Find column. Cool relationship.
7
Bravo for a wonderful column, Maureen, full of anecdotes by turns heartfelt, historical, insightful, and humorous. And similarly filled with so many "perverse buzzing little demons" of language. I especially enjoyed the ambiguous use of the LeCarre-themed term of "wet work" .
11
I hope we see a lot more of this Maureen Dowd.
Real history explains the complexity of the world in its most complex times. Bush world has ruled from the beginning of time but we survive we will need some of the wisdom in surviving from the Dowd World. One day America may learn the truth of the Irish starvation and the abundance in a land of starvation.
11
I loved everything about this column. A perfect piece!
17
Thinking this weekend after Bush's death I am glad he parachuted out of airplanes when he was up there in age. I wouldn't do it but I think he was smart to do it. By doing it he also encouraged older people to do what they had not thought of before. He gets my vote as he was a dog person.
12
Simply splendid!!!
I envy your friendship with was probably the last true "gentleman" in American politics.
23
What words will 45’s eulogistic column consist of ? Will we tear up remembering the soaring rhetoric , his kindness and altruism ? Will we long for the Trump days of love and harmony ?
10
HW Bush looks like a saint compared to Trump. Anyone would. And while I appreciate Dowd’s rather lengthy skip down memory lane with HW, except for his military bravery, it’s not his human side he is going to be remembered for.
I don’t get a lot of relief from Trump’s boot on my neck from reminiscing about HW’s Kennebunkport golf course antics. What I’ll remember is that HW Bush was very much part of a presidential trend – Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and a feckless Obama – that got us to Trump’s boot. Trump didn’t just magically appear. And I think it is good to learn the lessons of hindsight.
HW is a reminder of what you get when you let aristocrats run the show. People marinated in vast wealth don’t have a clue how the rest of us live and what we need. Did HW ever have to work two or three jobs or have to schlep his resume around? No, because his father sat on the board of directors. HW was a wealthy white man with ALL of the privileges. “’You just know a guy with a name like Prescott Bush is not driving a bus.’”
What did HW do with all his privilege? He was a self-deluding conservative who thought that good intentions (“a kinder gentler nation”) could make up for policies that hurt people who lived in a different universe from his. Listen to his 1989 inaugural speech which was a gushing paean to conservative values and the inability of government to solve our problems. Let the Thousand Points of Light organization do it he claimed. Easy for an aristocrat to say.
31
There are plenty of things I did not like about GHW Bush. There were things I did (Americans with Disabilities Act). And Maureen’s were her personal reflections in their having found an improbable way to work beyond their obvious differences. We truly must look for the things we agree with and work from there if we are able to get ourselves out of the morass we are in. And therein lies the rub. For I have yet to find a single thing likable or agreeable about Trump. Or McConnell either. Sigh.
31
A lovely piece that does you both justice. I remember Georeg H. W. recounting how he made the decision to run - asking himself, "where do I start" - and landing on his family and friends. How charming and delightful the relationship between this decent man, and you, this excellent journalist. How truly and regrettably far we have fallen in our choice of a president.
23
Really lovely. Thank you.
18
I could never forget how cold President Bush was in the midst of the AIDS epidemic. Not sure how the workings of his administration and NIH funding went, but he certainly exhibited a blame the victim mentality about the disease and especially toward gay people struggling with it during a very, very dark time of the epidemic. He was imperfect in other arenas too but I especially remember his tenor on AIDS. That noted, he clearly was the best Republican president in my lifetime, hands down.
22
The story gave more insight regarding Ms. Dowd than the president. I was left feeling that the author was most concerned with letting people know that the president liked her. Made me realize how much I just think of the Ms. Dowd as a "mean girl" with a great vocabulary.
40
What a wonderfully self-indulgent mash note. Always lovely to witness white women giving their hard-earned power away to white men! Dowd’s encomium is in direct dialogue with Gayle Danley’s tour de force poem, “Funeral Like Nixon’s”:
“I just want to die like a white man
Sinless, blameless, timeless, and softly.”
Amen.
33
“My boy, Quincy”! I laughed out loud at that and so much more in this marvelous piece. Trickiest of all, in your relationship as in the story, you struck just the right balance - appreciating the eccentricities while still calling the balls and strikes. That’s good sportsmanship and great journalism. I’m sorry for your loss but happy you shared it with all of us.
26
Two humans who disagree on some fundamental issues and come from different worlds but who still find a way to work together and also to deeply respect and care for each other. That defines — or should — all of civilized humanity. Thank you so much for that beautifully drawn portrait of your friendship with the late President, Maureen. Very much needed right now.
27
As a child of "the greatest generation", I mourn their passing. To me, their suffering and survival through years of economic depression and horrific war had clarified their focus on working together toward building a strong, free, powerful, prosperous country for the majority of us. Yes, they had their failings and flaws, but the country that elected JFK was positive and optimistic enough to literally support a real moonshot. For people like HW, anything was possible if we all worked together to make it happen. Now that he and his generation have passed, cynicism and self-interest are the dominant expressions of the day.
16
I had no idea you had such a long friendship with him. Lovely article.
" Heck with politics. Heck with the NYT and all my hang ups about”
Boy, we could sure use a good dose of that in Washington right about now...
15
I learned more about George H. W. Bush from this column than anything I ever read during his presidency. "Ants on a hot pan" is good.
12
Beautifully written piece, Maureen. May we all remember the importance of forging friendships or working relationships with people who come from very different backgrounds and hold different political views. I love his personal notes with pithy, WASPy humor. He knew who he was and where he came from, and embraced it.
19
I did not vote for President Bush but do admire his service to our nation. He was a loyal decent man who tried to bring out the best in everyone. Maureen Down has captured his charm, humor, and grace. God bless him.
23
I think that a better literary reference might be Joe Chapin in O'Hara's "Ten North Frederick." Of course George Bush was a successful politician, but he may indeed be "the last gentleman."
At least this might be true in our need to make such characterizations. It was a role he designed for himself and lived by it.
Thank you, Maureen Dowd. One of my friends who learned of H.W.'s death before I did, called me and said, "One of your favorite Republicans of all time has passed away." She was right. Willie Horton and Clarence Thomas notwithstanding, I always perceived George Herbert Walker Bush to be a fundamentally decent human being, though I was clueless about his wicked humor. This remembrance confirms my assessment. Readers are in your debt.
13
Such a wonderful insightful sharing. So precious to have an inside view of the reality of the man. Thank you for such a personal sharing.
5
What a lovely article. Thank you Maureen, and I'm sorry for your (our) loss.
6
This beautifully-written column has made me laugh, cry, and think about Bush 41 in ways I never had. It's also a find insight to the quality of friendships that Ms. Dowd must cultivate. I wish I could have known George H.W. Bush, or at least have seen more of his ethical, personable, funny side. I wish I could converse with Maureen Dowd now.
Maureen, thank you for a lovely tribute and for insights into Bush that most of us could never have had.
9
Thank you for the beautiful tribute. There is hope after all for all of us who disagree politically with each other. A little humanity, and humor go a long way!
10
In 1988, I lived in Canada. I am sorry, but what I remember about the American election that year is Ann Richard's "silver foot in the mouth" speech. That classy wit proved not effective enough to defeat the GOP machine then. Now ironically, a simpler, two word "low energy" insult from within the party seems to have damaged a princeling for good! Perhaps it comes easy to so many privileged white men to leave behind a legacy of good personal manners and bad global outcomes for the world. Trump's legacy (while I am not a fan) will only be half that.
5
Pedestals and hyperbole are frequently in abundance when a dignitary passes away. Some truly deserving of such pass away without notice. We can always find fault with those whose politics we oppose. Even those we like. But whatever you feel about 41, he deserves respect for his WW2 service for which he nearly gave his life. It was the last war where the world's future was at stake and depended on the sacrifice of everyone regardless of background.
Maureen Dowd is an incredible writer who pointed out the "humanity" in the man despite imperfections and privilege. She demonstrated that you could have a mutually respectful relationship with a man who you opposed politically. You could be honest with each other and still find a connections. This is the beauty of her story, her writing and what we are so missing today!
19
You are the best writer in the business. Period.
4
He was famous for favoring "goofy" socks, but apparently also fancied himself as a self styled preppy comic wildman.
Interesting. You have to have at least a little bit of soul if you want to try to make people laugh, especially at your own expense. Although I suppose even that could be construed more as an elite "humble brag" than a stab at honest humility.
When you are born into a life of privilege like GHWB, you really have to make a heroic effort to screw things up.
At least he didn't take that route, unlike his son.
I don't know that this piece changes in a seismic way what I had come to believe about him. But on balance, he passed the test.
6
Now I am terribly disappointed that I did not read Maureen Dowd back then. I learned so much today from just one essay.
6
"The evil that men do live after them, the good oft interred with their bones." Hmm? What "evil" lives afterwards here? A broken Middle East? A racist inflected Republican Party? Broken covenants. Yes, a eulogy. But a paean? Yes, we acknowledge the decency, but cannot forget the errors either. "Let us now praise famous men." Sure, a bit, but not too much . . .
7
I wasn't yet voting age when HW was in office, but this piece brings tears to eyes. Thank you, Maureen.
5
While I often cringe at eulogies that are so over the top, in this day and age, I really do appreciate an effort to appreciate the nuances of another human being, even if I always disagreed with his politics.
7
So very sweet. Thanks for sharing his kindness.
7
What a class act. Both of them. Thank you Ms Dowd. Sorry for the loss of a worthwhile friend. Sorry for us that we lost a person of class, distinction and caring. He saw in you what we all see when we read your columns, great intelligence and great humor. Again thank you for really showing me what a human this man was.
7
George Herbert Walker Bush wasn’t perfect. How many of us are? No one. Maureen, thanks so much for sharing your rich, long relationship with poppy. I laughed and I cried as I read your wonderful detailed, loving memoir. Goodness knows we all need to hear about complex nuanced relationships more often. Best regards, Jonathan
7
Thank you, Maureen, for this wonderful, touching tribute. GHWB was a class act all the days of his life - intelligent, funny, & humble.
6
The most heart felt tribute to GW Bush I’ve read or heard. A classy journalist that does her job with decency and dignity for a great self sacrificing man. Wish we had more like G W Bush....and Maureen Dowd. Love the both.
3
In 1989 a military coup in Panama had captured Manuel Noriega. The White House was told they could have him with no struggle but the U.S. needed to hurry. Legend has it the White House didn't want him at that moment. Perhaps because they had an invasion planned and needed to try out some new weapons? The U.S did invade a few weeks later and arrested Noriega and brought him to Florida. But those rebel officers were killed and a few thousand people died during the invasion.
I could never forgive him for that. Or Tienanmen Square.
Funny though, he was the least corrupt republican president since Eisenhower. I guess that is something.
11
I'm neither a USA citizen, nor a big fan of the Bushes, but getting teary eyed reading MD's story.
The almost tears also indicate how deeply sad I am with the current president.
9
Good, heart-warming article, but I could have lived without the kick-in-the-shins reference to the Clintons. Maureen, are you ever going to let them go? They are so yesterday's news!
5
Maureen, this column is some of your best work. Kudos!
5
Sad how a journalist in awe of Patrician power can so easily forgive the shortcomings of a family which cost the lives of thousands of American and allied soldiers in wars ineptly strategized (Kuwait) and, worse, created from whole cloth (Iraq). It sickens one's soul. The Bushes retain this legacy. The writer marvels at the most mundane Bush behavior. Did he really clean himself after using the bathroom? Why yes, he did!
10
Upon further reflection:
GHWB is more than Willie Horton, Iran-Contra, and Clarence Thomas.
Upon further reflection:
He is the best President with the name Walker.
Period.
Upon further reflection:
He is the best one term President,
elected on a Tuesday,
with the name Herbert.
Period.
Ob la dee ob la da......
4
We need to get back to electing good people that are ideologically compromised. H.W. never took any ridiculous pledge never to raise taxes. He did take a pledge to what was best for the country, and he stuck by his word.
2
Actually, he DID say "Read my lips. No new taxes." during the presidential campaign. When he turned around and raised taxes anyway, I was young and callow enough to see it as a broken promise. (I thought the same thing about his about-face on abortion rights, and have not changed my mind.) Now I can appreciate his change of heart (on taxes) more: it was a promise he should never have made, but he was willing to do the hard thing and break it when he saw the error of his ways.
7
I was referring to the Grover Norquist pledge that every Republican has to take in order to properly show their fealty to the Republican Party.
1
I liked G.H.W. Bush and met him once or twice in the early days, flew on his campaign plane as a reporter. But we should note this, too: the only office he ever got elected to completely on his own powers was congressman from a rather tony, rich section of Houston. He lost two races for the Senate from Texas. He was appointed to head the Republican National Committee by Nixon. Appointed ambassador to China. Appointed to head the CIA. He was selected by Reagan to be his vice-president after Bob Dole told Reagan on live television, "Stop lying about my record." So, he won the presidency following Reagan with the assistance of some very dirty tactics like the Willie Horton commercial put out by his hangers-on.
Richard Nixon gave us Bush the First which, a bit later, was followed by Bush the Second. Nixon's hand, in fact, was in every presidential race through Obama/McCain.
Not saying that he was not a good guy socially, thoughtful, considerate and able to parry with those who occasionally opposed him, as vividly detailed in this remembrance.
His career our memory of him comes from the era, which yet lives on, when the sons of the wealthy attached the names of elite schools to their resumes and then went on to big deal leadership positions. It is not unlike the lingering class system in England where birth is everything, actual accomplishment, secondary. Why don't we ever even talk about these things? Despite our national beliefs, class is an ongoing part of the American story
10
@Doug Terry Lest anyone question the thrust of my comment above, Bush the First was also a good guy, worthy person who served his country well as a WW II airman and in many other things he did. Many son and some daughters of wealthy parents live lives of indirection, misdirection and selfishness, but no one would ever say that about G.H.W. Bush. He did remarkable things on a personal basis, like jumping out of aircraft in tandem jumps at a very advanced age. From everything I know and have read, he led a remarkable life, but I also believe that the first step of miswriting history is the mythologize someone at the time of their passing. History and our knowledge of it should be suitably harsh so that we can plan for our future.
6
Ms. Dowd:
Thank you for this remembrance of President George H. W. Bush it was quite moving.
Your description of President Bush is a nice confirmation of my personal assessment of the man. He is in fact the last l Republican Presidential candidate I feel unalloyed satisfaction to have supported and voted for. We will not see his like again.
The Republican Party he lead is unfortunately dead and gone for ever.
3
Says a lot of character, upbringing and position. One day we may have another such gentle person. They are out there! Thank you M.D. for sharing the details of this unlikely friendship.
2
That was a fabulous elegy. Thank you for sharing your memories.
I often disagreed with President Bush when he was in office but I never thought that he was anything other than a kind and decent man. Thank you for confirming my suspicions.
5
Maureen did her best work during the Bush 41 administration and it's all been downhill since then. This column makes it sound a lot like the plot of an Austen novel. I wonder, however, if Austen would have at least mentioned the Weinberger pardon -- maybe not, since Austen never really mentioned Napoleon.
I've been wondering if the Bush/Weinberger pardon was just too much like the possible Trump/Manafort pardon, even for Maureen.
9
Thank you Maureen for a delightful reveal of a powerful man's affection for you. One can but cringe at the thought of how such affection would play out in the little hands of our current powerful man.
5
In Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes depicted two kinds of servants - those who admired the family, valued their proximity and aspired to be like them, and those who were not content to have been assigned the role of supporting cast at birth and never could forget that any generosity their bosses displayed, any kindness they showed, was always theirs to confer or deny. Fellowes was a conservative, so it was not surprising which group he portrayed most appealingly.
It would appear that Maureen, like her family, is in the first group. She's endlessly fascinated by elites - those to the manor born, or those with the looks and style who move in their circles. She's a sucker for charm and manners. She's not nearly as offended by the sense of entitlement that can come with great wealth, and the mendacity of wealthy people who resent paying taxes on inheritances, as she is by the "upstarts" who aspire to be elites, but lack the good breeding or panache. Hillary Clinton has failed feminism for not siding with the women who cheated with her husband on her. Melania Trump, whose inner thoughts remain opaque, but who married a crass, cheating, liar and bully, presumably for his money, was some kind of sly heroine for wearing a pussy bow blouse.
Russell Baker was always wary of those who struck up friendships with those they reported on. He too came from humble roots, but never aspired to be like the people he covered.
16
Thank you, Maureen. What an incredibly beautiful, intimate obituary of your friend H.W. Will never forget the image of you on the golf tee, with H.W. having “spiritually” transported you to Sri Lanka!
Nansie Jubitz
Portland, OR
3
This piece made me feel sick to my stomach.
15
@Paul Edwards
So I am not the only one who felt this way! I thought it was too intimate and reeked of the writer’s vanity about her access. Honestly it gave me the creeps. I think I am done reading Ms. Dodd’s columns. Always a negative aftertaste.
11
Thank you Maureen for a great remembrance of a President who became your friend.
As a flaming lefty it is hard for me to be looking back fondly at a President I used to disparage. Thank you for revealing his humanity. Although he helped to usher in the the mean spirited, racist, and know nothing republican party of today he also was a hero of WW2 and I will always respect his service to our democracy.
7
Turns out he too had a thing for red heads but could never quite blurt it out on account of his patrician upbringing. Maureen Dowd has managed to leverage such fascination throughout her brilliant career thanks to an uncommon gift of the written gab,a reincarnate female Joyce of American journalism, endowed with the wits of the Jonathan Swift of "how to accommodate children".
Curiously this piece does not make 41 seem more gentle or human ,instead gives us mere mortals a sense of how intrusive the modern media can get in order to feed us our daily fodder of helter skelter bits.
Naturally we all love the passing digs at 45, if I may speak ever so briefly on behalf of all Maureen Dowd fans,and for this gift, we remain forever loyal readers.
4
Your observations about ‘41 were the first thing Or time I noticed your writing .... it was story about his dinner table behavior during a trip to South America.... I can remember thinking- ‘wow this gal can write, She’s both funny and perceptive’ ... guess you had a lock on him from the start. After that I always looked for your byline and have never been disappointed .... you’re still my favorite with Matt Tiabbi a distant second.
3
Great reverie on GHWB. My only complaint is that you had to, couldn't resist, mentioning "he who shall remain nameless" just when I thought we could get through one story without invoking that moron. But then here I go doing exactly that, a Schroedinger's cat moment.
In all seriousness, this is a very moving set of vignettes about a man, whether you agree with his politics and policies or not, was the very epitome of service to one's country in a life dedicated to doing the good decent thing.
3
The Bush family is just nice people. Nothing wrong with liking them.
4
That has to be one of the most delightful articles I have ever read by you. Thanks.
3
"In 2006, 43 made a rare trip to Kennebunkport one weekend for a wedding, a christening and a funeral, and I went with the press corps. I was surprised when Karl Rove called me to tell me he was involved in a cloak-and-dagger plot with Bush senior, who wanted to meet me for coffee but didn’t want his son to find out because it would irritate him.
I loved the idea of one president with a Secret Service detail sneaking around behind the back of another president with a Secret Service detail, when they were both staying in the same family compound in the small Maine town."
I read your column last night - how could it be passed up when it's mentioned by Kasey Hunt after 8:00 on Sunday night? The one story I copied above was worth the read in and of itself.
I know you'll miss him. I already do as well.
2
How I wish I could add my respect and tribute at the passing of this president. Unfortunately, I know too much about the sources of his family's wealth, and the man himself. That he was charming and mischievous I have no doubt; that Ms. Dowd had a special relationship with him is obvious too. But to gloss over, or completely omit the darkest parts of Bush's history denies us the full truth of who he was. It will take someone who wasn't his friend for years to provide us with that.
7
Thanks, I needed that ... been a tough couple years!
1
Thank you Maureen for sharing this beautiful touching story.
2
Patrician? Yes they are. But the thousands of dead soldiers left in their wake were not. I remember them. And still we're in Iraq and Afghanistan spending young blood.
9
You left out Panama City.
3
I thought (and still think) that H.W. was not a good president at all. But he could laugh at himself, an essential part of maturity. Bill Clinton could laugh at himself. Ronald Reagan could laugh at himself, and Barack Obama can laugh at himself as well.
Enough said.
8
Two white male presidents, each born with a silver spoon and servants to polish it. Each Republican (though one had to hijack the party to claim the title.)
One of them read books, honored his wife, served his nation in combat, knew how to be kind and tolerant, knew the meaning of sacrifice for others, and did what he believed was right for the United States.
4
There are few better things one man can say about another than, "He's a good guy." GHWB was a good guy.
1
A great deal is being given to Mr. Bush saying, "Read my lips, No More Taxes" as the reason for his losing his reelection. As a life long Democrat, I could never even think of voting for him after his selection of Dan Quayle to be his VP. Mr. Quayle was the male version of Mrs. Palin and an equal kiss of death. He squeaked by in getting elected, but not twice.
10
Two columns that are touching and revealing--this and the one about how politics drives a wedge in the Dowd family. Both are excellent. Are you becoming introspective? Glad you had such a playful relationship with GHW Bush; I am sure this column helps losing a good friend.
2
A beautifully sweet story about an unique reporter-president relationship. But we can't let H.W.'s passing blind us to Willie-Horton GOP tactics that lead straight to Trump's ascension. Yes, the same 38% of racists and sexists who support Trump also supported Reagan, 41, and 43. And Reagan, 41, and 43 used dog whistle comments to keep them happy. 41 never once stood up to the deplorables who find a home in the GOP. And we need to never forget that that's why we find ourselves in Trumpland.
7
HW gives us yet more reason to be crazy over our current lot.
While I seldom agreed with HW's politics or policies, I never had the sense that he was an existential danger to our nation.
Today, that assuredness is evaporated.
2
I hate to bust the ballooon, but Ms Dowd here exposes one of the prime problems of reporters and their often very close relations
with powerful people.
To Ms. Dowd or others with similar entree', such invitations to to interact "en famille" with Presidents, is merely the deserved reward for a life of hard work and late nights on campus, in air conditioned libraries, while sitting in all the cushy furniture.
Getting the plum job at the Grey Lady, they are, almost, as if by magic, set up in a position at the White House, having the needed qualities-able to write and also being pleasing to talk to, unlike so many of their male counterparts.
I don't accuse Ms. Dowd of anything , but merely point out the problems which may eventuate simply from being too close to, to get a proper fix on their subjects. No one is to blame-LBJ had a similar relationship with a young writer-Doris Kearns- not everyone, however, is able to get so close to the source of power and light without being burned or bedazzled, permanently, by the encounter. Many people have their views permanently bent or twisted by the close relationship to a powerful person or leader.
9
Thank you for this column, Maureen. It is the most deeply self- revealing one I believe you have ever written. Your affectionate reverence for 41 and your degrees of contempt for 42 through 45 tell us all we need to know about you.
I feel I know and understand how you think and what makes you tick more than I ever did. I am sorry for what is clearly a profound loss for you. Obama a figure of existential estrangement though? Hardly.
