Posted on 10/06/2006 3:32:41 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Ask George H. W. Bush, an 82-year-old Republican ex-president receiving a joint award with Democrat Bill Clinton, what he thinks of the heated political season, and you might expect an appeal for less partisan rancor.
Wrong.
In accepting the Liberty Medal with Clinton last night for their role in tsunami and Katrina relief efforts, Bush instead offered a spirited "defense of the proper role of partisanship in our politics."
"No doubt, this has been a rough political year," Bush said, "but you'll have a hard time convincing me that politics is tougher and uglier in 2006 than it was in the 1960s or than the 1860s, for that matter.
"The thing is, every generation thinks their politics are rougher than at any other time in our history," Bush added, "just as every chief executive feels that their media coverage was the most offensive."
In 1861, Bush said, "president-elect Lincoln had to travel incognito to Washington for his first inauguration for fear of his safety, so polarized was our nation."
Bush and Clinton spoke to an audience of about 2,500 at a ceremony under the sky outside the National Constitution Center, which has taken charge of the Liberty Medal.
The award includes a $100,000 prize, which the two ex-presidents have pledged to donate to their ongoing relief efforts.
Clinton, who spoke after Bush, recalled that two earlier Liberty Medal recipients, doctors James Watson and Francis Crick, had discovered the structure of DNA, leading to the discovery that "human beings all across the world, Democrat and Republican, African and European, are all 99.9 percent the same, genetically."
Clinton posed the question of why people were able to come together after the tsunami and Katrina.
"Because when people are broken, and they've lost everything, then all the things we spend most of our time in life on, our differences, that one-tenth of one percent," Clinton said, "all of a sudden they just evaporate."
Both Clinton and Bush hailed the framework of the Constitution as key to allowing Americans to differ sharply without losing the importance of what they have in common.
Bush got some laughs when he recalled the hard shots he and Clinton traded in their battle for the presidency.
"There may have been one or two lapses of personal etiquette on the 1992 campaign trail," Bush said. "For example, I really did not think our dog Millie knew more about foreign policy than the governor of Arkansas, but, hey, we were in the heat of the battle then. The elbows get sharp, you know."
But Bush said he and Clinton have become close, and that Clinton is now referred to in the Bush family as "42," an affectionate reference to his presidency that conforms to the "41" and "43" the two Bushes sometimes use for each other.
Clinton spoke of his affection for the elder Bush, saying he was someone "I always liked and I always admired. I can now tell you, and may all the Democrats forgive me this close to the election, I love George Bush, I do."
The ceremony ended when Jon Bon Jovi performed the song "Who Says You Can't Go Home" and the two presidents embraced on stage.
That's great. Wait until Papa Bush's new daughter-in-law, Hitlery, announces her candidacy for president. This is just sickening.
GHW Bush and his daughter Doro were on Larry King last night, and he was so sweet and cute and mannerly and teary-eyed.....King asked him where his father was at some point when they were talking about his mother and George said " Oh, in HEAVEN,.." It was so sweet.
man that guy sure is old.
Well that's all nice and lovey-dovey, but last night I watched (on C-SPAN) part of Bill Clinton's mendacious and scurrilous hit-job on the current WH as he spoke in Weldon's district to promote the candidacy of Sandy Burglar's current favorite lapdog, Joe Sestak. Let's just say that Clinton was showing his true fangs as he dishonestly misdescribed just about anything and everything to do with the current WH occupants....... but I guess it's just those "sharp elbows" in a campaign season, not a vicious and depraved lack of scruples.
Clinton: "I LOVE (george) BUSH!".............
Next week 41 & 42 are scheduled to be on "Dancing With The Stars."
I think they are going to win.
That was back in '92.....Slick is STILL on the warpath with his mindless drivel like what was on CSPAN last night. Did you hear the clapping? These people were clapping to old DNC talking points like they were some new revelation.
Watch your back George!
And your DNA was discovered on Monica's blue dress. He must hate Watson and Crick...that's why he mentioned them.
Bill Clinton is a sociopath and compulsive liar who cannot make an honest statement about any of his current political adversaries. He can snuggle up to Bush, Sr. just because the man's in his 80s and no longer "in the arena"..... but in '92 Bill Clinton had no scruples and it's not healthy for the nation to keep glossing over what sleazebags the Clintons and their entire CREW always prove to be.........
In more ways than one!........
"I LOVE you, man- No, I mean it, I really LOVE you! C'mon up to Chappaqua sometime when Hillary's away - and bring the twins"
Very true.
The only possible good is that confused Democrats hear Clinton saying, "I love George Bush" and think he means W, and vote R this November. Heh, right.
Thats almost as disgusting as anything Foley contemplated doing.
Well said.
If I was in a room and either of the Clintons walked in, I would EXIT in a NY minute. I'd get the -ell out of there. They are repulsive.
I wouldnt be surprised if he will sit at the head of the Thanksgiving table.
Mr. President, with all due respect sir, you need to wake up and smell the coffee.
Today's politics is an absolute sewer full of the nastiest of sewer RATs.
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