ninme

This is added to my list of I Love Laura Bush posts.

Chicago Tribune - First Family of culture? By Robin Abcarian

Laura Bush’s love of reading befits her background as a former librarian and teacher. Presidential biographers have recounted that on her first visit to the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Maine, when her future mother-in-law asked what she did, Laura replied, “I read, I smoke, I admire.”

What a great line.

“My sense of her is that she reads and cares about literature,” Andersen said, “like many women in America who read novels and are married to men who don’t.”

Who does that remind me of?

A little more from before that, actually:

But, Johndroe said, “they are familiar with Jon Stewart and his comments about `Crossfire.”‘ (Last October, Stewart appeared on CNN’s bipartisan scream fest and told co-hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala their bickering was hurting America.) At least one of the Bushes approved of Stewart’s message: “Mrs. Bush shares some of the same sentiment that many of those shows on TV have become one side yelling at the other and the other yelling back,” Johndroe said, “and no one has any idea what they’re talking about.”

The Bushes watch first-run movies once or twice a week. They screened “Meet the Parents” for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, at Camp David. Recently, the Bushes watched the sequel, “Meet the Fockers,” as well as “The Phantom of the Opera” and “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” Laura Bush watched the French film “A Very Long Engagement.” Last summer, she invited the Afghan ambassador’s wife to the White House to see “Osama,” a feature film by Siddiq Barmak about women under the Taliban. …

By custom, the White House has boxes in three of the Kennedy Center’s seven theaters. Laura Bush often takes in performances of ballet, opera and theater. The president only occasionally attends. “It’s so much easier for her to get out of the house than him,” Johndroe said. “When he goes, it’s motorcycles, the military aide, the press pool.”

I’m surprised that there isn’t more coverage of their personal lives. Obviously that’s a good thing, but whenever anything is printed, everyone seems to lap it up. I guess that’s for the coffee table books when they’re out of office.