1
I remember President Bush's words about a "kinder, gentler nation". I remember watching his inaugural parade and thinking "I like this guy". I'm a liberal Dem so had major issues with policies. But I always thought of him as a good, decent guy. Great column Maureen.
2
What a touching essay. How did we get here from there?
I remember HW Bush lamenting that he just didn’t “get that vision thing” when he was talking about Bill Clinton. But it sounds like he had it all along. He just didn’t know how to let himself express it.
Maybe we should reflect on HW Bush when we despair about Trump. Somehow, we got from Nixon to HW Bush. Maybe someday, somehow, we will get from Trump to somebody with honesty, decency and character.
4
What a beautiful story of viewpoints, careers, conflict, humor and understanding. I love how your relationship was at once professional and so human and forgiving. Agree or not...You appreciated each other as people.
2
Can't say enough good things about today's column Ms. Dowd. Your heart along with 41s our in the right place. 1000 Points of light, I will never forget that speech.
3
Beautiful article. How nice you had such a wonderful relationship the him. My condolence to you for losing a dear friend.
3
Love it! Wonderful memories!
4
Thank you for your kind remembrance. My personal experience is similar. In 1984, I worked for Walter Mondale's campaign against Reagan-Bush, but was also friendly with the Vice-president's third son, Neil, who had a half-dozen of his friends from Denver to dinner at the VP's home in Washington, where Mrs. Bush served us a lovely dinner, presided over by the Vice President. The first question asked was "who is the Democrat working for Fritz?" Mrs. B was fairly blunt about what that made me, but the Vice-president challenged his wife, saying, more or less, 'how can you blame someone for liking Fritz and Joan? They are lovely people, and don't forget how gracious they were to us moving in four years ago?" This was in the middle of a presidential campaign! Several years later, we met again, and without missing a beat, he started the conversation with 'has your thinking evolved since we last met?' demonstrating both that he remembered our previous dinner and engaging with the warmth and grace for which he is so justly famous. President Bush - we miss you and send you best wishes on your continuing journeys.
4
Wonderful article, Maureen. Thanks for your memories. I hardly ever agreed with either President Bush, but I never thought of them as bad people. They were likeable if not great.
3
One of the top personal stories about #41, and the idea - now lost - that respect can and should survive disagreement. Thank you!
5
I love Maureen Dowd. Thank you for another great read . Your column is the first thing I look for in the NYT and they are always outstanding. Even if I do not agree with you the writing and insight are terrific. Thanks!
1
Simply the best first person obituary ever written. Congrats Ms Dowd on a brilliant piece of writing and the long term courage to live it.
4
dear Maureen, you could not have written a nicer obituary. he was a decent man, with all the human foibles, but at least he was decent.
5
Interesting that Maureen, a master gossip columnist, fails to mention Prescott's (and the Bush family fortune's) ties to businesses that financed the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany.
5
Maureen, you should have reminded him of Prescott's business dealings with and support of Hitler and Nazi Germany.
6
ctics like the Willie Horton ad I believe affected him deeply, and due to his highly developed character never really got over the soiling of your good name and reputation that it so often takes to win elections.
Never mind that the old white men with not half the moral compass of the fall of the GOP did not want to relinquish power unless you pried it out of their cold dead hands. Say what you will oral sex in the Oval Office is not an impeachable offense.
This is what we the young people of Woodstock felt when old patricians like 41 piously intoned ton the floor of the senate and house the "rule of law" and not sexual prudery for the attempt to impeach. it was that he lied about it. Under oath. One has to pause for a moment to get over being stunned about the impeachment for a sexual fib by the party that supports the biggest liar we've ever seen in our life time flying under the GOP flag. 41 is transcendent, but his party has degenerated into a naked lust for power and control, all moral values be damned.
43 had the good grace of a fine upbringing and a wonderful wife to take the forgiveness of Obama to not be brought to a show trial for war crimes to become a private citizen, a reader and a painter. He has grown enormously as a person since he left office. If only we could have had the man he is now as our president. He has taken the mercy he was given and done a quiet, private repentance that is truly remarkable. I'd say he's reborn. Homage to his father.
2
A sentimental read. But one thing I have been scratching my head at is it seems that none of GHWB's children were at his bedside when he passed. The reports of W being on speaker telling his dad he loves him is just bizarre
4
I actually feel a bit sorry now for Trump, having to pretend that he really liked and respected Bush, while knowing all-the-while that there isn’t a single person in the world with a brain in his head who truly believes this.
1
It's beginning to sound like Christmas. See: Jesus in the manger with the donkey tales; Which one of you wise men has change for $1,000? {Grover Cleveland adorned it}
1
Thank you for this.
3
Beautiful article.
3
Still mad at you on Hillary's behalf, but thanks for this.
1
Then.. Bertie Wooster was a hail fellow well met at the Drones Club. Oh, my goodness! Is that Honoria Glossop on his arm?
1
All the hagiography reminds me: "It's a big club, and you ain't in it".
5
Maureen loves the Bushies because the old Bush invited her once to get on the Air Force One. Maureen hates the Clintons and the Obama's because they shun her. No matter the fact that the Bush father and son took us to wars twice and we are still entangled in the mess. NYtime provide a space (and not to mention her high salary) for Maureen to spew her venom to good presidents and heaps her glowing praises to war mongers, all for what? A pithy kindness expressed by a war president? Not good Maureen and not good NYT.
17
This essay is an absolute delight to read for its insights into Bush 41, yes, but more for its elegance of language, wit and lyricism. In our world of truncated language and often incoherent expression, what a pleasure to read an essay that informs......and pleases the ear!
8
While so many people are happy to pretend that George Bush Sr was such a nice guy and so much better than the current occupant of the White House, another white-washing of his history does this country a grave disservice. Dowd dismisses his racist, anti-American and even criminal bahavior in one fact-limited paragraph then moves on with her interpretation of his obviously carefully constructed public persona, so at odds with his actions in the numerous jobs he held inside the beltway, as showing what a nice guy he was.
Out here in the real world, we remember that Bush was a part of the high crimes committed by the Reagan regime. We remember that he pardoned manynof his fellow criminals to headmoff any trials at which they might disclose Bush’s involvement in Iran-Contra. We remember that he promised “no new taxes” to get elected, even though he himself admitted that he would have to raise taxes. We understand that his fake sanctions on China in the aftermath of the Tienanmin Square massacre were a cover for his actual anti-democracy belifs and pro Bush family business interests.
George HW Bush was not a nice man, he was a calculating and manipulative man. That he was more sophisticated in his language and cultivation of his public persona than Trump does nothing to erase his underlying sins.
15
Bravo MoDo. George Bush will be happy in his transition to "another life", that you're finally "serving [him] his vodka martini, made to perfection with a splash of dry vermouth, two olives and a cocktail onion."
He was basically a simple, plain spoken man without a grandiose vision of himself.
He would not have wished to be honored in the manner accorded to J.F.K. with empty boots reversed in the stirrups of the saddle on a riderless horse.
What we really need to do to do him justice at this time is find some men and women who resemble him and place them in powerful positions in government where they are presently lacking.
2
He wasn't perfect and certainly more complex than what the obits portray. But he and Obama -- on opposite of the political spectrum -- were the last of the "patrician" style statesmen who you believed actually wanted to do the right thing for the country...even if you disagreed with them on what was right.
3
Maureen
Of late, I have not liked your columns. But you have redeemed yourself with this one. A sweet and touching tribute.
2
Interesting that the Bushes placed their love for their son above the good of the country, vis a vis the Iraq War.
3
Well, Maureen Dowd, you brought me to tears. I knew that GHWB was a fundamentally decent man, but you brought forth a so much more rounded portrait of “The Last Gentleman.”
Thank you.
4
Willie Horton. ‘Nuff said.
10
I could read this a hundred times!
1
Thank you Ms. Dowd. I believe you are the only person who could humanize 41 for me.
1
Full disclosure: I had stopped reading Ms. Dowd a couple of years ago. “snarky” for the sake of snarkiness seemed to have triumphed over good solid writing. But this morning’s column was a delight. I read it because, even though I didn’t share his politics I have come to hold 41 with deep respect as a patriot and a big, fat mensch. Maureen’s words only solidified my regard. Bush was partially responsible for my skydiving for the first time on my 60th birthday and when I do it again on my 70th, 80th and 90th it will be with him in my thoughts.
4
Wow, well done!
As commenter @PaulRothstein writes, you are surely & respectfully Piercing Ms. Dowd. Like 41, I too have a crush. My friends know you’re my favorite writer, it’s on my twitter @joemorguess profile. Thank you for this revealing piece on 41, sharing with us his humanity as experienced by you. Bless you in this holiday season for your poetry and expression of your warmth and love, from the shy withdrawn you that never tells us all that you are in your rare tv appearance .
Thank you, Ms. Dowd. I cried.
Touching for sure, but this easy going, brahmin gentleman
whose wealth and pampering allowed him an immunity to culpability, prepared in every way the path of his black-sheep of the family son to a presidency that destroyed world order as we knew it, and brought a new world disorder that even Trump, as a totally amoral and intentionally destructive president will not come close to matching.
But on a more personal level. I have the answer, that is, I know why he liked you Maureen. It is because of his penchant for strong and feisty women. it is Barbara Bush who gave him what minimal backbone he needed, checked the soft side of his nature, so that he too, ever the gentleman, could stomach the dark side of his family's maneuverings including the Nazi associations of his ancestors, and his own corrupt association with oil and the Saudis. I like to think of him as having an overbearing--at least sassy-- wife whom he was beholden to, and a vicarious mistress with a smart and foxy nature consistent with his needs who held to principles and attitudes somehow closer to his heart.
6
Ms. Dowd is Woman: graceful, insightful, winsome, maybe a little headstrong. Who wouldn't want to be friends with something like 'at?
2
I hope God in heaven has more mercy and compassion than the commenters here. Such unforgiving harshness. What Puritans.
4
'The narcissistic, amoral, vulgar reality-TV president and the modest, principled, classy, old-world president could not be more different.'
How on earth did we ever get to this state affairs!?!?
RIP Poppy.
2
As journalist—president relationships go, I prefer the Acosta—Trump antagonism to the Dowd—Bush I love affair. We get far better reporting.
5
Gracious.
1
I quit reading Maureen Dowd's columns years ago because the endless negativity wore me down. I'm not Alice Roosevelt. But I took a chance on this column and was pleased to find that Dowd actually has something nice to say about somebody. Just by allowing 41 to speak in his own words, Dowd gave her readers a glimpse of the man's wry humor and fundamental decency that wasn't much on view in public.
I was at the White House on December 2, 1992, for the President's Environment and Conservation Challenge Awards ceremony, and after the reception I. like Forrest Gump, needed to pee. After following the crowd to the East Room and noting the door by which they entered, I found a handy restroom. When I returned, the corridor was empty, so I let myself in, only to find myself on stage with the President. Red in the face, with everyone laughing, I hastened down some steps and found a seat. To this day, I remember President Bush's look of rapturous surprise that some dopey guy with a camera had blundered on to the stage. He then read remarks that highlighted his administration's environmental record: the Clean Air Act, increased funding for the EPA and for clean energy research and development, enforcement of environmental laws against polluters, and more. As the world confronts the increasing effects of global climate change, much is being made of the "lost opportunity" of earlier administrations to reduce harm. But it should also be remembered that some presidents did more than others.
5
As Socrates has so capably pointed out, a flawed president but beneath it, a decent human being. Trump, on the other hand, is flawed both ways.
God's Peace, 41.
2
Maureen , Beautiful elegy to 41. It will pleaseKevin and make the Clintons envious.Like the good French wine you were taught to select you get better with age.
