User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
So Long Barbara
Barbara Pierce Bush (1925-2018)In the Trump era the Bush family seems like pure class, no matter where you are on the political spectrum.
Author: craigcrawford
Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.
View all posts by craigcrawford
bill clinton about barbara bush: “fierce and feisty in support of her family and friends, her country and her causes. She showed us what an honest, vibrant, full life looks like.”
Obama and his wife, Michelle, said in a statement that Barbara Bush was “an example of the humility and decency that reflects the very best of the American spirit.”
The last of the greatest generation, country club republicans. In reading about Barbara? She enjoyed the WH and I liked her independence in letting her hair gray, naturally. A lot to unpack in the country’s first lady, first mom. Those days are gone forever…now back to the slop and sleazy of the current WH.
Will pompeo’s sneakiness elevate his post as sos? It seems like trump wants a peace prize like Obama and pompeo will deliver. trump continues to sack the state dept. and run things like a golf course junket. The ruskies and chinese set-up the conflict and are controlling the peace. Anything to take the eyes off of the illegitimate potus and the election heist.
As for the takedown of Haley? It has pompeo’s finger prints all over the plan to discredit the lady. wolff’s book must have set-off trump and mel. pompeo is the hit man.
“I’m the one who decides what we take to the floor,” he said. “That’s my responsibility as the majority leader and we will not be having this on the floor of the Senate.”
Attorneys for Michael Cohen asked a federal judge to appoint a so-called Special Master to decide which of Cohen’s materials seized by federal investigators can be viewed by prosecutors, and late Tuesday gave their choices for the job.
[….] In a filing shortly before midnight, Cohen’s attorneys provided Wood with four recommendations:
Bart Schwartz, former assistant U.S. Attorney for Rudy Giuliani. Joan McPhee, former federal prosecutor who successfully represented a Deepwater Horizon driller against federal charges. Tai Park, former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York and a noted white collar defense attorney. George Canellos, former SEC Division of Enforcement co-chair and former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. Has represented several major financial institutions.
maybe there was more to that sex worker (arrested in Thailand offering info to fbi) story afterall. another red flag
cbs news via msn:
A Russian journalist who reported on political scandals linked to President Vladimir Putin’s associates and the death of Russian mercenaries in Syria has died in hospital after a mysterious fall from his apartment. CBS News partner network BBC News reports that neighbors found Maxim Borodin badly injured on the ground outside his fifth floor apartment in Yekaterinburg on April 12.
Local and regional authorities told the BBC that no suicide note was discovered and the door to his apartment was found locked from the inside. They said no criminal activity was suspected.
But Vyacheslav Bashkov, a friend of the deceased journalist, told the British network that Borodin had called him early on the morning of April 11, saying there was “someone with a weapon on his balcony and people in camouflage and masks on the staircase landing.”
[….]
Borodin had reported recently on the death of hundreds of Russian mercenaries killed in U.S. airstrikes in northern Syria, after U.S.-allied forces came under attack in the region.
Putin ally reportedly linked to Russian mercenaries who attacked U.S. allies
He had also investigated the bizarre story of a Belorussian sex worker arrested in Thailand who claims to have recorded conversations with a Russian oligarch which prove Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
[…continues…]
l had two direct encounters with Barbara Bush, neither went well. Both times I asked her if she was pro-choice, which I always suspected since her husband switched from pro-choice to pro-life as a condition for becoming Reagan’s running mate. I remember well the time she held a press conference after touring a nursing home in Ohio. My question to her was about the status of her position on abortion. “We’re here to talk about nursing homes,” she snapped, with a harsh glare. After they left the White House, in her memoirs she confirmed that she had always been pro-choice.
I’m troubled as I watch the pained expressions on Andrea Mitchell’s face as she talks of the demise of Mrs Bush and her role as family matriarch and guiding conscience. The reason for her pain goes beyond her real grief at Mrs Bush’ death, but of Andrea’s parallel situation where her 92-yo husband, Alan Greenspan, in his own right a national treasure, is at that age where every shared moment can be of special significance to each of them.
craig, that must have been the look bob schieffer was talking about this morning when he at 24 seconds in on this video discusses Barbara bush as the “enforcer” and “that she could stare down a grizzly bear”
WASHINGTON — One has been described as a tough political insider who is fiercely protective of her husband’s interests; the other has gained a reputation as a warm friend and devoted mother.
