Reply #49: Nixon said of her: 'Now there's a woman who knows how to hate.'

[Octafish]

Would that he was in Austin...

What Happens When George W. Bush Comes Home a Loser?

He's Coming Back

BY LOUIS DUBOSE
The Austin Chronicle
October 13, 2000:

Gore Vidal doesn't think much of the Bushes, which is no surprise. And according to Vidal, neither did Richard Nixon, who once observed that Bush the Elder was the "sort of person you appoint to office" rather than the sort of person you could envision in the White House. But Nixon admired Barbara Bush -- because "she knows how to hate."

In the lobby of the Canal Street Hotel where the Texas delegation was housed for the 1988 Republican National Convention, George W. was courting the Texas press corps. Easy and accessible, he locked on with those blue eyes, first-named reporters, and held forth in the hotel lobby for as long as anyone holding a tape recorder cared to stand and listen.

The only time he showed any sign of anger was when he was asked about then-Gov. Ann Richards' comment about his father being "born with a silver foot in his mouth." The blue eyes narrowed as he responded to the reporter who asked the question. "It was mean and uncalled-for," he said. "It didn't bother my dad. He's lived with 'Doonesbury,' so he's used to that. But it hurt my mother." Gov. Bush talks like his father, who was as prone to malapropisms and non sequiturs, but he thinks like his mother -- which is a way of saying that he believes grudges should be transgenerational and involve corruption of blood and children avenging the wrongs visited on their parents.

In 1988 in New Orleans, Bush wanted to get even. And that was just for a slight aimed at his father but felt most keenly by his mother. What if he loses the presidency? I think we all know what. If George W. Bush loses the election next month, he will come back to Austin looking to settle some scores -- Big Time. And anyone who thinks the Texas governorship is a weak office is going to learn a little something about the exercise of power by the master -- not George W. Bush, but his chief strategist Karl Rove.

They're keeping lists. Of every insult, no matter how small. Of every criticism, no matter how fair. Of every news clip. Of every joke, no matter how innocent. This reporter speaks from some experience concerning Rove and lists. In April of last year I was a panelist in Boulder, Colorado -- at the Conference on World Affairs, a wonderful liberal gabfest that longtime participant Roger Ebert refers to as "the leisure of the theory class." Having co-written with Molly Ivins a book on Bush, I was called upon to talk about Bush's record in Texas.

CONTINUED...

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2000-10-13/pols_feature8.html