Let's not forget the Willie Horton ad that Bush 41 used for his southern strategy campaign.The beginning of the Republican slide: embracing religious fundamentalism and using the politics of race baiting. That and his connection to Pinochet's brutal and repressive regime are what Bush represents to me, despite Dowd's "human " portrait.
7
I really enjoyed this!!
1
I'm sorry but I don't share the warm santitized feeling the Times writers have for Bush. I remember Iran-Contra, AIDS, the civilian dead in Panama and the highway of death in Iraq/Kuwait. Thousands of bodies buried in ditches or incinerated in vehicles - and all this well after Operation Condor's sins, No warm gushy stories will allow me to see Mr Bush as anything other than a war criminal for knowingly allowing such heinous crimes on his watch. By the way, Mexico just inaugurated a radical new president this weekend in a breathtaking display of national unity. This impacts our future tomorrow much more than a burial, perhaps the Times could muster just one story on the new president of our closest neighbor.
12
Thank you for sharing this.
Maureen,
To read two of your articles about two first families in one day is
quite interesting since it captures the range of your emotions from
sentimental praise to snarky contempt. Granted, neither of your subjects are purely good or purely evil, yet you've left your readers with an obvious bias that overlooks the faults of one while focusing solely on the faults of the other. Regardless, both demonstrated your skills and were greatly appreciated!
2
I had objections to GHWB’s presidency but they were insignificant compared to GWB’s mind-boggling incompetence swaggering blindly into an Iraqi hornets nest. However both Bush presidencies now seem quaint as a new, almost unrecognizable reality ominously unfolds every day in the Trump era.
3
@Steve H
Every Republican president makes his predecessor look like a genius and statesman.
2
In the age of Trump, any former President looks saintly.
6
My brother who just passed last Monday and I used to text, he lived in NY me in Florida, he lost his voice and that was the only way we could communicate. As kids we use to play the "silence game' the first one who spoke lost the game, which seem to always be him.
Like you he hated Trump and his texts remind me of your words, you just can't help yourself you have a need to bash Trump, as all your peers do to. You had me with your poignant story until you started your bash, and then you ruined it for me.
My brother and George H.W. were both good men (not comparing them)! But maybe MO you need to get some help for that Trump Derangement Syndrome that seems to pop up at the worst times...
I wonder which Maureen Dowd of the future will be writing an article about how great, simply great, President Trump was to his family and friends?
Here's Bush's real legacy. Hundreds of thousands of lives, ruined, by the idiotic "war on drugs", which Bush supported with a passion. Class warfare, support for a warlike footing, trillions of dollars squandered.
Thank God the patrician class survived, eh?
11
G.H.W. Bush sported the best of the Wall Street blue blooded-ness of Charley McCarthie and the simple soul, goodhearted comradery of Mortimer Snerd. See: both hang in the Smithsonian, another venerable D.C. institution.
1
Never knew you we so short. Been reading you for years. Your best ever was about my daughter, Sarah. XXOO
1
This is a column to understand why and how Ms. Dawd wrote about the world's notables: it is all about morals.
1
Very fascinating, on several different levels
Best ever. Thank you.
Maureen, I am sorry for your loss as I myself cry for our country at this poignant time.
Lovely remembrance. But it air brushed ( along with all the other accolades) the hidden sexual life of George Bush Sr that included groping of young women. And other secret business.
5
Can't share the nostalgia, sorry.
5
I don’t know if Maureen Dowd reads the comments, but I thank her for writing this lovely piece.
No, so you could have gone months without getting a juicy story out the Bush White House? You went 8 years without getting one from the Obama White House but that didn’t stop you from pillorying him at every chance. Now we get disgrace on a daily basis from the current White House that you helped get elected. Hope you’re happy now.
12
While this is a fascinating look at a complicated relationship between a politician and a reporter, it also reads like something out of a Masterpiece Theater series with some story line about a aristocratic family and 'the help'.
It also suggests why Dowd has had problems with the Clintons - they didn't know their place.
And they say there's no class system in America.
5
P. G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster is a well-meaning but brainless young aristocrat who is always saved by his valet Jeeves from the predicaments he (Bertie) gets himself into. George H. W. Bush, although part of the American "aristocracy," was nothing like Bertie. For one thing, he had a brain, and a pretty good one.
1
This is exactly what’s wrong with the “Fourth Estate.” They trade their independence for access. Iraq war anyone ...
3
Am I the only one who read the excerpts from Poppy's letters and thought they were a bit creepy?
8
Maureen, that was a great commentary and gave terrific insight into an upper class man who became president. However, let us not forget that time when President Bush was seated next to Kiichi Miyazawa, the Prime Minister of Japan, during a Japanese state banquet on January 8, 1992. During the meal, President Bush leaned over and vomited on Miyazawa's lap.
It's probably the only social error President Trump has not committed---yet.
Much too late in the telling. I loved this. My condolences for the loss of your dear friend.
1
"..as the old world of Ivy League white men running everything was breaking up"?? You must have forgotten about the Supreme Court, which may no longer be all men (thanks to the Democratic Presidents) but still very clearly Ivy League. With the exception of RB Ginsberg, who started at Harvard but graduated from Columbia, they are all graduates of the law schools of Harvard and Yale. There are 237 law schools in the US, but only these 3 have graduates in the Supreme Court, and most justices come from elite prep schools and have clerked at the Court in their past. Very definitely shallow gene pool used to select candidates, they are clearly from the powerful elite in background and education. Cannot there be some attempt to represent other parts of American society in what is likely to become the most important leg of the three legged stool of American political influence when Trump finally falls apart and the legislative bodies are torn to complete ineffectiveness by partisan differences?
6
Well done, Ms. Dowd, well done. What a deep and personal reflection of how things were and how things have changed.
I hope certain people will take to heart the lesson this article explores - that civility is a strong nurturer. It is a great person who can take criticism and parody in stride and laugh at himself.
6
Thank you for your lovely tribute. I never got it until now.
4
Thanks Maureen, that was a fantastic read, amazing to think of a time when we, as a people, were @ least civil & decent to each other despite our political differences
4
Maureen, What a beautiful column.
41's humanity is burnished by what you write here and, in a sad comparison with our present circumstances, elevated to our national pantheon of great Americans.
Thanks so much.
5
I don't share America's collective amnesia because we are all still suffering from what this family did to our country.
11
As we age, I can understand that men enjoy the companionship of spunky women. Kind of a wife number two phenom. I’m not sure if others openly post such commentary but I consider it too obvious to ignore. Maureen is pretty cool.
2
Congratulations, Ms. Dowd. This was the closest I've come to reading one of your columns through to the end in years. FWIW, I also had a professional association with 41 and liked him very much - though I would never think of voting for him.
3
Brought tears to may eyes@maureendowd. Thank you for the extra column this Sunday.
3
Thank you, Maureen Dowd. Your thoughts serve as a testament that we can all agree to disagree and still show a measure of respect for one another. We could all use a bit of President H.W.’s good manners. Very kind regards, Constance
5
Thank you Maureen. I am a “lib” who now sees the greatness of HW, as you also do. Would that the current occupant of the White House had a thimble full of the same decency and humility as 41.
5
Maureen, this is the best newspaper column, obituary, testimonial, tribute, whatever you wanna call it, I've ever read. This is better than your previous bests, of which there are many, and way, way better than the best of your worsts, of which there are many.
GHWB and BAR are looking down on you smiling, HW affectionately, BAR gritting her teeth as she smiles.
Finally, GHWB has jumped up, looked down at you and said, "You da BEST!"
3
Thank you for this wonderful article.
2
Sorry, Ms. Dowd, but your memoir of a relationship comes off as very one-sided. President Bush emerges as a warm, hardheaded, realistic person who saw into you and accepted what he saw with humor and irony. You saw him as a job and a career. There is not much mention of affection from your side. Indeed you are condescending at times: "But as politicians go, 41 had many good qualities." That is you looking down from the sky.
Nevertheless the article is excellent for its picture of George Herbert Walker Bush the man and leader. After reading it I feel I know him. And I hope you will publish his 11-page parody of his family's political activities!
2
Back story: I am not a fan of Maureen Dowd. That's primarily for her relentless criticism of Barak Obama. I was and still am grateful that in 2008 Obama steered us away from the brink of economic disaster and then got us the right to health insurance! But that's not the point. I'm very surprised to read her bring up the Willy Horton trick. It's the oldest racist trigger in the Republican play book and Bush played it in spades. I think it won him the election. I understand that the point of the column is to memorialize Bush. I agree with most that for the most part he was an honorable man. But her reflections on him make me wonder why republicans have only one path to winning (Trump just did it again in the midterms) -- racism. Apologies if this comment seems disrespectful of Bush I. That is not my intent.
5
I hope your brother read this piece by you, there is no replacement for human decency and character, President Bish was far from perfect but I would rather his perfections vs the swine we have on office now.
Thank you for sharing your stories it does make it harder to let him go. RIP our President George Bush
Thanks, M. You brought a tear & a smile to an old man this morning.
1
When GHWBUSH ran for President in 1979, I began interning with him. I was in college, changed my major to Political Science,
and thought he was the most capableand empathetic politician.
After graduating I worked for him. He truly was the most extraordinary man in every way. One does fall in love with him...he is all about service, kindness, decency and love. I miss him and all he stood for. We as a country must insist that his charactor not be thought of as from a “by gone” era but insist that all display similar character. We cannot be defined by the vulgarity we have in office now. I do hope we as a nation have learned this in the past 2 years.
4
That picture of Dubya, as a child, on the horse: the meanness nastiness that he was to display as governor of Texas and as president was already evident on his face -- and not a trace of it in his father, ever.
Oh the eulogies. I wonder if we will sugar coat the achievements of Trump after his passing. Probably. What Trump did for Russian money laundering, Bush did for oil billionaires. They both did their utmost to wreck the environment but Bush has no equal in his rush to war except on the part of his son, who followed in the family business of killing their countrymen to advance their personal oil interests. As head of the CIA he conspired with Iran to hold on to their American hostages just a bit longer until the Gipper won the election. No wonder he became Vice President. As WW2 airman, he bailed out of his damaged bomber allowing the crew to go down without their pilot. He was then picked up by his very own sub, sent out to retrieve the brave young heir to millions. That is not something that any other young pilot could hope for. Like Trump, his success was fundementally based on his choice of birth canals, and like Trump it was also the basis for his self image and for his political efforts on behalf of a tiny percentage of the Americans that he claimed to represent.
8
@Eric Hansen
Mr Johnson, while most of the faults and actions you attribute to GHWB are factual, your depiction of his WW2 experience is patently false. Carrier bombers had at most 1 gunner/observer besides the pilot, and Naval personnel rescue operations were the rule no matter rank or background. Mr Bush did NOT abandon his crew ( he had none) and did not have his personal submarine.
Yes, he must be remembered for a multitude of sins, but let's stick to facts please. There're certainly enough without resorting to this kind of nonsense.
2
@Reality
Thank you for your opinion. I read of this account in the book Flyboys with was concerned with the end game in the Pacific. Bush flew a torpedo bomber which had a gunner and a navigator in addition to the pilot. Both were killed in the crash. According to the author, James Bradley, a submarine was relieved of its mission and dispatched for the express purpose of picking up this prestigious young flier. You may read the book yourself to determine its merits. I will admit that I wasn't there but Bradley's account rang true to me.
1
Lovely column. Thank you, Ms. Dowd.
Time to go back and re-read Russ Baker's book, Family of Secrets.
4
@Doug McKenna,
"House of Bush, House of Saud" another good one.
4
Oh how lovely, cute, fun, sweet & dear. Thank you, Ms. Dowd, for writing and sharing.
