Former first lady Barbara Bush, who never backed down from saying what she believed, has died at the age of 92. Just a couple of days ago she refused any more medical treatment, preferring pallitive care instead.
Barbara had suffered from, among other things, COPD and congestive heart failure. She was married to former president George H.W. Bush for 73 years, which the link notes is the longest presidential marriage on record. He is now 93 and not in good shape himself.
Not that it was always smooth sailing for the pair. Rumors abounded about her husband having dalliances with other women, especially one Jennifer Fitzgerald, still alive (born in 1932), who was a close aide of his for many years. Journalist Joe Conason once wrote a long piece for the now-defunct Spy magazine detailing George I's lapses.
Barbara also witnessed the "election"--thanks to a 5-4 vote by the USSC--and dubious re-election of her son, black sheep George W. Bush. She enjoyed the distinction, along with Abigail Adams, of marrying one man who became president and being the mother of another one. (She was said to be descended from yet another president, Franklin Pierce.) She almost scored a double on the son front, but Jeff Zucker and Vladimir Putin made damned sure Jeb would never get the presidential nomination. There was and remains a lot of bad blood between eventual "victor," if Donald Trump can be called that, and the Bushes. Barbara couldn't stand him.
Back in the days when her husband was vice president, Barbara had a rumored strained relationship with First Lady Nancy Reagan. The Reagans kind of looked down on the Bushes, or at least Nancy was rumored to, despite the fact the Bushes were old money.
Conspiracy theorists love the Bush family, calling them the "Bush Crime Family" and comparing Barbara to Ma Barker.
From the link:
While first lady, from January 1989 to January 1993, Mrs. Bush generally refused to talk publicly about contentious issues, particularly when her opinion was said to differ from her husband’s.Fun fact:
“I’m not against it or for it,” she said of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1989. “I’m not talking about it. I want equal rights for women, men, everybody.”
There were rumors that she favored abortion rights, but she made it clear that she supported her husband and would not say whether she was comfortable with his anti-abortion stand.
She was vocal, however, in championing causes of her choosing. Literacy was one, and so was civil rights; she had been an early supporter of the movement.
See George H.W. and Barbara Bush's love story in photos https://t.co/PBfnkJVSou via @houstonchron— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 18, 2018
The embed cut off the best part of the quote "throw up."
Another fun fact: This post marks the 44,444th post I have made on this blog since I started it in December of 2002.
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