Bush says he's not considering scaling back $300 million library

[douglas9]

WASHINGTON – Undeterred by a battered public image and a recession that might dampen fundraising for his library, President George W. Bush said Thursday that he hasn't considered scaling back the multimillion-dollar project at SMU.

"I don't think popularity ratings have anything to do with whether people want to support a good idea," he said.

Bush also repeated his opposition to identifying all donors to his library. He said he was aware the U.S. House approved a measure Wednesday requiring presidential foundations to disclose the names of such supporters. That bill would apply only to Barack Obama and future presidents.

"A lot of donors give to organizations, whether it be this library or anything else, and don't want their names out," he said. "They feel comfortable being anonymous in their giving. ... I want to honor the desires of the donors."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stories/010908dnmetbushlibrary.15b1bcf.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I hope they were expecting a multimillion dollar donation by Bernard Madoff.

[WolverineDG]

10. I hope they already spent it nt

[thewiseguy]

2. So are they going to have books in his library?

[stillcool]

3. skeletal remains would be more apporpriate

[Hangingon]

8. Books in a Presidential Library...

Every time a Presidential Library is mentioned - be it FDR forward to W - a comment on the books to be placed ther is made. It has become a knee jerk response. People really should find out what a Presidential Library is. The book comment is stale folks.

[gratuitous]

4. According to the story, they've raised $3 million so far

:rofl:

Yeah, just another $297 million to go! I hope Commander Bunnypants isn't too shocked when he discovers that his fund-raising prowess vanished at the exact moment his presidency and prospects for doing favors for donors did.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

9. 300 million from kickbacks on 700 billion he delivered to his supporters, the Wall St. mafiosa.

[gratuitous]

13. Maybe

But once Bunnypants is no longer in a position to deliver the goodies, I'm thinking that his war profiteer pals are going to snap the change purse closed. Besides, as it turns out, a lot of them are losing fortunes thanks to the downturn in Bush's economy. They may be more interested in shoring up their own economic houses than in building a useless monument to Bush's ego.

Maybe the House of Saud and the bin Laden family can be persuaded to pony up? That would be a very good reason for Dubya to want to keep the donor list another of his little secrets.

[Democrats_win]

5. Bush, haven't you created enough empty buildings?

Perhaps we could outsource your "library" to India.

[rfranklin]

6. Why is he ashamed of his benefactors?

And why are they ashamed to associate with him?

[damntexdem]

7. Good: the more unlikely that the goal will be meant, ...

the less likely that the library will be done soon.

[LaPera]

11. Every Bush's war for profit corporations will be pressured to make huge donations!

[Orsino]

12. Hundreds of millions for a Bush library?

Yeah, I'd want to be anonymous, too.

It's not going to happen, though--not for many, many years. A few million is all he'll get in the meantime, with every month out of office making him less relevant.