XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX APRIL 02, 2006 19:02:31 ET XXXXX
LAURA BUSH SAYS HILLARY KEPT BAD HOUSE; WEST WING DECORATIONS WERE GAUDY, OUTDATED
First Lady Laura Bush believes Hillary Clinton did not keep good house during her time as first lady, a new book will charge.
Ron Kessler, a former investigative reporter for the WASHINGTON POST and the WALL STREET JOURNAL, is set to unleash his account of Laura Bush.
On December 18, 2000, just after the Supreme Court ruled on the election, Hillary Clinton gave Laura Bush a tour of the White House. The incoming-First Lady was dismayed at what she saw: Not only were carpets and furnishings fraying and in disrepair in the West Wing and public areas, the Oval Office was done in loud colors—red, blue, and gold! The East Wing was cut up into small offices and had exposed electrical conduits. Many of the furnishings looked dated.
Laura Bush noted how the Lincoln Bedroom looked worn out.
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Laura was appalled at the way the Clintons left the White House and Hillary Clinton's gaudy, outdated taste in decorating, reveals the new book, LAURA BUSH: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT.
The book, which will be published by DOUBLEDAY on Tuesday, is the only book to be written about Laura Bush with White House cooperation.
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Elsewhere in AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT, after NEWSWEEK ran a Periscope item claiming that the U.S. military had flushed a Koran down a toilet, leading to rioting, Laura ordered: "I don't want NEWSWEEK around the house!"
Laura Bush became so disgusted with the media and their war against her husband that at one point, she told her public relations person Noelia Rodriguez she did not want to do any more media interviews. After about a month, she slowly resumed talking to the press.
A close friend of Laura's, Pamela Nelson, asks Laura how she's doing. Laura replies, "Well, it's the Kitty Kelly book and Dan Rather this week..."
Nancy Weiss, a Bush family intimate, told Kessler, "She torments herself by reading the WASHINGTON POST and the NEW YORK TIMES, " and added, "A Texas Monthly article (based on a book by a Washington Post reporter ) said she is a 'bad mom.' She handles it calmly but I can tell things like that do upset her."
Developing...