page, Aug. 9):

It doesn’t take a cold-hearted person to have less sympathy for former President Bush’s hurt feelings than for the victims of his son’s policies.

I worry more about the next generation of Americans, who will have to pay off the federal debt this president has piled up by giving unneeded tax cuts and tax breaks to America’s wealthiest, than I worry about Father Bush’s “pain” at hearing his son criticized.

Both Presidents Bush will never have to worry about being able to afford their health care or find a way to support their families on a minimum-wage job that includes no benefits.

My heart also goes out to the American military people and the families who lost loved ones in a war that should never have happened, and wouldn’t have been authorized if President Bush had told the American people the truth.

My heart also goes out to the Iraqi people whose lives we have destroyed in a misbegotten war that was started under false assumptions and false pretenses and then waged with colossal incompetence by President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Don’t cry for the Bushes, father and son; cry for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, for whom federal help never came.

I’ll save my tears for those who truly suffer in this world. The rich and powerful can take care of themselves.

Lois Erwin
Waldwick, N.J., Aug. 9, 2007

•

To the Editor:

It is a further demonstration of the elder Bush’s utter inability to empathize with, or understand the concerns of, ordinary Americans if indeed “he likens himself to a Little League father whose kid is having a rough game.”

The last time I checked, no matter how poorly a young boy or girl may play, his or her ineptitude does not result in the deaths of thousands of Americans halfway across the world, the squandering of our nation’s good name or the loss of so many cherished liberties.

Mistakes on the playing field do not take the work of a generation to undo. The former president should be ashamed for using this analogy.

Rob Greenfield
Brooklyn, Aug. 9, 2007

•

To the Editor:

The tiniest of violins are playing for Bush 41, as he “finds it tough to watch his son get criticized from the sidelines.”

Perhaps I’d have a little more sympathy if he instead found it tough to watch what his son’s done to our country. But that’s the Bush philosophy for you: the only things that matter are you and your own.

Stephen S. Power
Maplewood, N.J., Aug. 9, 2007

•

To the Editor:

Reference is made to the other presidential père-fils relationship of John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

John Adams clearly had a positive effect on his son’s moral judgment: the two Adamses were the only presidents not to own slaves in the first half-century of the country’s existence, and following a failed presidency, John Quincy Adams spent 17 years in the House of Representatives working tirelessly for slavery’s abolition. Few contest that he is one of our greatest ex-presidents.

Perhaps George W. Bush can use his father’s important humanitarian work on the tsunami in Asia to act as an inspiration for his post-presidential efforts, and help overcome his own dismal legacy.

Leonard Benardo
Jennifer Weiss
Brooklyn, Aug. 9, 2007

The writers are finishing a book about the lives of former United States presidents.

And don’t get me started on “the beautiful mind.”