Dowd: I Read, I Smoke, I Spin (The New Laura)

[kskiska]

Laura Bush does not want that Chanel-wearing, shawl-draping, senator-marrying Teresa Heinz Kerry to get her house.

It's a swell house, with doting servants, fresh flowers and grand paintings.

And she does not want her Bushie to be tarred for lacking character, after he ascended by promising to restore character to an Oval Office still redolent of thongs and pizza.

So the reserved librarian who married the rollicking oilman on the condition that she would never have to make a political speech has suddenly transformed herself into a sharp-edged, tart-tongued, defensive protectrix of her husband's record.

Many White House reporters, including ones the first lady has been testy and sarcastic with, say they are thrilled with the new Laura. They found the old Laura "plastic" and "unreal," limited to treacly concerns about children, reading and being George's rock. The new Laura, they say, has "juice."

But I kind of miss the old Laura, the one who long ago shocked W.'s paternal grandmother by describing her interests in a way that sounded, heaven forfend, French: "I read, I smoke and I admire." The new Laura reads polls, fumes and admonishes. A cool Marian the Librarian morphed into a hot Mary Matalin, running around the country spinning reporters, slicing and dicing Democrats, and raking in dough at fund-raisers.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2004/02/22/opinion/22DOWD.html?hp

[MikeG]

1. When she gives W a BJ, I'll believe this.

[kaitykaity]

2. Maureen Dowd is a waste of newsprint.

This is the same kind of BS she spewed about "earth tones" and Wes Clark's sweater. Her writing makes me want to poke my eyes out with burning toothpicks.

[Carni]

3. Laura smokes?

Why haven't we heard this before? And they bitch about Jackie O's smoking off camera? At least that was 40 years ago!

[kskiska]

5. Her smoking is pretty much out there

Reporters with the Smirk campaign say she used to bum cigarettes off them. She's mentioned it on occasion, but doesn't like to advertise it. Actually, both of them smoked and drank back in their party days, but * switched to chewing tobacco. He still chews (and spits). I've read where back in his baseball team days he kept a styrofoam cup handy to spit in.

[aquart]

7. You can get a really terrible cancer that way.

How awful.

[peekaloo]

4. "sharp-edged, tart-tongued, defensive protectrix ........"

Huh?

[cosmicdot]

6. "A Charge to Keep" - thought she was going to be stepford?

and, bake cookies ... or, was that a rumor?


from Laura's speech to the 2000 convention:

"A charge to keep."

To quote the hymn that inspired his book, he believes we all have "a charge to keep," a responsibility to use our different gifts to serve a cause greater than self.

The President of the United States of America is MORE than a man or a woman, as I hope the case will sometime be. The President is the most visible symbol of our country, of its heart and its values and its leadership in the world. And when Americans vote this November, they will be looking for someone to uphold that high honor and that trust.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/election2000/gopconvention/laura_bush.html

Mrs. Bush said her husband would strengthen the Head Start program, the federal program that provides low-income children with early childhood education -- a cause the former teacher and librarian said she would champion as first lady. She added that the Texas governor would also push for a $5 billion initiative to make sure all children could read at their designated grade level by third grade.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/07/31/laurabush.speech/

[The Zanti Regent]

8. Whoreen still covers up for Killer Pickles

Hmmm, not a word of that incident where Pickles killed her boyfriend and got off scot free. I wonder why???????

[tabasco]

9. "Rollicking oilman." How cute.

Murderous coward is more like it. Restore character to the White House? Did Hillary ever kill anybody? Laura did. This Dowd witch will be in the docks with the rest of the fascist traitors.

[shrike]

10. Bite me, Maureen

So Pickles is "classy" because she sits in a sunroom and pets a cat? And a First Lady who leads an (albeit failed) effort to get us decent health care isn't?