Free Republic

HOUSTON—Former first lady Barbara Bush was released from a Houston hospital, where she underwent tests after being admitted last weekend. Methodist Hospital said in a statement announcing the Wednesday release that Mrs. Bush might have had a mild relapse of Graves disease, a thyroid condition for which she was treated in 1989. Her doctors have adjusted her medication. The 84-year-old wife of former President George H.W. Bush was hospitalized Saturday after not feeling well for about a week. She was described as not being in any pain or danger. Mrs. Bush had heart surgery in March 2009 for a severe...

Breaking on Fox.....

Former President George H.W. Bush has endorsed U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for Texas governor. He is the third prominent national figure to endorse Hutchison in her race against Gov. Rick Perry. Last November, she garnered the endorsement of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and early last week former Secretary of State James Baker gave his official backing. Last Friday, in front of his home in Houston, Bush said that he and his wife Barbara were supporting Hutchison because she has the right vision to lead the state...

Taxes: On the eve of President Obama's first State of the Union address, two Democratic congressmen are advising him to extend the Bush tax cuts instead of letting them expire. Now that's a stimulus. We hear that the administration is considering taking a more populist tack as it sails the choppy political waters of 2010. Some of President Obama's plans reportedly include several tax tidbits for the "middle class," including a doubling of the child care tax credit for families below $85,000 in income, and $1.6 billion for child care and a cap on student loan payments. Such transparent populism...

Houston oilman Robert Adam Mosbacher, perhaps the Republican Party's greatest-ever fundraiser and a member of the cabinet of longtime friend President George H.W. Bush, died Sunday of pancreatic cancer. He was 82. Mosbacher, founder of the company that bore his name, served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 1989 to 1992, where he was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the North American Free Trade Agreement. Although the formal position placed him toward the bottom of the cabinet hierarchy, no one doubted Mosbacher's influence with and access to the president, whom he had known since the early 1960s. He raised...

Former President George H.W. Bush officially endorsed Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, in her gubernatorial primary against sitting Gov. Rick Perry. “Barbara and I are taking this unusual step of endorsing in this primary because of our unbridled belief in Kay,” Mr. Bush said in a statement posted on Ms. Hutchison’s campaign Web site Wednesday. “She is strong. She has proven her steadfast commitment to the issues and values that unite Texas Republicans.” Mr. Perry is ahead in polls leading up to the Republican primary on March 2 — which also happens to be Texas Independence Day.

Listened to Bush Sr. Gave lots of credit to others, but there was a stark omission of Reagan. No Credit for Reagan???

BERLIN (Reuters) – George Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev and Helmut Kohl paid their respects to the ordinary people who were behind the peaceful revolution of 1989 that brought down the Berlin Wall at an emotional ceremony in Berlin on Saturday. The three statesmen from the United States, Soviet Union and West Germany -- whose steady-handed leadership paved the way for the Wall's opening on November 9, 1989 -- recalled the heady events that led to the end of the Cold War at a ceremony attended by 1,800 people. "We Germans don't have very much in our history to be proud of,"...

Craig Shirley, a prominent conservative consultant and close ally of Ronald Reagan, has just written a superb insider's account of Reagan's return from the political wilderness in 1980. Entitled "Rendezvous with Destiny," it is full of anecdotes that have never been published before. Here is Shirley's account of the pivotal moment in the bitter GOP presidential primary battle between Reagan and former Texas congressman and CIA director George H.W. Bush. To order the book, click here. Rendezvous with Destiny.bmp The thirty-five days between the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary during the 1980 presidential campaign were the most important...

COLLEGE STATION — Our president, navigating through a difficult rookie year, on Friday made his first trip to our state since he got the gig in January. Barack Obama came to College Station to honor George H.W. Bush on the 20th anniversary of the ex-president's "Points of Light" speech that sparked a volunteer effort that has helped countless folks. So nice. A Democratic president and an ex-GOP president ignoring party differences for a day. The event crossed generations. It bridged racial divide. And it reminded us that the folks who really play politics for keeps know there's a time to...

Here is video from the Rachel Maddow show where she played audio of former President George H. W. Bush on CBS Radio calling Maddow and Keith Olbermann "a couple of sick puppies" for their vicious attacks against his son - George W. Bush - and others who do not agree with their point of view. Maddow then talks with Olbermann by phone and they essentially say they can't imagine why he would say such a thing! George H. W. Bush is right on target, and good for him that he said so! . . . . (VIDEO)

Freudian slip by former President George H.W. Bush during his speech at Texas AM yesterday.

President Barack Obama and President George H.W. Bush, center, talk after speaking at the Points of Light Institute forum at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, Friday, Oct. 16, 2009. At right, Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Perhaps the 41st president still has it in him - at least when it comes to the left crying foul about the so-called uncivil political discourse on right, but being equally if not worse on the left, particularly on MSNBC, the so-called "Place for Politics." In an interview on Oct. 16 with CBS Radio, former President George H.W. Bush took a very critical tact with MSNBC hosts Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, deeming them "a couple of sick puppies." (via MSNBC's Oct. 16 "The Rachel Maddow Show") "I don't like it," Bush said. "I think the cables have a lot...

San Francisco (AP) - President Barack Obama, who has called on Americans to perform more community service, is joining former President George H.W. Bush in urging citizens to volunteer. Bush on Friday was to host a forum on volunteering at Texas A&M University, to be attended by Obama, who initiated a "United We Serve" call to service in June that culminated in a national day of service on the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The forum is affiliated with the Points of Light Institute, an organization that honors people and groups who participate in community service. Bush...

Former president and World II naval aviator George H.W. Bush has been honored by some of his neighbors in Kennebunkport. The group unveiled a Navy anchor and a plaque acquired as a way to thank Bush for his service as president and for being a good neighbor.

Flying home from London, where the subject of formal debate on the 70th anniversary of World War II had been whether Winston Churchill was a liability or asset to the Free World, one arrives in the middle of a far more acrimonious national debate right here in the United States. At issue: Should Barack Obama be allowed to address tens of millions of American children, inside their classrooms, during school hours? Conservative talk-show hosts saw a White House scheme to turn public schools into indoctrination centers where the socialist ideology of Obama would be spoon-fed to captive audiences of children...

I got attacked by the Village Voice today for expressing my rather nasty response to the ObamaDay speech to schoolchildren and the accompanying ideological White House-dictated Department of Education lesson plans for kids (e.g., "Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals"). I don't particularly mind being attacked by the Village Voice. I mean, at least they spelled my name right, as they say. If anything, what bothers me is the smarmy, "They're unhinged...

When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings By: Byron York Chief Political Correspondent 09/08/09 7:11 AM EDT The controversy over President Obama's speech to the nation's schoolchildren will likely be over shortly after Obama speaks today at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. But when President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, the controversy was just beginning. Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush's speech -- they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned...