Dear Ken:
One of the sad things about old friends is that they seem to be getting older -- just like you!
55 years old. Wow! That is really old.
Thank goodness you have such a young, beautiful wife.
Laura and I value our friendship with you. Best wishes to Linda, your family, and friends.
Your younger friend,
George W. Bush
So when George claimed to have nothing but hazy recollections of Mr. Lay, he wasn't exactly being forthright. Or loyal, for that matter. But that's just what happens when one of your closest friends turns out to be a crook.
War on Terror
Heading into August 2001, Bush spent less than two-thirds of his days actually working. Then the White House staff announced that he was about to head off to Crawford for a 31-day vacation. It would have been the single longest holiday in Presidential history, but after the news media started sharing this fact with the public, Dubya's people scaled it back by a week so he wouldn't take the record from President Richard Nixon (30 consecutive days).
It was on August 6, 2001 that Bush received a top-secret briefing memo describing various attempts by al Qaeda to bring their jihad to America. The paper was titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." Which is good. At least they were thinking about it. One month later, the World Trade Center attacks caused an immediate shuffling of national priorities. What had been a back-burner problem in August was now America's exclusive focus.
After the U.S. bombed the shit out of Afghanistan and routed the Taliban, the White House started making noises about the need to clean house in the Middle East.
War with Iraq
Dubya had actually been planning to go after Saddam Hussein for years. As a matter of fact, almost two years before the Pentagon/WTC attacks, George gave an interview to the BBC in November 1999 which laid out his plans for his father's antagonist during the Gulf War:
REPORTER: Would Saddam Hussein outlive a second President Bush?
GOVERNOR BUSH: [Laughs] Very good question. Uh, I think the interesting thing -- [laughs] -- um, uh -- Saddam Hussein, uh -- really did last longer than anybody envisioned. He did.
REPORTER: Including your father.
GOVERNOR BUSH: Including my father, absolutely right. [...] No one envisioned Saddam, at least at that point in history, no one envisioned him still standing. It's time to finish the task.
Aside from providing a convenient pretext, the invasion had little or nothing to do with the 9-11 attacks. Bush's motive was strictly personal. Saddam Hussein had attempted to assassinate his father. Or, as he put it: "After all, this is the guy that tried to kill my dad at one time."
at present
Now that Iraq has been conquered and everybody's forgotten about the administration's ties to the Enron scandal, life in Washington has returned to normal. Bush is spending more and more time on his ranch in Crawford while Vice President Cheney and others manage day-to-day operations.
And although Dubya is gearing up for the 2004 campaign cycle, you can bet he's spending more and more time thinking about how he's going to snag the commissioner's post in major league baseball. Now there's a job a guy could really sink his teeth into.
Divinity
Aug 1999 During a campaign appearance in New Orleans, presidential candidate George W Bush expresses doubts about teaching evolution in schools: "I believe children ought to be exposed to different theories about how the world started."
Sep 2000 George W Bush tells a George magazine interviewer: "I've heard the call. I believe God wants me to run for President."
4 Jun 2003 Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen meets with President George W Bush at a summit in Aqaba, Jordan. According to an article in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, Bush informs Mazen: "God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."
2 Nov 2003 According to an article in the London Observer, then-governor George W Bush told Fort Worth, Texas televangelist James Robison in 2000: "I feel like God wants me to run for President. I can't explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen[...] I know it won't be easy on me or my family, but God wants me to do it."
9 Jul 2004 While meeting with a group of 60 Old Order Amish at the Lapp Electric Service offices in Smoketown, Pennsylvania, President George W Bush declares: "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job."
9 Oct 2004 CNN airs an interview with First Lady Laura Bush, in which she denies reports of the President's divine commission: "You know, it's just a very important part of our life. My husband has never said -- I think this is some extrapolation from his critics, maybe -- that he felt like he was called to this. He's never said such a thing."
Valerie Plame leak
30 Sep 2003 Speaking to the press in Chicago:
BUSH: [I]f there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of.
[...]
REPORTER: Yesterday we were told that Karl Rove had no role in it --
BUSH: Yes.
REPORTER: -- have you talked to Karl and do you have confidence in him?
BUSH: Listen, I know of nobody -- I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action. And this investigation is a good thing.
7 Oct 2003 President George W Bush, regarding the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to Robert Novak: "I don't know if we're going to find out the senior administration official. [...] I don't have any idea. I'd like to. I want to know the truth. [...] I have no idea whether we'll find out who the leaker is."
9 Oct 2003 G. Gordon Liddy on President George W Bush's attitude toward the Valerie Plame scandal: "I don't think he wants to find out who did the leaking."
3 Jun 2004 Regarding the Valerie Plame leak, President Bush declares: "I've told our administration that we'll fully cooperate with their investigation. I want to know the truth, and I'm willing to cooperate myself."
10 Jun 2004 During a press conference after the G-8 Summit:
REPORTER: [D]o you still stand by what you said several months ago, suggesting that it might be difficult to identify anybody who leak the agent's name? And do you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have done so?
BUSH: Yes. And that's up to the U.S. Attorney to find the facts.