Ms. Dowd, I've also had a love-hate relationship with you and your columns over the years.
Today, after reading your wonderful column on Poppy Bush, it's all love. Thanks!
1
Nicely turned, Maureen. H.W. would be proud to have been remembered like this.
Beautiful column. Thanks, Maureen.
1
I rarely find Dowd's pieces interesting, but this one is an exception. Wonderful read!
1
Oh I see, she became friends with the Bushes. Very impressive.
4
Just superb, my favorite GHWB elegy, so far. As a reader who has followed you forever, thank you, Maureen. If not your best column, (who can remember?) certainly my favorite.
Can you imagine this type of a friendship between President Trump and Maureen Dowd?
Neither can I.
We have lost a great deal when players from different sides of the aisle can no longer correspond with human decency.
I look forward to the year that echo chamber bubble bursts.
1
You make GHWB sound far more appealing than his policies and politics did, and in the course of doing so you made yourself more appealing as well. The sweetness of this tribute is a welcome contrast to your more familiar negativity and your (sometimes) shrill critiques. Perhaps you should put yourself on a budget -- say -- one of these floral arrangements for every five attack pieces.
3
Marvelous.
1
Is this not just a trifle self-serving, Ms Dowd—
Despite the assumption of the "Irish maid" line and persona.
And also a breach of private correspondence (or did you have his permission).
[And finally, although you nailed Trump, when our second-worst president was mentioned—"W"—you failed to call him out for what he was and is—a war criminal. Far more than "ousting" vs "containing" Saddam.]
3
No mention of Jennifer Fitzgerald?
2
Where have all the great ones gone?
Thank you for telling us your history with GHWBush. Always liked him. Made me like you a little better too. (:
1
Keep it up, Maureen. You are our Hogarth with a heart. This column, and Curtains for the Clintons as well, will be read long after our current political crisis fades and the next one ensures.
1
Maureen as usual a great read. President Bush and your relationship reminds me a little of the one Clarice Starling had with Dr. Hannibal Lecter. I mean that only in a good way.
George H W Bush... a real study in contrasts. On the one hand, the President who typed thank you notes, thought of 'kinder gentler' nation, 'thousand points of light'.....and increased taxes to pay for government programs.
And on the other hand, the man who approved the 'Willie Horton' ad, denied climate change, and set the stage for our debacle in the MidEast.
With all his warts - still orders of magnitude a better person that the Current Occupant...(sigh)
1
Had his good points as Ms. Dowd point out . . .
Can anybody forgive him for putting Clarence Thomas on Supreme Court?
Equally for fathering G?
Of course compared to Trump he towers . . .
RIP
1
Maurine,
Until I read this,I never could get past Wilie Horton.
You bring us back to the fact that we are all flawed, but most of us share a sense of decency despite the lapses and we try to make amends.
Perhaps his greatest shortcoming was presiding over such a flawed family. No matter the touches of attempted humility, he left a sad legacy.
3
This is one of the nicest, most human articles I have read in the past several days. Maureen Dowd is equipped with a very sharp-quilled pen at times, but in this remembrance of the intersection of her life with that of Bush 41 her pen strokes captured and revealed the essence of a man whose likes we will not see soon again. Thank you for making my day a bit sunnier.
Why no mention of Bush's active role in the CIA aiding and abetting Pinochet and other Latin dictators who were "disappearing" dissidents in Operation Condor?
Why no discussion of Bush's role in assisting the Iran-Contra travesty and looking the other way while Noriega sent planes loaded with cocaine to California to raise money for the Contras? How many poor families destroyed by crack cocaine are singing Bush's praise?
Why no discussion of Bush's participation in the Carlyle Group and his close association with the bin Laden family and the huge profits that the Group made from the Iraq War?
Bush had a lot of blood on his hands. The massive journalistic whitewashing of G HW Bush over the past two days is inexcusable.
11
Did you happen to discuss the mean immorality of voting against the civil rights act of 1964 or the Willie Horton campaign?
5
Poppy was your friend. You wrote a beautiful eulogy about him. My opinion of him is different - very different. To me both him and his entire class were and are adversities. When he spoke to you so elequently about grandchildren, we must all be aware of the bare bones bedrock fact that he would make sure his grandchildren and great-grandchildren survived and thrived - whatever the cost to the rest of us.
11
My main beef with Patricians is that they are clueless about the lives of average people. Elite schools and colleges should have courses to teach through theory and practice: field work, how the average person lives; what life is like for the working poor or for senior citizens. HWB was likability daffy, his life was lived for oil and the Saudi Kingdom. Even so, he was a decent person. GWB was clueless, and a touch of the evangelical didn't help. Thankfully, social security was not turned over to Wall Street, although the housing bubble did wreck many lives.
The solution is the education of the elite about what life is like for the average person.
6
This lovely story shows the very human side of President Bush 41. Here is a man of great wealth who puts on no airs and is very down to earth. He even has a zany sense of humor. How refreshing.
President Bush and Maureen Dowd obviously enjoyed one another and even though their politics were quite different not let it get in the way of their friendship. It is so nice that they remained friends throughout all these years and could laugh and joke with one another. We need more of these feel good stores with so much doom and gloom in our world today. It proves people do not have to agree in order to get along. This is a good lesson for all of us. Respect one another.
211
Knowing a big oil guy from old northeast money who became POTUS apparently had this gal all excited. Who cares? I think of Bush I think of the Willie Horton ad which took political ads to an all time gutter level low - and it worked. Plus he and the Bush crew approved that their buddies the Bin Ladens could fly discretely back home after 9/11 when everyone else was stranded. Thanks.
11
I was very moved by this piece but Horatio Farnsworth III, a Harvard man? Oh my. I'm the daughter of Will Franklin Farnsworth, the son of a failed New Mexico cattleman. As a high schooler, my dad stayed out of school every other year to earn money to support his family. He was so reliable as a gravedigger that he was offered a full-time job as cemetery manager. He refused, saying he had to finish high school.
2
This is exactly the eulogy we needed. What a decent, decent man. Thank you - both of you.
1
The great thing about the late Mr Bush was that he didn't try to be something that he wasn't. This article underlines that sincerity. However, he was far from being a fool, even if he sometimes pretended to be: perhaps that made him the opposite of Ronald Reagan ...
Thanks to the Internet, we here in Europe are now easily able to share such journalism as this, whereas in my young days all we got was Mickey Mouse. In the last few days I have learned a lot about President Bush, and realised that even if he didn't have the intellect and political skills of a Barack Obama, and was sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of being a US President, he never stopped trying to do the best he could for his country and, as far as he could see, for the world. It would be wonderful if we could say the same about other world leaders ...
1
Yes, the loss of a true friend hurts, Thank you.
Don’t you realize both H.W. and his son Jeb, were well known for writing “thoughtful” personal notes to many members of the press. They flattered and courted the press, unlike our foolhardy current president, because they knew full well where their bread would be buttered. It wasn’t just the notes, but shrimp and lobster on the press planes covereing them as opposed to the chips and dip on the cash strapped Democratic planes, not to mention the private invitations, and off the record sitdowns, etc. There were obviously two G. H.W. Bushes, the pratrician gentleman and diplomat who courted the press and foreign leaders and then the former CIA director who honed our current manner of political campaigns with dirty tricks and racism that made Richard Nixon and Donald Segretti look quaint. The press has always been the Bushes dupes. Kuwait, Panama, Iran Contra, Iraq, Willie Horton, Lee Atwater, Paul Manafort and the rest. Jeb Bush elevated political chicanery, election steeling and financial self-interest to new heights. The main difference with Donald Trump is that he only lacks the finesse.
12
My tear ducts are tired now and I've depleted the Kleenex supply. It's an understatement to say "Thanks Maureen for this column". I'm voting for a collection of your columns about HW and W and related issues, in book form.
1
The humanity of both of you, Maureen, was manifested in this piece. We need more writing that reveals the humanity of the author and the subject of an op-ed piece. Words matter.
1
Such a loving, lovely tribute to someone you obviously had great respect for, despite not agreeing entirely with him. I long for the days when such kind, gentle decency (yours and his) was more common.
Many of today's Republicans should be ashamed of calling themselves members of the same party that chose President Bush'41 as their president! I especially respect that he chose not to cast his vote with today's party in the 2016 election but instead chose the candidate he felt would most represent the interests of all Americans -- and of America itself. (The fact that today this is even worth mentioning? It's just plain shocking!)
1
Pure class, Maureen. Just like the man you eulogize in this piece.
How did we get to the place where we are so divided that we cannot recognize the treasure of the people with whom we at times disagree?
In tribute to President Bush, we should all re-think the divisiveness in which we find our nation. As HW reminded us, we are better than that!
2
thank you for a warm and charming story.George HW Bush must have been the most self confident man in the world.He could laugh at himself and make friends with his detractors.He disarmed those who criticized him by not taking offense and by recognizing them as valuable people.Think how wide and rich his world was because he truly respected people and was not quick to judge and take offense.He was one in a million in his ability to relate.The “ odd couple” tale you tell is so inspiring!
2
Maureen, a beautiful, rich, intimate peek inside your extraordinary relationship with George Bush, thank you!
1
Thanks to the insight provided by Ms. Dowd, I feel I know this man better. It must have been difficult for him to face the criticism that inevitably finds its way into public discourse, especially when that criticism was directed against his son. Nonetheless, he apparently did not take it personally. That sort of grace and detachment is rare today, and is only possible when the ego is in check which is of course what his mother's purpose was in reminding him to avoid the personal pronoun "I".
1
Maureen writes of a bygone era in the not-so-distant past. Seems quaint that there was a time when liberals and conservatives coexisted and relations were mostly civil. Somehow American politics has lost its sense of humanity. Thank you, Rupert Murdoch and Fox News.
2
Thank you, Ms. Dowd, for sharing your thoughts about President H.W. Bush. I envy that you got to meet him several times! I got to see him campaigning in Thomasville, North Carolina, in 1992. It is a memory that I cherish.
President Bush strengthened my passion for international politics. To me, he was not "Mr. President." He was 'Mr. Internationalist President.' His presidency may be under-rated but he remains one of my favourite world leaders of all time. There are only a handful of them in my list. Rest in peace, Mr. Internationalist President. Your decency and role in the world stage will be missed.
P.S. Maureen's column gives you one more reason not to cancel your NYT subscription, while in heaven!
This is the best of all the GHWB remembrances this weekend. He loved you, Maureen. For you, sweetness. For all of us, decency.
1
I remember when Poppy Bush was president. He was horrible. I remember shaking my head almost every minute he was in office. Maybe he was nice and sent funny cards and played sports and drove his Kennebunkport boat all manic to lose his security detail. Fine. But as president, and as Reagan's Vice President, he fell so short of remotely passable. His speeches, his policies, his press conferences, his way of leadership, just flat and absent and mailed-in and dangerous. I could list his failures, but I see other comments have done a good job of that. Everyone just needs to remember what he was like, go back in time and remember how tone deaf and plastic and soft he was. We can celebrate that he was nice guy, maybe a gentleman too, but we can't celebrate his work in office, or any of the Bush's work in office -- no way.
12
Maureen you outdid yourself on this one. My eyes grew teary when I red your on point commentary. It just saddens me to have to see what we have in the white house and how he has nothing but shame to America. Thank you.
Thank you so much for sharing these personal glimpses.
2
What a wonderful man with a wonderful friend
This was very moving.
1
This makes me like both him and you better, so thank you.
1
Lovely Refreshing
Thank you
2
What a difference between GHWB and our current White House resident! Ms. Dowd's wonderful writing makes clear what we have lost and what we are stuck with now!