Both descriptions fit Hillary Clinton and both fit Barbara Bush. Yesterday, the two women met at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to search for other common ground.
The occasion was a tour of the White House for its new resident, Mrs. Clinton. As part of this week’s ceremonies involving rituals of transferring power, the two women stepped delicately into the footprints their husbands left on the White House lawn on Wednesday. They brushed cheeks, greeted each other warmly and went inside to talk.
“Avoid this crowd like the plague,” Mrs. Bush said only half-jokingly as she gestured at the reporters and photographers gathered to record the meeting.
“And if they quote you, make damn sure they heard you,” she said.
Mrs. Clinton, whose verbal miscues, including an ill-received remark that she chose to work outside the home instead of staying home to “bake cookies and have tea,” burst out laughing.
“I know that feeling already,” Mrs. Clinton said.
For all their bonhomie yesterday, Mrs. Clinton and Mrs. Bush would seem to have little more in common beyond their decision to marry ambitious politicians. The 67-year-old Mrs. Bush, who has 5 children and 12 grandchildren, has never worked outside the home. Mrs. Clinton, 45, is a prominent lawyer with a 12-year-old daughter, Chelsea, who is in junior high school.
The two women were never overtly harsh toward each other on the campaign trail. Mrs. Clinton had tactfully told an interviewer that she planned to take a “more comprehensive approach” to the job of being the wife of the president than Mrs. Bush had.
“I think you have to match your voice with your actions,” she told The Sun.
And Mrs. Bush, who once let slip a remark comparing Geraldine A. Ferraro, who debated Mr. Bush in 1984 as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, to “I can’t say it, but it rhymes with rich,” has generally been courteous about Mrs. Clinton. When Republican leaders began attacking Mrs. Clinton at their national convention in August, Mrs. Bush said, “I don’t square it, and I don’t like it.”
When Mrs. Clinton moves into the White House, which has historic bedrooms and thousands of square feet full of antiques and priceless art, it will be a far cry from the two-bedroom home she has occupied for 12 years, the modest governor’s mansion in Little Rock, Ark., that barely accommodates overnight guests.
Press secretaries to both women said the meeting was friendly.
“They held hands like young girls,” said Anna Perez, the press secretary to Mrs. Bush.
my bad — She called Geraldine Ferraro a bitch ..although she was not and why she said it is a mystery – seems it would be have been more appropriate to call Clinton a bitch
Phil Hartman did the best Barbara Bush impersonation.
While I sympathize with anyone who loses a loved one, she & her family were part of the reason our country is in the mess it is today. The Republican Party of the ’80s, the Lee Atwater group, the rights of big business over the rights of the common citizen were part of the world she was from. Watching this group being shocked, SHOCKED over the rise of Trump was ironic. Her world enabled the very reasons why Trump caught fire. Barbara Bush was a fascinating woman with good qualities but should be put in perspective as we & our descendants have to live with the legacy of her husband & son.
Ms Clifford’s drawing is of the very young Maxim Gorky. Gorky may have been a fine story teller, but he demonstrated horrid taste in dictators. I believe the writer celebrates his 150th birthday this year.
Barbara Bush did not make policy. She served the country as well as she was able.
patD – Good catch about Putin’s most recent journalist/murder victim. The sex-worker who was jailed in Thailand and said she had something on Trumpsky may well have had first-hand intel. If that was uncovered, Put-ey would lose his leverage.
Mr. Cracker and I going to celebrate legal recreational pot in California on Friday 4/20 and some friends with whom we frequently smoke pot. I looked up 420 snacks on the internet and was totally grossed out. I see we are going to have to work out our own menu. No matter how young and stupid you are how can you think a cheeto crusted waffle would be good.
KGC – I hope that at some time in the future 4/20 will be real. The VA medical requirements for the pain meds I get requires a contract stating no weed. As a fed employee with a clearance it is also forbidden to enjoy happiness. So I need to have the Congress get rid of the idiocy of MJ as a Schedule 1 and then make it legal to intake.
The moment’s shiny object for the media happens to be (ta da) Korea meeting. On and on about nothing. Followed by a few sentences about no penalties for Russia. My guess is that the tape Putin has on SFB is not a peepee tape. That is disgusting, not criminal. FSB/SVR/GRU-KGB have a tape of SFB doing something which would be a felony in all European, North American, most South American, Australia, New Zealand, and several Asian countries. It is something so horrible and shocking that he would be frog marched out of the WH. That is why I think he might be compromised.