13 Dec 2005 Addressing the John Locke Foundation during a luncheon in Raleigh, North Carolina, journalist Robert Novak opines: "I'm confident the President knows who the source is. [...] I'd be amazed if he doesn't. [...] So I say: Don't bug me. Don't bug Bob Woodward. Bug the President as to whether he should reveal who the source is."
Saddam Hussein
2 Dec 1999 During a debate in New Hampshire, presidential candidate George W Bush declares: "If I found in any way, shape or form that he (Saddam Hussein) was developing weapons of mass destruction, I'd take 'em out. I'm surprised he's still there." Asked if that meant he would overthrow Saddam, Bush clarified: "The weapons of mass destruction."
22 Feb 2001 During his first press conference, President George W Bush declares: "The Secretary of State is going to go listen to our allies as to how best to effect a policy, the primary goal of which will be to say to Saddam Hussein: we won't tolerate you developing weapons of mass destruction and we expect you to leave your neighbors alone."
7 Aug 2001 President George W Bush declares: "He's (Saddam Hussein) been a menace forever, and we will do -- he needs to open his country up for inspection, so we can see whether or not he's developing weapons of mass destruction."
26 Sep 2002 President George W Bush explains to a Texas audience that although Saddam Hussein poses a threat to many countries, America has first dibs. "There's no doubt his hatred is mainly directed at us. There's no doubt he can't stand us. After all, this is the guy that tried to kill my dad at one time."
7 Oct 2002 During a speech in Cincinnati, President George W Bush declares: "Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists."
14 Oct 2002 During a speech in Dearborn, Michigan, President George W Bush declares that Saddam Hussein maintains active ties to al Qaeda: "This is a man that we know has had connections with al Qaeda. This is a man who, in my judgment, would like to use al Qaeda as a forward army."
7 Nov 2002 During a press conference, President George W Bush declares: "Some people say, 'Oh, we must leave Saddam alone, otherwise, if we did something against him, he might attack us.' Well, if we don't do something he might attack us, and he might attack us with a more serious weapon. The man is a threat... He's a threat because he is dealing with al Qaeda... And we're going to deal with him."
8 Feb 2003 During a radio address, President George W Bush declares: "We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons - the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have."
6 Mar 2003 During his second press conference in two years, President George W Bush declares: "Saddam Hussein and his weapons are a direct threat to this country, to our people, and to all free people.... I will not leave the American people at the mercy of the Iraqi dictator and his weapons."
17 Mar 2003 During an address to the nation, President George W Bush declares: "We cannot live under the threat of blackmail. The terrorist threat to America and the world will be diminished the moment that Saddam Hussein is disarmed."
17 Mar 2003 During an address to the nation, President George W Bush declares: "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."
19 Mar 2003 During an address to the nation, President George W Bush declares: "The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder."
10 Apr 2003 In a message to the Iraqi people, President George W Bush declares: "The goals of our coalition are clear and limited. We will end a brutal regime, whose aggression and weapons of mass destruction make it a unique threat to the world."
24 Apr 2003 President George W Bush declares: "We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them."
30 May 2003 President George W Bush remarks on Polish TV: "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories... we’ve so far discovered two. And we’ll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven’t found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they’re wrong, we found them."
17 Sep 2003 President George W Bush: "No, we've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th."
24 Mar 2004 At the annual Radio and Television News Correspondents Association dinner, President George W Bush shows slides of himself searching clumsily behind furniture in the Oval Office, joking: "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere [...] nope, no weapons over there [...] maybe under here?"
Timeline
6 Jul 1946 George W Bush born, New Haven CT.
1968 Initiated into Skull and Bones.
1968 B.A. History, Yale University.
1975 MBA, Business Administration, Harvard.
4 Sep 1976 George W Bush is arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine for driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.10 percent. He pays the $150 fine and has his driving privileges suspended for two years. A Bush spokesman acknowledges this is Bush's third arrest, but does not elaborate further. However, a two year suspension of driving privileges indicates a previous DUI arrest, particularly as early as 1976 when drunk driving did not have great stigma it does now (and when even now, a first-arrest for DUI would only garner a 90 day driving suspension.) Years later, during Bush's 2000 campaign for President, a WPXT-TV reporter from Portland, Maine uncovers this arrest record just one week prior to election day. It is also revealed that Bush's V.P. candidate, Dick Cheney, had arrests for drunken driving in 1962 and 1963.
26 Jul 1977 Noelle Lucila Bush born, to Jeb and Columba Bush. She is the niece of George W Bush.
5 Nov 1977 George W. Bush and librarian Laura Welch marry, Midland TX.
25 Nov 1981 Twins, Barbara and Jenna, born.
Apr 1986 A very pissed-off George W Bush storms over to Wall Street Journal executive Washington editor Al Hunt at a Dallas restaurant, where Hunt is eating with his wife and their 4-year-old son. Bush shouts: "You fucking son of a bitch. I saw what you wrote. We're not going to forget this." Hunt's transgression was having predicted in the Wall Street Journal that Jack Kemp would win the 1988 Republican nomination instead of Vice President George HW Bush.