1
Nothing against President George H. W. Bush at all, but here is a questions we should ask and have answered. What have U. S. presidents done since leaving office to make the world a better place? We know that Jimmy Carter has done a lot. The Clinton Foundation is working hard in this direction. Barack Obama is setting up a program to develop leadership around the world. Just asking.
3
Dear Ms. Dowd
We are approximately the same age, so I have been reading your columns for what seems like a lifetime. This one is among the best. The picture is a treasure. Thank you for sharing it.
3
This is more a favorable comment on Ms. Dowd's earlier article on the Clinton's for profit speech in Toronto, although like most of her columns this one is excellent as well.
She has now been writing for the NYT for 35 years and I have been reading her output for at least 20. The majority are factually true, well written with a dash of humor. She skewers her subjects when they need it no matter which party they belong to.
I put her skill in reporting in league with Walter Conkrite of CBS. I was a bit alarmed a few years ago when they reduced the number of articles a week but I see other sections that she pops up in besides the Opinion section. So it works out well.
She is a major reason I maintain my subscription to the digital edition.
1
This piece perfectly illustrates one of the main problems of journalism in the US: reporters’ proximity to, fondness for, and lust after Power.
6
The best thing tnat one can say about a man is that he was a good
person. George HW Bush was a good man, a dignified gentleman, who richly represented the United States. He and his wife Barbara were the last of a kind.
America, founded on revolution against monarchy, but so quick to embrace it. Long live the King, long live the Bushes. With the new royals installed, America is on its way to greatness once again.
1
Bravo! Warts and all and, in the end, a true gentleman.
1
Fine recollection by Ms. Dowd- one of her best! I suspect GHWB & family would feel the same!
2
Your deeply touching remembrances made me cry; thank you for sharing. How lucky you both were to be friends.
1
He had a crush on you, and you had a crush on him. That indefinable "I just like him/her" that defies logic and examination and transcends transgressions. How lucky you were to have crossed paths.
2
So sad that we live in an age where people can easily dismiss a life well lived. A life devoted to Faith, family, and country. How many of those trolling or calling Mr. Bush an evil man bc of his policies have contributed to the public arena, fought for the safety and freedom of this great country. I dare say that the current hysterical, hyper-hate filled world we live in, and humankind's base instincts make us all susceptible to being self-righteous and narcisstic which clearly Mr. Bush was not. Ironic that the tolerance and #lovetrumpshate crowd is neither when it comes to their opponents. So sad. Look in the mirror and tick off your accomplishments and your contributions before judging this very good person and great patriot.
2
Maureen, another wonderful piece of writing. You have always been my favorite NYT writer and the reason I subscribe, that your Irish is a bonus.
Soon after he left office, my wife and I were traveling back from Hawaii and upgraded to First Class, surprise George and Barbara sat across the aisle from us, Secret Service in the seat(s) behind. She smiled, he slept and we never said a word. I was disappointed.
The flight attendant told me Jimmy Carter had taken the same night flight earlier and spent most of the flight greeting the passengers in cabin class.
I think he was a kind and decent man. I wish he would have just waved and maybe said a group hello to the passengers. Most never new he was aboard. It meant a lot to me just sitting there. I'm sure would have been a memory to rest.
Class acts, both.
1
Sweetness. Grace. Humor. Compassion. Wit. Kindness. Honesty.
This touching column is the finest tribute yet to a man who looks better by the day. Sadly...shockingly...it makes the dense cloud we’re presently under even more dreadful and menacing.
3
Compared to Trump, Bush was a tower of virtue and competence, yes. But many of his public actions were despicable.
The miserable racism of the Willy Horton ads used to defeat Dukakis. The first Gulf war, largely fought to defend oil supplies. The appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. His refusal to extend unemployment benefits in a recession. His baffling ignorance of the poor and their struggles to survive (which he shared with his wife Barbara, if you remember her remarks on how happy the Katrina survivors were living in the Super Dome).
Much of his life and political career were devoted to solely to his own personal ambition and financial well-being. In this, he wasn’t that different from Trump. Bush just hid it better.
5
I'm afraid to admit that I never had a special relationship with 41 - never got notes, or phone calls, trips to Kennebunkport, nada.
At times over the past two days I've felt like I must be the only one in America and a couple of other continents in this lonely boat. How the heck did the man do it? I'm honestly amazed.
2
Sounds to me like Bush senior was being charming with an eye to getting kinder treatment from Maureen Dowd in the press and throwing in a little flirtation to sweeten the deal. Part of the transactional relationship politicians have had with the media for years. Gross in a refined kind of way I guess.
4
Great article, but you buried the lead. The Pres. will never read far enough to see HW's assessment of him.
Maureen. You've demonstrated for all time that Class has nothing to do with having either a patrician or a working class background. You and Bush Sr. have it in spades, and you are one fabulous writer and one truly (as Bush might've said, in that now antiquated phrase)...Classy Dame. Thanks for touching our hearts so deeply.
1
Maureen, when you wrote that column in 2005 after your mother’s passing, I sent you an email in which I wrote: “That was so beautiful. Thank you so much.”
And although I was not much of a George Herbert Walker Bush fan, I miss his civility and decency, and I’d like to thank you once again for a beautiful column.
3
Fascinating. Wonderful. Refreshing
2
Great column, Maureen. My first thought after receiving the alert from the Times that President Bush had died was, "I wonder what Maureen will write."
These are sweet memories, and ones I'm sure you'll treasure forever. Thanks for sharing them with your readers.
4
What a touching story of two good souls with a common goal of serving the public but with two differing visions of serving the public, one from the right and the other from the left. Long may it serve us.
Sometimes the end does justify the means, as much for an upbeat politician and it does for a downbeat pundit. But, both need to be as righteous with the means as they can muster. If a basic goodness guides them, the public is better served.
It matters not that whether the given service comes from a President's signing pen or a NYT reporter's column pen. The truth and goodness we all seek is somewhere in between. HW would likely say, "Keep knocking my knickers and I will keep gently bumping your serving tray. And saying, "Don't spill my vodka martini all over my NYT."
1
Thank u, President George HW Bush via Maureen Dowd.
I saw for a short reading moment your little beam of light as part of the thousand points of light - sadly lost on this selfie-generation - less kind and gentle.
We salute you, HW for your service, leadership and love of country.
Thank u.
Beautiful piece Maureen. I have to admit I was pretty close to permanently avoiding your columns after you devoted your most recent regular column to more Clinton bashing. While I agree with you that the Clintons do need to "call it a day," I just thought it was so silly to focus on that given the Trump Week we just had.
But - wow - this was a great piece.
Thank you.
3
What a very fundamental relationship you had
with Bush 41. If I may ask: how many times did you ask GHW what GW would accomplish by declaring war on Iraq? By far the most disasteroid decision by a sitting President?
1
This is hands down the best piece in today’s paper. Thank you, Maureen!
1
And nice people can sometimes do the most harm. Personally, I cannot forgive Justice Thomas, ever.
4
Thank you Maureen for sharing your memories of Bush. You changed my mind (just a little) about what I think of this flawed man. You made him human. And for that I thank you.
1
It was definitely a nice article exposing another facet of GHWB's personality. But I got stuck on "Most of the time, he tried to do the right and decent thing, as he saw it, to act for the good of the country and the world" because I kept thinking of him sending his "fixer" James Baker to Florida to assist Jeb and Katharine Harris to ensure that Al Gore wouldn't win the state and thereby the WH would be handed to his dumbo son George W Bush.
Plus let us not forget that he and his family also was into hand-holding with the Saudis -- the same monsters who took down the WTC and killed thousands of American that day and recently dismembered a reporter for the Washington Post.
6
I'm still angry with the Big Guy,(41) for letting the Little Guy, (43) ruin the neighborhood. Afghanistan, wasn't a fun Kennebunkport, outing
43 also allowed, up one day-down the next, Greenspan to manage the economy with his rigid, egocentric methodology. I guess 41 was having a great time on his speedboat.
3
This article personifies what is missing today; the ability to respect a person while disagreeing with them. Today, we demonize those with whom we disagree. It is very bad for us as humans and even worse for the country.
While many ridicule his patrician manners and good breeding, they served him and the country well. We could do with a bit more of this.
Lovely article, Ms Dowd.
4
For those who remember when decency and respect for others and for their personal beliefs mattered, a good man has left us. Can't say I agreed with all President Bush did or said, but I always admired his and Barbara's honesty. He has left a truly wonderful family and their love of their parents is awe inspiering. Rest in peace, President Bush. You did good{
2
If Ms. 'Peregrine' Dowd had given a show of support for former President Obama during his term in office I might have relented in bearing a grudge for all her unfortunate writing during the Recession and the hardship of two inherited wars.
The Yuletide Season is leaving this Irish American brought up in France cool this year while adding to this gruel, some magic sparks for our children.
She might be amused to hear that I was fired in London acting as the maid for a fine woman in need of some help. One can only live on dog kibble for so long. Nineteen, and astonished to get a pay check for $159.26, working as a junior cleric for a publishing house, it was a celebratory occasion on returning to America, and to achieve economic independence.
Mention the name 'Bush' to an elderly Christian American Iraqi acquaintance, and Nuremberg inevitably pops up.
A well-measured homage on her part to President George Bush, and remembering Barbara Bush. They were a match made in heaven from an Irish friend. France might add they don't make gentlemen like these anymore.
Remembering my uncle in CT., an officer and a gentleman, he would have removed his hat for George Bush and told me to cast aside any resentment I harbor while America is on fire.
While we celebrate The Season of Childhood and Goodwill to All Mankind, some of us are going to see the homeless man in the street and pause, counting our multiple blessings that we can do better. Pax.
3
Plutocracy and those who revere it. They've really blessed America, haven't they. See: Merry Christmas from the 1%.. and their baggage handlers.
4
You can “choose” to see past the harsh realities of a flawed but fortunate man as HW most assuredly was. Or you can cynically puncture the tires on this beautifully written, yet highly glossed over memory which made me smile and think how fortunate you were Maureen to have had such a fine friendship with a man who (albeit at times was flawed) did not desecrate America’s highest office. Thank you for that story.
2
The first of many stories about GB that made me cry. Thank you, Maureen Dowd.
Bush, enlisting at 18. Trump, a dodging the draft with a note about bone spurs, which later ‘cleared up’. I have bone spurs. They don’t go away.
2
Tour-de-force, Maureen Dowd! I'm sure books will be written but this column gave me such a complete picture of the man, I have nothing but praise and admiration for your skill.
Lovely. Thank you.
1
Enough about Bush please. I remember he treated Floridas hurricane victims with no compassion he and his GOP congress. Then he made a statement I want America to be a leaner and meaner land. Doesn't anyone else remember that . We'll he got his wish we got the worst GOP President ever in Trump made it meaner. Instead of spending so much tax dollars on his funeral put it for health care for the living.
4
A wonderful personal tribute to an American gentleman. Leaders like Bush Sr make America great again. Trump is only a short term ugly phase of an ever evolving presidency. Thank you Maureen for a memorable column.
He was clearly in with love with the author. That being said.. He may have been a decent man personally, but I find the lack of honest appraisal of his time as head of the CIA and then President in this forum and others warrants concern. Everything I'm reading about him is in this gauzy aw-shucks sort of mode. We are talking about a massive body count with insanely dubious moral and ethical questions on his watches, and with his direction, in places like Central America and the Middle East. He made Manuel Noriega into a Cocaine tycoon with the CIA as muscle. He was a Company Man, a scion of the military-industrial like none other. He began the ultimate denigration of our political discourse with his promotion and coddling of Lee Atwater as his main campaign man, holding his nose all the while yet loving the results, paid forward again with Atwater's acolyte Karl Rove, who would shepherd the next of this banal clan into power on a message of fear and bigotry that has led us to this point today. I think his record deserves more than an "Oh, that's just racist Grandpa!" A genteel and admittedly sorely missed politeness does not get you off the hook, and Fifty years ago is still a short time. ago.
