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Lesson for today: Bush 41 chose friendship over politics in tax fight
washingtonexaminer ^ | 07/26/2019 | Paul Bedard

Posted on 07/30/2019 10:41:27 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27

Long before today's acid relations between Republicans and Democrats, President Trump and "the squad," friendships mattered over daily politics.

In a classic example, a letter going up for auction next week highlights that mood, now some 30 years ago.

Columnist Paul Bedard on the expanded Washington Examiner magazine

Watch Full Screen to Skip Ads It is from famous letter-writer President George H.W. Bush to his long-time pal, then Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and during a heated fight over tax cuts.

A few weeks before the vote to give Bush his tax cut, Rostenkowski apparently came under fire from the Wall Street Journal in an attack so harsh that Bush, his pal since the 1960s, wrote him a note of support, including a wish that the fight wouldn’t interfere with their friendship.

It was written aboard Air Force One as the president flew home from an event in Spokane, Washington. “That my friendship with you now appears to some to be a burden to you troubles the hell out of me,” wrote Bush, adding, “I'm your friend. I hope you know that.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 41; bush; danrostenkowski; georgehwbush; politics; rostenkowski; tax
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1 posted on 07/30/2019 10:41:27 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Nixon chose loyalty over legality.


2 posted on 07/30/2019 10:44:36 AM PDT by steve8714
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To: ChicagoConservative27

You want a friend, get a dog.


3 posted on 07/30/2019 10:45:20 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Friendship with a crook over the American people.

Granted, the crook was an Illinois politician, and as my grandfather explained to me, being a crook is a pre-requisite for being an Illinois politician, so one can’t fault Rosty too much for getting the standard bona fides for his chosen profession.

But crooks, including Illinois pols, tend not to have good morals, and thus are poor choices in friendship.

Bush chose poorly.

I’m glad that Bush’s wish that no one else see the note has been honoured in the breach.


4 posted on 07/30/2019 10:46:44 AM PDT by Hieronymus ("I shall drink--to the Pope, if you please,-still, to Conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.")
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Read my lips...


5 posted on 07/30/2019 10:47:08 AM PDT by rdl6989
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Here we have a most intense paradox.

One can be collegial unto blessing — but one should not be collegial unto a fault. There are things to say yes to, and things to say no to, in this art of the possible we call politics with politicians, every single one of which is a sinner.

The American founding idea, in part, was that in numbers would be found the wisdom of many counselors which might elude an oligarchy.

Maybe there should have been a presidential committee rather than a single president provided for in the Constitution as well— under the same philosophy. But we have what we have, and Donald Trump, that madly wealthy commoner of a fellow, comes as close to being a populist president as any we have seen in a long, long time.


6 posted on 07/30/2019 10:50:29 AM PDT by God cares
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Daniel David Rostenkowski was a United States Representative from Chicago, serving from 1959 to 1995. He became one of the most powerful legislators in Washington, especially in matters of taxation, until he went to prison. Wikipedia

7 posted on 07/30/2019 10:52:01 AM PDT by conservative98
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Taking a notorious crook as his close friend
raises troubling questions about his judgment.


8 posted on 07/30/2019 10:53:33 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer.)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

That’s why he lost.


9 posted on 07/30/2019 10:54:10 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: conservative98

That photo would pair nicely with the pic of a seasoned citizen near climbing atop Rostenkowski’s car. Or maybe his federal BOP mug shot?


10 posted on 07/30/2019 10:55:12 AM PDT by lodi90
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To: Buckeye McFrog

It does seem to smack of a bond of elitism, of plutocracy, in this case.

We know that’s a ticket to hell in the long run.

But I’m sure it served SOME good. There hasn’t been a GOP president that has been able to get legislation through without Democrat participation. We have to look at both sides of these things.


11 posted on 07/30/2019 10:55:53 AM PDT by God cares
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To: conservative98

So GHWB was fooled by Rosty. Who would have guessed that? As I recall too Barbara Pierce Bush was just giddy around Tip O’Neill.


12 posted on 07/30/2019 10:57:45 AM PDT by Theodore R.
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To: ChicagoConservative27

How’d that work out for ol’ Georgie? Pretty much handed Clinton the presidency, didn’t it? Not that hor-hay has any bad feelings; he still campaigned for Hillary over Trump.


13 posted on 07/30/2019 10:58:46 AM PDT by dangus
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To: ChicagoConservative27
The entire Bush clan has been a disappointment to any conservatives that supported them in the past.

I donated so much to lil shrub, that I had an original, autographed pix of him and his wife {long since burned because of my let down}.

How could I have been so naive?

14 posted on 07/30/2019 10:59:45 AM PDT by USS Alaska (Nuke the terrorist mooselimb savages, today.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

And here’s where we ought to look for the larger hand of God, which works even amidst thickets of evil, because He is yet more powerful than the evil.

Donald Trump dreamed of uniting Republican and Democrat, which to us sounds like the dog lying down with the cat and having some crazy kind of half puppy, half kitten offspring.

But even the honor among thieves is better than no honor at all. It staves off a complete disintegration.

And the Rubicon will be crossed here, I believe, when Democrats find God again, or rather when God finds Democrats again. Many modern liberal ideas are distortions of classical God fearing liberal ideas, distorted by being focused upon an idol. To break down the idol of government while raising up the households of God to the worship of God should be the ultimate goal here — yes, a spiritual raising up of America.


15 posted on 07/30/2019 11:03:25 AM PDT by God cares
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To: USS Alaska

What a fool. The Rats saw it as weakness and used it to destroy him.


16 posted on 07/30/2019 11:04:01 AM PDT by gibsonguy
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To: gibsonguy

They indeed proved to be poisonous “friends” if so. One term, and then we had President Clinton. Though again, Ross Perot with his ill fated populist movement siphoned off what would decades later be voting for Donald Trump. Don’t discount that as a huge clue to what was brewing. We Americans would rather have an honestly wicked Democrat than a pretentious, elitist Republican (and Barack Obama proved that again).


17 posted on 07/30/2019 11:08:34 AM PDT by God cares
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To: ChicagoConservative27

There is something to be said for doing the job people elected you to do.

Too bad he didn’t see that .

His ‘friends’ ran him out of office and made him a one term president.

His concern about his ‘friends’ gave us Bill and Hillary Clinton...


18 posted on 07/30/2019 11:11:27 AM PDT by Vlad The Inhaler (My Corps, Your Corps, Our Corps, Marine Corps!)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

The Bush’s chose friendships and housekeepers over the good of their supporters


19 posted on 07/30/2019 11:17:50 AM PDT by CaptainK ('No collusion, no obstruction, he's a leaker')
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To: Vlad The Inhaler

If it weren’t for Perot, Billary would not have won.


20 posted on 07/30/2019 11:22:13 AM PDT by 3boysdad (The very elect.)
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