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 ...
I can imagine it was not friendship. 41 had been head of CIA. Why to we ascribe Boy Scout morality to him. He was chief of spies. And better at that than at being potus
Didn't matter, Bush lost because of Bush.
:origin()/pre00/fe9e/th/pre/i/2016/341/f/f/game_of_thrones___bush_vs__clinton_by_rlkitterman-daqulop.jpg)
OTOH - If Bush had dropped out and supported Perot, Billary would not have won...
And America would have been the better for it!
Just sayin'
Billary - The 2 Headed Co-President
[I can imagine it was not friendship. 41 had been head of CIA. Why to we ascribe Boy Scout morality to him. He was chief of spies. And better at that than at being potus]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush#Director_of_Central_Intelligence_(1976%E2%80%931977)
Well, GHWB wasn’t the best Republican around, by a long shot. Even if he was Ronald Reagan’s veep. (Donald Trump has done better by choosing Mike Pence.)
But we have long had the problem of the Rockefeller Republican, of which GHWB was one, and his son eventually showed signs of being, too. The Democrats are too wild for the Rockefeller Republican, who wants at least the patina of decency.
And really, if something had to show that Ronald Reagan still had clay feet, it was GHWB. Donald Trump is a better iteration here. Perhaps the good Lord had raised Ronald Reagan up as a trial flag, to see what America would do. Granted, Reagan would have had a hard time “unveeping” GHWB, even if Reagan had grown wiser over the years. He was stuck with that running mate, who became the Presidential candidate apparent. Here’s where we could have used a Donald Trump, or maybe even a Mitt Romney at that point (he wasn’t as bad yet) to step up after Clinton’s first term. But the good Lord knew that if we sowed the wind, we would reap the whirlwind. What we needed to do was to learn that too.
Bush squandered Reagan’s legacy.. He was a Democrat posing as a Rep.
One year as CIA Director. Just building a resume.
I believe Dole would've won without Perot in the mix.
Like father, like son.
Dole was fairly insipid, though, or he would have been able to out-Perot Perot (as Donald Trump was eventually to do). There’s something about Trump that says he has a populist side, even reaching to redneck (e.g. that MAGA cap). Donald Trump was “our kind of rich man.” In fact most of his riches simply came from wise management of his inheritance — he couldn’t be accused of “raping resources.”
Why did it take an amateur politician (Trump had never run for any other office) to best the best that the GOP had in its political ranks? Why? Well, look at that Constitution. “We The People.”
Trump intended to win ... Perot intended for Clinton to win.
Bush was a liberal Republican who occasionally hid his brand.
There used to be a great many more liberal Republicans—arguably they were the founding wing of the party, and the Tafts, Reagan, and Trump have pushed it to the right.
Unfortunately what passes for right today could have passed for moderate socialist in 1928.
Bush governed like a Democrat. He doubled the annual legal immigration cap to one million. He was a total disaster and set the GOP back for generations to come. His son was almost as bad.
I might add that Bush 41 admitted in his book that he voted for Hillary. Ungrateful bastard.
There are many Democratic politicians, now largely dead, who would have governed to the right of Bush—Scoop Jackson to start with.
Remember, Reagan was a Democrat, and the party left him.
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