4
A civil patrician, he was. What’s most admirable, of course, was his civility.
The patrician and the maid dynamic here is also enlightening. From the patrician point of view, it’s the old master/slave dynamic. And from the maid point of view it’s the (ahem) master/slave dynamic. Perhaps it helps us better understand the rather unpleasant policy choices by the older Bush (and, for that matter, his only slightly more plebian son). He should have listened to his maids more, and a little better.
But, as Ms. Dowd eloquently describes, at least he listened. It behooves us plebes to recognize that even a patrician can be a decent man.
GWHB, a patrician opportunist, was a most fortunate man to have such a kind and compassionate yet keen-eyed and fair-minded friend in you, Maureen. He is often described as gracious, but your tribute to him is truly filled with grace and love. Beautifully done, Maureen. Thank you.
1
What I appreciate about Maureen Dowd is that she does not take herself and her opinions so seriously that she is unable to relate to those who have different opinions. That is an intellectual virtue shared by only a few of her op-ed colleagues. That tolerance opens doors to greater understanding and insight.
.
We all exist on more than one level. We are the public person that does a job, has responsibilities, and acts on political beliefs. We are also the private person who interacts with family, friends, and strangers one on one. We are the spiritual person within our heads, who considers and justifies choices, and asks for forgiveness for sins committed. It should never be surprising to us that we may like a private person while having many differences with the public one, or visa versa. And only with those to whom we are closest do we get a glimpse of the spiritual, inner person. Don't assume that you know someone, when you only know one face of them.
1
Thanks for another self-revealing and humanizing column. It seems that "opposites do attract" in the Upstairs-Downstairs relationship you had with Poppy Bush. It appears you brought out some of Bush's inner child; some one he could open up to and engage in word play. Someone who was not a white male stuffed shirt who expected an East Coast, Ivy League blueblood patrician. You were part of the George H. W. Bush who wanted to escape from all that by moving to the Wild West frontier, at least for a Connecticut Yankee, of Texas, but ultimately failed to do so. For all the warmth of your personal relationship, he was unable to take in the feminine message that you, your brilliant columns, and your rise to journalistic prominence represented and to govern with compassion and empathy. You were right to note the harsh, masculine, iron-fist in the velvet glove reality of his race-baiting, the C.I.A.-like plot to undermine Gary Hart, ignoring the AIDS epidemic as Reagan had, setting the stage for hyper-partisan nominees to the Supreme Court, not holding China to human rights violations, and inviting the extreme right-wing of his party including evangelical Christians into the White House. Like Reagan he could be charming and disarmingly funny and self-deprecating. But for most us, it's his legacy we still live with that has resulted in the open, toxic ugliness of Donald Trump.
92
@Paul Wortman Perfectly said. I really resent the hagiography of the media about HW. I never liked him and thought that he and his wife were elitists to the core. As for his relationship with Ms. Dowd, maybe I am old-fashioned but I see him as quite a flirt and I do not think that "Bar" would have liked it if she knew the extent of it - especially when HW had Dowd on a panel while "Bar" was out of town.
4
What a lovely piece. He was like family to you. It warmed my heart in this era of divisiveness to read your stories. The story I will never forget about the President is the day he had to ditch his plane as a teenage naval pilot. His plane was struck. He knew how badly. Nevertheless he had not completed his mission. Until he destroyed that target he refused to ditch the plane. Having done so he ditched it. The President managed to survive being shot down but his harrowing experience had not ended. He was pursued by the Japanese but rescued by the Americans by the grace of God. George Bush was a remarkable American.
2
This is a beautiful remembrance of a very good and decent man. I may have disagreed with a lot of his views, but I always had the feeling that his views came from sincere beliefs, and that he was willing to listen and learn. Isn't that what governance is supposed to be like?
I think we could use a few more GHWB's in public life, on both sides of the aisle.
5
Refreshingly honest tribute revealing some of the true character of a man, flaws and all. Thank you.
1
Beautiful tribute, I learned a lot. Thank you.
1
One of Bush's strengths was to connect with people in such a way that they felt they were a friend. He was an active guy who didn't take himself too seriously. So, a lot of people liked him, Democrat and Republican.
It's nice the writer felt this way.
1
What a touching tribute.You recall a man who was authentic and kind. He didn't take himself too seriously. He dispatched the business and went on.
Always are left with what ifs...would the world and the country be different if he beat Clinton. Maybe we wouldn't have had 8 years of chaos and investigations.
Sadly, a man like Bush would not be successful in today's politics. Sad for us and sad for the world.
3
Salient and most compelling throughout Ms. Dowd's excellent and even moving reminiscence is the lost decency of simpler times. That is not to say that George Herbert Walker Bush and his political life weren't flawed, but he understood that a fundamental principle of democracy was a tolerance of differences. He made an effort to bridge the gaps that policy disagreements often widen between friends.
Today's politics and politicians manifest a sadder reality, with far sharper edges, elbows and words. Bush's quirky style of humor, and in particular his self-deprecating sense of humor about himself, seem a distant memory, and one which I suspect would be welcomed by even those who didn't support his politics.
Sadly, we may never return to those days. How ironic that much of the more nascent and harsher political reality that divides us as a nation can be traced to GHWB's son, who made little if any effort as president, to soothe and smooth over differences, espousing instead divisive rhetoric like "you're either for us or agin' us."
"Apple, tree, fallen far, not gonna do it," Shrub might have said immodestly, and only a bit more syntactically tolerable than his more customary utterances. How different the world might have been had the son emulated the father with a bit more decency of days gone by.
2
Very touching, about a decent man, like all if us warts and all. Thank you; in our time we needed that.
5
Thank you for this wonderful article. George H. W. Bush will be greatly missed, and fondly remembered.
These stories help remind us of a different time, but GHWB was no angel. Among many other examples, Willie Horton was no accident and Bush used his story to divide. His legacy includes raw partisanship just as much as any new politician. Memories somehow fade rapidly.
8
This is a charming and moving rememberance of President Bush, which emphasized his humanity and his decency. His politics were not to my taste, and some of his actions as president were questionable, even underhanded. But, that's all water under the bridge now, and besides in light of what we have going on now, Bush's actions seem positively quaint by comparison. At least 41 leaves of legacy of civility in his personal dealings, an ability to laugh at himself and a kindness underneath the toughness needed to endure political life. History will decide how he ranks as a president, but his behavior toward others already shows him to be a basically good person. That's more than you can say for many.
1
Thank you, Maureen. For some years now, I have wondered about your "relationship" with the Bush family. Your warm, caring and kind recollection that you have shared with us shows some light.
Peace.
2
@Bob Stanley Whatever happened to the free press? See: let loose the hounds; cozying up to the crown.
2
Lovely essay.
Boy we could sure use some decency about now.
I disagreed with President Bush's policies about most everything, but I can appreciate that he was always a mensch. He was a human being. Unlike our current President that has lost his humanity along the way.
I am so longing for a President that sets an example for the world showing humanity, compassion and empathy. America let's choose wisely next time. And rid ourselves of indecent human beings pretending to be leaders.
Character matters.
12
@deb Yes, we need another president who hires a writer just to insert, "Gosh, darn" into his speeches. See: helping out the working man.
1
One line stands out: "Poppy wasn't perfect." Ms. Dowd then turns to Atwater and Aisles and their extension of the politics of Nixon under the apparent approval of the President. In the end history judges the full man, not just the good or the bad. President Bush, for all his decency and good nature, sadly did nothing to stop the rot of American politics that today has coalesced into Donald Trump and the decline of our once great nation.
7
A very sweet story, which yet has plenty of flavor. Thank you.
4
Thank you for this article. It came in handy when I cleaned out my bird cage, and used it to cover the bottom. Looking forward to your brothers’ Christmas article when I can use it to wrap my turkey carcass in it.
Keep up the good work.
3
Like life itself, relationships are complicated. Ms. Dowd's details of her relationship with GHWB are both revelatory and somehow ineffably sad.
Maureen seemed to be always around but just out of frame, able to chronicle the life of a man who seemed a capstone to the Greatest Generation, bouncing from post to post like a wild ball in a great pachinko game of public life.
With GHWB's death, the relationship ends with it. I am thankful for Ms. Dowd's description of the vapor trail it left in its wake.
4
What a great tribute. When all is said and done, the way someone lives their life is the real testimony of greatness. When my Dad died suddenly at 60 years old, our minister read “Well done, good and faithful servant.” I see our Father in Heaven saying the same to Poppy.
1
How did oppressed people fare under a particular POTUS?
That's my test for analyzing how good a president was. That's my test of whether I am going to file away fuzzy, warm-hearted feelings about the person in my mind. If we don't learn to stop skipping over the unpleasant aspects of past presidencies, then we will be doomed to experience more Trumps.
"No one's perfect" you say? Explore why.
And one more thing: GWB was a terrible president.
13
Thank you for your reflections on a time when good people from opposing sides could agree to disagree. It was beautifully written and I now a a greater respect for the man.
6
Bush #41 was an American patriot and a tireless civil servant. Some like me might not have agreed with his politics, but loved and respected a man of integrity and commitment to this country.
Millions of Americans will mourn the passing of George Herbert Walker Bush. More than a few tears will be shed, selfishly, as we're reminded of what a stalwart, selfless, humble Presdient looks like. What a loss that is!
God bless you, #41, from one of your summer neighbors in Kennebunkport. You and Bar were class acts, and we miss you already.
4
President Bush had the character that American's used to expect and rely on in a man. Sure he was a politician but you knew that he thought about 'America'. You could be assured that he would be thinking about our small 'D' democracy, our values and ideals.
Of course he would put his political agenda to work but he would never intentionally harm our country, our government or our institutions.
Until now, ALL Presidents have had this respect for America and what that means to the nation. They have tried to conduct themselves as fitting the regard of the office they held. The word gentleman can not be applied to all of them but certainly to George Bush.
With his passing, the stark contrast to today's POTUS is glaring and frightening.
8
Enough of the personal odes and reminiscences and the saccharin responses to them, amnesiac downplaying nation.
15
This is a great walk down memory lane. Your article changed my perspective on HW as human being (for the much better).
4
Thank you! I wasn't a big fan of George HW Bush, the President, but a reminder of what he was as a human being is warming, appreciated, and much needed. Godspeed, President Bush 41.
8
Simply fantastic - a tale of another time in press/political relations. A lovely piece, Maureen.
5
Certainly could have done without this walk down memory lane. President Bush performed an important service as president, managing the end of the Cold War with great tact (though most of the credit should probably go to Baker and Scowcroft). He distinguished himself as a young flyer in WWII. In between he had a rather curious career, one which deserves a great deal more journalistic attention. Anyway, the relationship between a sixty-something journalist and a fossil of an ex-president is without relevance to the present.
3
Maureen, one of the best columns I have ever read by you. I too was brought to tears as you in your fantastic journalistic ability, content and style defined what those of us in our 70s so much admired and respected Mr. Bush, his wife, Barbara and his family. Thank you for helping all of us understand the qualities and decency of a man and family that have served this country with untold courage, grace and humility. Thank you!
10
Thanks for a moving column...a great man, very much missed. We all need a little self-deprecation from minute to minute.
3
a beautiful memoir, thank you, thank you, thank you for this...
and I knew we too had something in common
my grandma cleaned house for the landed and wealthy as well
but what an almost poetic memory of a great American...
and a unique relationship, so revealing to share with us.