“would be a felony in all European, North American, most South American, Australia, New Zealand, and several Asian countries.”
My bet … sex with underage girl(s). Isn’t one of his cronies (Jeffrey Epstein) a convicted sex offender? I seem to remember lawsuits against Trump that were filed but withdrawn. Geez … what if dropping a lawsuit was a Cohen success?
bill clinton about barbara bush: “fierce and feisty in support of her family and friends, her country and her causes. She showed us what an honest, vibrant, full life looks like.”
Obama and his wife, Michelle, said in a statement that Barbara Bush was “an example of the humility and decency that reflects the very best of the American spirit.”
[reuters]
The last of the greatest generation, country club republicans. In reading about Barbara? She enjoyed the WH and I liked her independence in letting her hair gray, naturally. A lot to unpack in the country’s first lady, first mom. Those days are gone forever…now back to the slop and sleazy of the current WH.
Will pompeo’s sneakiness elevate his post as sos? It seems like trump wants a peace prize like Obama and pompeo will deliver. trump continues to sack the state dept. and run things like a golf course junket. The ruskies and chinese set-up the conflict and are controlling the peace. Anything to take the eyes off of the illegitimate potus and the election heist.
As for the takedown of Haley? It has pompeo’s finger prints all over the plan to discredit the lady. wolff’s book must have set-off trump and mel. pompeo is the hit man.
I was always struck by Barbara’s apparent sense of humor and her open enjoyment of life. Not bad traits in my opinion.
Bar was the best Bush to live in the WH.
Craig to your statement… Amen!
Loved the picture MSNBC kept showing last night of a meeting with living former First Ladies…. from Rosalyn Carter to Michelle Obama.
Trumpsky calls Stormy’s composite sketch of the man who threatened her a “total con job.”
To me, that means Trumpsky knew about the incident and knows who it was, and, that the pic will ID the perp.
“…Trumpsky knew about the incident and knows who it was…”
BiD, hey, maybe the twit was being truthful for a change and that the threat thug is a con…. as in convict.
mitch, the mini dictator in chief
from the guardian:
“I’m the one who decides what we take to the floor,” he said. “That’s my responsibility as the majority leader and we will not be having this on the floor of the Senate.”
looking at their past clientele, do you think they would be as unbiased?
nbc:
Attorneys for Michael Cohen asked a federal judge to appoint a so-called Special Master to decide which of Cohen’s materials seized by federal investigators can be viewed by prosecutors, and late Tuesday gave their choices for the job.
[….]
In a filing shortly before midnight, Cohen’s attorneys provided Wood with four recommendations:
Bart Schwartz, former assistant U.S. Attorney for Rudy Giuliani.
Joan McPhee, former federal prosecutor who successfully represented a Deepwater Horizon driller against federal charges.
Tai Park, former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York and a noted white collar defense attorney.
George Canellos, former SEC Division of Enforcement co-chair and former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. Has represented several major financial institutions.
maybe there was more to that sex worker (arrested in Thailand offering info to fbi) story afterall. another red flag
cbs news via msn:
A Russian journalist who reported on political scandals linked to President Vladimir Putin’s associates and the death of Russian mercenaries in Syria has died in hospital after a mysterious fall from his apartment. CBS News partner network BBC News reports that neighbors found Maxim Borodin badly injured on the ground outside his fifth floor apartment in Yekaterinburg on April 12.
Local and regional authorities told the BBC that no suicide note was discovered and the door to his apartment was found locked from the inside. They said no criminal activity was suspected.
But Vyacheslav Bashkov, a friend of the deceased journalist, told the British network that Borodin had called him early on the morning of April 11, saying there was “someone with a weapon on his balcony and people in camouflage and masks on the staircase landing.”
[….]
Borodin had reported recently on the death of hundreds of Russian mercenaries killed in U.S. airstrikes in northern Syria, after U.S.-allied forces came under attack in the region.
Putin ally reportedly linked to Russian mercenaries who attacked U.S. allies
He had also investigated the bizarre story of a Belorussian sex worker arrested in Thailand who claims to have recorded conversations with a Russian oligarch which prove Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
[…continues…]
on nbc today, Samantha Guthrie interview with comey, he comes across a lot more likeable than in other interviews.
found the picture…
l had two direct encounters with Barbara Bush, neither went well. Both times I asked her if she was pro-choice, which I always suspected since her husband switched from pro-choice to pro-life as a condition for becoming Reagan’s running mate. I remember well the time she held a press conference after touring a nursing home in Ohio. My question to her was about the status of her position on abortion. “We’re here to talk about nursing homes,” she snapped, with a harsh glare. After they left the White House, in her memoirs she confirmed that she had always been pro-choice.
I’m troubled as I watch the pained expressions on Andrea Mitchell’s face as she talks of the demise of Mrs Bush and her role as family matriarch and guiding conscience. The reason for her pain goes beyond her real grief at Mrs Bush’ death, but of Andrea’s parallel situation where her 92-yo husband, Alan Greenspan, in his own right a national treasure, is at that age where every shared moment can be of special significance to each of them.
Bar and Poppy came of age in a completely different era. He didn’t want anymore broccoli and she called Hillary Clinton a bitch.
“….she snapped, with a harsh glare.”
craig, that must have been the look bob schieffer was talking about this morning when he at 24 seconds in on this video discusses Barbara bush as the “enforcer” and “that she could stare down a grizzly bear”
November 20, 1992|By New York Times News Service
WASHINGTON — One has been described as a tough political insider who is fiercely protective of her husband’s interests; the other has gained a reputation as a warm friend and devoted mother.
Both descriptions fit Hillary Clinton and both fit Barbara Bush. Yesterday, the two women met at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to search for other common ground.
The occasion was a tour of the White House for its new resident, Mrs. Clinton. As part of this week’s ceremonies involving rituals of transferring power, the two women stepped delicately into the footprints their husbands left on the White House lawn on Wednesday. They brushed cheeks, greeted each other warmly and went inside to talk.
“Avoid this crowd like the plague,” Mrs. Bush said only half-jokingly as she gestured at the reporters and photographers gathered to record the meeting.
“And if they quote you, make damn sure they heard you,” she said.
Mrs. Clinton, whose verbal miscues, including an ill-received remark that she chose to work outside the home instead of staying home to “bake cookies and have tea,” burst out laughing.
“I know that feeling already,” Mrs. Clinton said.
For all their bonhomie yesterday, Mrs. Clinton and Mrs. Bush would seem to have little more in common beyond their decision to marry ambitious politicians. The 67-year-old Mrs. Bush, who has 5 children and 12 grandchildren, has never worked outside the home. Mrs. Clinton, 45, is a prominent lawyer with a 12-year-old daughter, Chelsea, who is in junior high school.
The two women were never overtly harsh toward each other on the campaign trail. Mrs. Clinton had tactfully told an interviewer that she planned to take a “more comprehensive approach” to the job of being the wife of the president than Mrs. Bush had.
“I think you have to match your voice with your actions,” she told The Sun.
And Mrs. Bush, who once let slip a remark comparing Geraldine A. Ferraro, who debated Mr. Bush in 1984 as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, to “I can’t say it, but it rhymes with rich,” has generally been courteous about Mrs. Clinton. When Republican leaders began attacking Mrs. Clinton at their national convention in August, Mrs. Bush said, “I don’t square it, and I don’t like it.”
When Mrs. Clinton moves into the White House, which has historic bedrooms and thousands of square feet full of antiques and priceless art, it will be a far cry from the two-bedroom home she has occupied for 12 years, the modest governor’s mansion in Little Rock, Ark., that barely accommodates overnight guests.
Press secretaries to both women said the meeting was friendly.
“They held hands like young girls,” said Anna Perez, the press secretary to Mrs. Bush.
my bad — She called Geraldine Ferraro a bitch ..although she was not and why she said it is a mystery – seems it would be have been more appropriate to call Clinton a bitch
Phil Hartman did the best Barbara Bush impersonation.
While I sympathize with anyone who loses a loved one, she & her family were part of the reason our country is in the mess it is today. The Republican Party of the ’80s, the Lee Atwater group, the rights of big business over the rights of the common citizen were part of the world she was from. Watching this group being shocked, SHOCKED over the rise of Trump was ironic. Her world enabled the very reasons why Trump caught fire. Barbara Bush was a fascinating woman with good qualities but should be put in perspective as we & our descendants have to live with the legacy of her husband & son.
SJ, can’t disagree with that. Policy-wise, W’s Medicare Part D drug coverage is about the only good thing produced by 12 years of Bush presidencies.
Hey what about every child left behind
Island-wide blackout hits Puerto Rico https://t.co/CTjACjFeFz
“I’m like the breakup he can’t get over.” James Comey talks Trump with Stephen Colbert. https://t.co/aOt8QiMx8q (Mother Jones)
Ms Clifford’s drawing is of the very young Maxim Gorky. Gorky may have been a fine story teller, but he demonstrated horrid taste in dictators. I believe the writer celebrates his 150th birthday this year.
In overnight ratings, Comey on Colbert tops Fallon and Kimmel combined, 3rd highest rating for the show ever, including rare demo win.
Barbara Bush did not make policy. She served the country as well as she was able.
patD – Good catch about Putin’s most recent journalist/murder victim. The sex-worker who was jailed in Thailand and said she had something on Trumpsky may well have had first-hand intel. If that was uncovered, Put-ey would lose his leverage.
What they need is a kill switch so if anything happens to them, info gets leaked to every formal & informal news outlet in the world.
Donald Trump just changed his story about James Comey’s firing https://t.co/NsoSPFJVnJ
Remember that is a decade old composite of the Trump’s bully surrogate
AMC theatres are owned by a Chinese conglomerate.
Barbara Bush did not make policy. She served the country as well as she was able.
BiD…. exactly. Just like women bristle whenever anyone compares Hillary to Bill… Barbara was not George HW.
I’m sure they are happy SFB is not coming to the funeral – Melanoma instead
She was the mother of a bank embezzler, plus she was the mother of one war criminal and the wife of another.
Ah straight talk from Minnesota
https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/corker-wont-campaign-bredesen-thinks-ex-governor-ahead-tennessee?utm_source=rollcallafternoon&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_content=041818&utm_source=rollcallafternoon&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_content=041818
Mr. Cracker and I going to celebrate legal recreational pot in California on Friday 4/20 and some friends with whom we frequently smoke pot. I looked up 420 snacks on the internet and was totally grossed out. I see we are going to have to work out our own menu. No matter how young and stupid you are how can you think a cheeto crusted waffle would be good.
I would like it if Marsha Blackburn suffered a humiliating defeat. She’s a liar
“420 snacks”
-waste of good pot
A cheetoh crusted waffle will sound more appetizing around 5:30 on Friday.
KC, ditto on Blackburn – she’s a disgusting human being.
Cheeto crusted waffle? That’s barfable. I’ve never been that hungry.
She was the mother of a bank embezzler, plus she was the mother of one war criminal and the wife of another.
XR, why waste all those words? How about: She was a wife and mother.
Thank You
KGC – I hope that at some time in the future 4/20 will be real. The VA medical requirements for the pain meds I get requires a contract stating no weed. As a fed employee with a clearance it is also forbidden to enjoy happiness. So I need to have the Congress get rid of the idiocy of MJ as a Schedule 1 and then make it legal to intake.
The moment’s shiny object for the media happens to be (ta da) Korea meeting. On and on about nothing. Followed by a few sentences about no penalties for Russia. My guess is that the tape Putin has on SFB is not a peepee tape. That is disgusting, not criminal. FSB/SVR/GRU-KGB have a tape of SFB doing something which would be a felony in all European, North American, most South American, Australia, New Zealand, and several Asian countries. It is something so horrible and shocking that he would be frog marched out of the WH. That is why I think he might be compromised.
How old was that Russian prostitute (in the Thai jail) when Trumpsky was in Moscow for Miss Universe?
90% of TX Dems disapprove of Trumpsky. Only 90%? This is why you can’t trust polls.
Repugz moving forward without McConnell to protect Mueller. Get out of the way Yertle, you Nazi enabler.
very good question BlueD. You should join Mueller’s team.
“would be a felony in all European, North American, most South American, Australia, New Zealand, and several Asian countries.”
My bet … sex with underage girl(s). Isn’t one of his cronies (Jeffrey Epstein) a convicted sex offender? I seem to remember lawsuits against Trump that were filed but withdrawn. Geez … what if dropping a lawsuit was a Cohen success?
The plaintiff was afraid
At last, a unanimous vote. Babies are now allowed on the floor of the Senate. And with that, good night.
Not snacks made out of pot — for having at the party