6 Jul 1986 George W Bush gives up alcohol on his 40th birthday. As he explains it later to friends, Laura had given him an ultimatum: "It's me or the bottle."
Sep 1999 In an interview in Talk magazine, presidential candidate George W Bush declares: "They think it's like a high school election, where if you beat up your opponent enough, you can win. They've lost their fucking minds."
Sep 1999 In an interview in Talk magazine, presidential candidate George W Bush declares: "I don't care. I really don't care. Does anyone ever say 'Fuck you'? I don't care if they do."
11 Jan 2000 George W Bush, making an indisputable statement of fact: "Rarely is the question asked: 'Is our children learning?'"
12 Mar 2000 George W Bush and his wife Laura are photographed with Sami Al-Arian, during a campaign stop at the Florida Strawberry Festival.
27 Apr 2000 Texas Governor George W. Bush discusses the Elian Gonzales case with Jim Lehrer.
LEHRER: Five days later, do you still feel the Justice Department did the wrong thing in reuniting Elian Gonzalez with his father?
BUSH: I do.
LEHRER: Why?
BUSH: Because the picture on the newspaper, it just seems so un-American to me. The picture of the guy storming the house with a scared little boy there... I talked to my little brother, Jeb -- I haven't told this to many people. But he's the governor of -- I shouldn't call him my little brother -- my brother, Jeb, the great governor of Texas...
LEHRER: Florida.
BUSH: Florida. The state of the Florida.
31 May 2000 An introspective George W Bush: "When I'm talking about -- when I'm talking about myself, and when he's talking about myself, all of us are talking about me."
Aug 2000 George W Bush: "I don't know whether I'm going to win or not. I think I am. I do know I'm ready for the job. And, if not, that's just the way it goes."
4 Sep 2000 During a campaign stop in Naperville, Illinois, Presidential candidate George W Bush turns to running mate Dick Cheney and says, "There's Adam Clymer, major league asshole from the New York Times." Cheney responds, "Oh yeah, he is, big-time." Unbeknownst to the men, their comments are transmitted clearly to the television news feed. Rather than offer a mea culpa to Clymer, Bush later issues this non-apology: "I regret that a private comment I made to the vice-presidential candidate made it onto the public airwaves. I regret everybody heard what I said."
29 Sep 2000 George W Bush: "I know the human being and the fish can coexist peacefully."
3 Oct 2000 George W Bush: "There's a huge trust. I see it all the time when people come up to me and say, 'I don't want you to let me down again.'"
4 Oct 2000 George W Bush: "I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier to answer questions. I can't answer your question."
18 Oct 2000 George W Bush: "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."
2 Nov 2000 "There's a report out tonight that 24-years ago I was apprehended in Kennebunkport, Maine, for a DUI. That's an accurate story. I'm not proud of that. I oftentimes said that years ago I made some mistakes. I occasionally drank too much and I did on that night. I was pulled over. I admitted to the policeman that I had been drinking. I paid a fine. And I regret that it happened. But it did. I've learned my lesson." Note that Bush, as Governor of Texas, subsequently signed zero tolerance drunk driving legislation, effectively prohibiting others from "learning their lesson" as he did.
Dec 2000 thefirsttwins.com launched.
18 Dec 2000 George W Bush, still waiting on the Florida recount: "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier... just so long as I'm the dictator."
17 Jun 2001 Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka returns to German Town High School in Philadelphia, where she studied for two years as a high school student. During a conversation with her former classmates, Tanaka gives her concise assessment of President George W Bush: "He is totally an asshole."
13 Jan 2002 While watching a football game on TV, President George W Bush chokes on a pretzel and briefly loses consciousness in his White House bedroom.
19 May 2002 "Do you have blacks too?" Question posed by Bush to Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Der Spiegel, also quoted in The New Republic on June 10.
Aug 2002 During an interview with journalist-author Bob Woodard, President George W Bush declares: "I loathe Kim Jong Il. I've got a visceral reaction to this guy, because he is starving his people. And I have seen intelligence of these prison camps -- they're huge -- that he uses to break up families and to torture people. It appalls me."
17 Sep 2002 George W Bush: "There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."
7 Oct 2002 "We need an energy bill that encourages consumption." The New Republic
27 Nov 2002 President George W Bush appoints Henry Kissinger to head the national commission investigating the World Trade Center attacks of 9-11. Kissinger is later forced to withdraw once it is realized exactly how much conflict of interest he has accumulated in the last several years of consultation work.
14 Oct 2003 According to a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer quoting an unnamed senior administration official, President George W Bush tells his senior aides that he "didn't want to see any stories" quoting unnamed administration officials.
13 Apr 2004 During his third press conference in three years, President George W Bush flounders when asked whether he has made any mistakes in office. "I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I can plan for it. Uh... [...] You know, I just, uh... I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't yet. I, uh... [...] I just haven't -- you just put me under the spot here, and -- maybe I'm not quick, as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one."
6 Aug 2004 Mark Trahant of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer inadvertently stumps President Bush at the 2004 conference of UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc.:
