Posted on 09/07/2001 5:18:02 PM PDT by vrwc54
POLITICAL dynasties will collide next week when Laura Bush makes her debut on Capitol Hill, where she has been summoned to the spotlight by the Democrat warhorse Edward Kennedy to face questions from Hillary Clinton. The shy, former public librarian, more usually seen at her husband’s side, will take her first solo steps on the political stage before the Senate education committee, chaired by the head of the Kennedy clan.Its line-up also includes her White House predecessor, whose outspoken approach Mrs Bush has from the outset made clear she has no intention of trying to emulate.
In agreeing to testify, Mrs Bush will come close to breaking a promise she exacted from her husband before they married, that she would never make a political speech.
The event marks a flurry of engagements designed to push her personal, and one of Mr Bush’s political, priorities: education.
It began last night at a Washington reception to introduce the national book festival, and will continue with a series of school visits next week.
For them she will be with the President, but for Tuesday’s committee hearing she will be representing only herself. Since before last year’s presidential election, Mrs Bush has made education the exception to her rule on addressing public policy.
She had successfully pushed for pre-school reading programmes in Texas, where Mr Bush was Governor, and has for years been an active enthusiast for all-age education, and reading in particular. The invitation to Senator Kennedy’s committee is not as surprising as it may appear.
Mr Kennedy has been among the White House’s more notable regular guests. He met Mr Bush five times in the first two weeks of the new Administration, praising the President’s commitment to education and being mocked by Washington’s political classes along the way.
The appearance of Mrs Bush alongside Mrs Clinton offers a stark contrast of styles. They have one thing in common, as the only two First Ladies to have graduate degrees, but there the similarity ends.
Mrs Clinton spent her early years in the White House in a failed bid to overhaul America’s healthcare system, whereas Mrs Bush has been only too happy to take a back seat. A spokesman for Mrs Clinton said she was “looking forward to greeting” Mrs Bush on Tuesday and hearing her views.
A Political dynasty!!!
A piece of human debris hooked up with a carpetbagger witch does not make a dynasty. It makes it a crime to call it anything else
will collide next week when Laura Bush makes her debut on Capitol Hill, where she has been summoned to the spotlight by the Democrat warhorse Edward Kennedy to face questions from Hillary Clinton.
More like a horse's ass, I hope he has the littlest seam of decency and treat her like a lady. That gin soaked lush
Is this "teddy chappy" kennedy they refer to?...There's so many kennedys I've lost track...When did ted "chappy" kennedy get started to be called "Edward"?....I'm sorry,...I'm confused...
FMCDH
We welcome the Bushes to come back home to Texas AFTER EIGHT yeard in the White House!
We love you, Laura!
Barb in Texas
I'm not even certain that I will have enough time to wait in the humongous line that is sure to form when tourists, workers on Capitol Hill and White House employees all try to attend the same hearing -- and I didn't even mention the crush of media that would rush to report this event.
I went to the Impeachment hearing when Ken Starr was testifying and stood in line for hours in order to get inside the back of the committee room for a very short stay. This event with Laura Bush (and ex-FLOTUS Hillary Clinton) will be well attended.
You wasted a "cr" in the last word above.
I still don't get this. Hillary was only "outspoken" through Bill when she was First Lady. In fact, the Clinton White House took GREAT pains to make sure that Hillary's prints were NEVER found on ANY White House initiatives, because they lived and died by the focus group, and their focus group studies consistently showed the American people did NOT approve of a "co-Presidency."
It was only when she struck out on her own, as a Senate candidate, that she began to "speak out," and that was only in very liberal New York state, where she could comfortably say the kinds of things that would outrage those in "flyover country" had she uttered them on the national stage.
Even then, it was very hard to get the REAL Hillary Clinton out to the rest of the country. The American Conservative Union for one tried very hard to publicize the REAL HRC, but the media knew exactly how to scrub her sound bites for the national news so they passed the smell test.
So this is yet another revision of recent Clintonian history. HRC was kept well out of public view as First Lady, except for the usual First Lady stuff. She was quite active BEHIND the scenes, and she was the real power in the West Wing (as many a trembling intern found out who dared to look directly at her when she passed regally through the halls of her power).
HRC is at the black heart of Democrat corruption, and we can only hope that the whole thing is exposed and lanced during our lifetime, where we can revel in "we told you so."
In the end, the gulf between Laura Bush and HRC is vast, but it has nothing to do with their public persona as First Lady.
She's shy like her husband is dumb. It's the image the media wants to continue to create in the hopes that that the American public will think she's inferior to her brazen predecessor.
The reality is that she's extremely intelligent, confident, capable, motivated, classy and a really good wife. (It's that last part the Clintonistas can't deal with).
I'm with you, maranatha. She will deftly handle anything they throw at her.
Thanks for the ping, kayak!
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