Posted on 02/23/2015 6:31:02 AM PST by US Navy Vet
In 1999, Columba Bush, the famously private wife of then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, was detained and fined by federal customs officials for misrepresenting the amount of clothing and jewelry she had bought while on a solo five-day shopping spree in Paris.
The incident left the Florida first lady deeply mortified and her husband politically chagrined. Jeb Bush said the first lady had misled customs officials because she did not want him to know that she had spent about $19,000 on the trip.
“The embarrassment I felt made me ashamed to face my family and friends,” Columba Bush said in a July 1999 speech to the Central Florida Make-a-Wish Foundation, not long after the incident. “It was the worst feeling I’ve ever had in my life.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Imelda Marcos comes to mind.
She’s come along way since Mexico....
I don’t knock anyone for having expensive tastes. As long as they can afford to fund those tastes without dipping into my pocket then I have no comment.
“The embarrassment I felt .... “
She was embarrassed so now she is a victim.
These folks are masters at spinning things.
Now. About Michelle's vacations.
did he marry his maid or something?
I was going to say at least it was her and Jeb’s money she spent, and not the taxpayers.
Now. About Al Sharpton and his little tax issue.
So, she came clean about her spending habits after being outed by Customs? And this was 15 years ago? No, she isn’t Laura or Barbara, but if she was a Lefty she would be celebrated for admitting a mistake. Is there ANY Republican who has no transgressions? Because Big Media will certainly destroy anyone who is connected to the Republican Party. I am not a supporter of Jeb, but I am truly fed up with the destruction of anyone trying to step forward and lead. Democrats can do ANYTHING and Big Media will still promote them as being ‘smarter and better’ than ANY Republican. Until Republicans (and the general public) stop reacting to Big Media’s dog whistles, we will not emerge with a viable candidate. Is there a perfect Republican?? NO! Will we try to find the best one?? I sure hope so.
Nineteen thousand for a shopping trip is NOTHING.
Jeb knows his wife gets homesick... he wants to bring Mexico here for her.... that’s how great his love for one woman is... (Too bad he doesn’t give a damn about the rest of us.)
Surely we're not supposed to believe they did a little investigative journalism themselves, are we?
And don't call me Shirley.
How much did Michelle and girlks spend in Hawaii? In Aspen? OUR MONEY!!!
And jewelry is an investment.
Agree completely. I had the same reaction to Bill Bennett’s gambling. Did it hurt him or his family financially? If not, then BUTT OUT.
“Customs duties? I don’t have to pay no stinking customs duties, gringo.”
Mexicans don’t have to comply with U.S. laws, you see, because we hurt their feelings really bad when we beat them in 1848. Or something.....
I don’t see any amounts. So I’m thinking what she said and what customs said are likely negligible. It’s not like she was smuggling.
That reminds me. WRT Mrs Bush's Mexican origins.....As a onetime Mexican national (assuming she's now an American citizen), did she ever travel w/ her Mexican passport?
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WIKI Columba Bush was born as Columba Garnica Gallo in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, where she grew up and attended high school. Her parents were José María Garnica, a migrant worker, and Josefina Gallo.
She met Jeb Bush in 1971 in León, Mexico, where he was teaching English as part of a foreign exchange program. They were married on February 23, 1974, in Austin, Texas.
Her relationship with her mother was the subject of a brief profile in the book Mamá: Latina Daughters Celebrate Their Mothers by María Pérez-Brown (ISBN 0-06-008386-7). Her parents divorced in 1963.
She appeared in a Spanish language campaign commercial for father-in-law, George H. W. Bush, in 1988, but generally tends to be uninvolved in politics.
In June of 1999, she was "briefly detained" at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport. On her way home from a shopping trip in Paris, she had declared only $500 worth of merchandise on her US Customs form, but agents found receipts indicating that she was "toting about $19,000 worth of clothing and jewelry". She was allowed to continue to Tallahassee after using a personal check to pay a $4,100 fine.
At the time, a spokesman for the Bush family explained that she did not "answer truthfully at first because she did not want her husband to know how much she had spent".
Oh, come on. He cares about the children. Just look at Common Core./s
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