9
Thanks for sharing all this. Your label 'Patrician" just kind of says it all for me. Over my 67 years I have recognized it is what is "right" and "wrong" about America at the same time. It may have even worked flawlessly for some ( never all), if you played by the rules and had the right stuff, regardless of where you came from. It works in foreign policy and " manifest destiny." But somehow, those relegated to always "knowing their place" can never be free, even in a democracy, if we even need to use the word "elite." The distinction between patricians and plebeians in Ancient Rome was based purely on birth. Although modern writers often portray patricians as rich and powerful families who managed to secure power over the less-fortunate plebeian families, plebeians and patricians among the senatorial class were equally wealthy. As civil rights for plebeians increased during the middle and late Roman Republic, many plebeian families had attained wealth and power while some traditionally patrician families had fallen into poverty and obscurity. That sounds vaguely like America today. Perhaps a cautionary tale. as we all know how "Rome" ended up.
6
What an exquisite tribute!
7
Thank you for such a beautiful reminiscence, Ms Dowd! I had the great pleasure of meeting President Bush in the White House when he had a few of us Baltic types (I was working for the American Latvian Association) over to talk about the impending collapse of the Soviet Union and what his administration was doing about it. He was grace personified. Like others who have commented on this post, I was not much of a fan of his politics and never believed that he did not know anything about the Iran-Contra affair, but in comparison to the current occupant of the White House, President Bush can be forgiven that and for any other sins that he might have committed against the English language or your own good person. I have long loved everything that you write, Ms Dowd, and please accept my condolences at the passing of your ... um, friend?
9
I miss the days when I could be disappointed and angry at the behavior and policies of HW and Obama. Now, I look back and think, what exactly was I bothered about?
22
Granted, relative to the disaster in the White House today, GHWB seems like a decent man who served as president. But let's not forget some legacies that still haunt us, such as the Central American wars that brought us death squads, MS-13, and narco-empires from Columbia upwards. Though all the parties involved had their roles and choices, the U.S. under Reagan/Bush, then Bush/Quayle, helped wreak a lot of havoc in Central America from which we continue to see the consequences.
17
Makes me nostalgic for the time before hyper-partisanship when odd couples could still be friends ... and polite ... and even affectionate.
7
Beautiful!
Thanks, Maureen, for sharing your friendship with Poppy and reminding us of the wonderful American social standards that are slipping away.
10
Those were the days.
We won't get them back.
But, can we maybe get back our government, our high school civics, an understanding of what makes America different from Russia, and heads held aloft rather than facing down at hypnotic electronic screens?
7
Politics is a cruel sport, and I always didn't agree with his decisions, but H.W. and his descendants are decent human beings.
I love the relationship that Maureen recounts. It reminds me of how I relate to one of my best friends, we are political opposites, yet torture each other in such the same way.
It is all about not insulting each others intelligence, you can have a different opinion, but the facts are the same.
8
Good manners and the ability to laugh at yourself should be a minimum requirement for a human being; likewise loving your children. These qualities are hardly the apex of praise for a person of power and influence. I grant them willingly to Bush, although he always put me in mind of the novels of Ludlum and Ross Thomas, where the well-spoken leader of a cabal of aristocrats would leverage their wealth to covertly set national policy in support of corrupt dictators who kept their populations in poverty and delivered profits to the benefit of the cabal (rather like the activities of the CIA in those years). In fact, when Bush became president, I thought that at last the real rulers of the country were allowing one of their own to step into the spotlight. I believe he felt he was serving the best interests of the country – but his values were those of the entitled wealthy, and had little or nothing to do with the needs of the people. He didn't need to be impolite because he knew who he was – and who you were not.
8
@michaeltide
Well said. In an earlier time his appreciation of her could have extended to droit de seigneur.
1
There was something innately decent and kind about GHWB. Thank you for sharing the details of a great friendship. May he enjoy heaven with his Barbara and their little girl. You made my day.
6
Maureen's Bush recollections mirrored my ambivalence toward him more as a politician than a human being. I have difficulty getting over the blatant racism- for- votes that the Willie Horton ad was means- to- the -end justified--and ushered in the Fox News darkness into the culture. HW could not draw the line then, and now we are all living in the Trump dystopia. Yet, his election, and that ad, were a reality that we see today has always existed. And Bush knew it and used it to his advantage, just more blatantly than Republicans had in the past. Racists are everywhere and vote for more than just tax cuts and fewer government regulations. They don't see an immigrant nation. They see Willie Horton.
7
Sorry to cast a negative note, but I'm really disappointed in this. It tells us next to nothing about Bush 41 that it didn't know before, but it's otherwise all about Maureen ("Look at Me! I email Presidents!") Dowd. What a vanity piece. Give up the limelight, Maureen, and let us reflect on a man of public service.
16
@Patrick Hirigoyen I read it differently. I saw it as a personal story about how two professional "antagonists" (maybe too strong a word) can nevertheless respect each other and form a personal bond. Unspoken in her column is the contrast with today's "Enemy of the People" relationship between the President and the press.
And the only way for Maureen Dowd to tell the story was to personalize it, in order to draw the contrast between her background and Bush's.
13
I heartily agree. Dowd’s column was one of her best. It reminds me what we lost when my father and the men of his generation have passed. We have lost so much civility. Perhaps H.W. ‘ passing will remind us of how people can disagree but still remain friends. It is a lesson I need in my life.
5
Maureen, loved your column. I feel like I knew him after reading your story. What a privilege for you to have had the “love hate “ relationship with President Bush.
8
Lovely piece, Maureen.
3
Oh for those long-lost, simpler times of honour, decency and friendships across the political spectra.
All gone now. All gone.
5
Thank you for this wonderful column and sharing the tender personal side of his relationship with you and the Times.
5
Lovely tribute albeit the Trump snipes - who I am no fan of but nevertheless, found disrespectful coming from a man of supposed elegance.
My parents, both journalists, dyed me blue about 60 years ago, but I never had anything but respect for Bush 41. Ms. Dowd's column didn't surprise me in the least but added affection to my regard for him, God rest his sweet soul.
4
I agree with the tributes to Mr. Bush. However, there were two people he inflicted upon us that do not do him credit: Clarence Thomas and Dan Quayle.
18
and how can we the Willie Horton and campaign? so eager to diss the CLINTONS but reluctant for HW?
2
Best piece you've written in a long time. But then again, you had great material. Thanks Maureen and God speed Mr. President.
6
i'm also a fan. initially an independent and later a registered democrat, i have voted in every presidential election since 1972. 1988 -- bush senior -- was the only time i voted republican.
loved reading your warm remembrances of him. laughed out loud at his wit -- the eleven-page satire; referring to junior as "my boy, quincy," and many more examples -- had no idea he was so humorous. was moved to tears at the examples of his kindness and goodness (his condolence note after your mother's death).
what a contrast to the current president.
5
I very much enjoyed reading this but I rather wish Trump had just been completely left out of it. There is really no good reason to bring him in as a comparison because who wouldn’t look good compared to Trump. Let’s please stop making things always be about Trump, he isn’t worth the ink and has no place in this otherwise poignant piece.
4
This is the best piece I have read on the man. Well done, Maureen Dowd.
As much as I disliked his politics, I always felt that Bush was a decent guy and a true statesman. He was dedicated to public service, intelligent, ethical, and well-prepared for his job as POTUS. God, how I miss that combination of traits in a President.
I remember seeing Bush and Bar in a tv interview, sitting side by side on a sofa while their dog sprawled, snoozing, across their laps. They were so happy with each other, and so tender with the dog, playing with its ears as they spoke. I later commented to a vehemently Democrat acquaintance that I thought they must be good people at heart, to feel and display so much love for one another and for a pet. The acquaintance almost spat at me. She never spoke to me again (thank goodness). Sometimes decency just shines through, past politics and prejudice.
6
Here, again, Maureen you say it best. Your grace, good humor and uncommon candor make me, a Democrat, cry. Forever grateful to you for allowing me a peek inside a relationship that was not always pretty but was perfect. I'm sorry for your loss.
4
Predictably, after a American President dies, the mass media writ large and many well-meaning persons romanticize about and share their fabled tales of the great character traits of the deceased.
But, the lasting architecture and most enduring testament to a President’s character is (to this day only a patriarch) his political and policy legacy agenda and achievements. These are the most true and accurate measure of any politician’s content of character.
Moreover, the obvious motivations that employ the empty and dirty politics of emotional pandering for expedient political means, regarding campaign tactics and strategies, used to justify winning Presidential power and it’s partisan ideology--should be the lens by which we see a President’s true character.
It is not all entirely about winning; it is also about how you play the game.
I applaud Dowd for her “reporterette” attempt at a truly “screwball story.” At least she had the guts to not omit and minimize H.W. Bush’s “ends-justify-the-means moves” like Hortenism and Thomanism.
These two hurtful and harmful politically calculated moves have grown to become even more toxic politically and democratically, serving only to divide, not unite.
7
I do believe GHW Bush was well brought up and thus, gentlemanly. At this time, lovely remembrances such as this one are appropriate and touching.
But the years of his presidency were staggeringly difficult ones for me as a young mother with a husband in the construction business in New England. It was the worst recession I ever lived through. So bad, in fact, that more than a few times, I counted pennies to buy food to feed us.
Nice as he was, my belief is he ever knew that kind of suffering and therefore, lacked the proper depth of understanding to be a 2-term, transformative president.
10
That choked me up. He was a decent and smart man. I cry for the loss of his grace under fire.
I also mourn because the contrast between who he was and what we have now is so tragic.
2
What a thoughtful and entertaining 'love' story! Thank you.
2
Thank you Ms. Dowd, for being a superb journalist writing about a moral and principled President. We need more of both of you.
3
Beautiful piece. When he was elected I was aghast that a former CIA chief had been elected, but looking back I see a man who filled the shoes that were required for his office. Ms. Dowd, your memories filled my heart, and showed me a more intimate view of GHWB that gave me respect for him, way beyond the respect I had for him before. Thank you.
3
Flaws are what make us human. Part of the problem today is that with everything on display 24/7, the guileless cannot survive. We think we are selecting the least flawed, but we actually select those capable of hiding their true selves.
Thank you for sharing your memories of Poppy.
3
Dear Ms. Dowd,
This article has to be the finest journalism i have read this year. The warmth of the relationship one feels while reading this article was incredible. The way you appreciated the strong sense of civility and decency of the great man that Mr. Bush lived to be, it was contemplating the way you created the contrast without really casting a direct finger at 44th. I wish you well madam, may you keep writing and help us summon the better angels in our personalities and also of our sense of judgement.
4
Here is a man who rose above his lofty beginnings. A patrician background may confer wealth and privilege, but it does not imbue humility, civility, a sense of service to country, and love of family. G.H.W. Bush achieved those himself.
7
Beautifully written, touching and true. Thank you for sharing and writing such an excellent and elegant piece. I am grateful to be reminded that in America dignity, grace, wit and charm remain in abundance even between people with different points of view on the world.
7
Thank you, Maureen. Beautiful. I loved Poppy. You made him even more special as you revealed his wonderful humanity that the rest of us were not able to experience. RIP, Poppy.
5
@zealander
Poppy did get hrough to Maureen about her mother's passing. That gives us conservatives hope for her as well.
This is a wonderful, intimate view of 41 and your relationship with him. I read this along side your excellent piece on the Clintons, which was also published today. The contrasting portraits of HW, Bill and Hillary is mind boggling. It makes won seriously question whether the country will ever reestablish a morally and ethically grounded political leadership.
2
I have a lot of mixed feelings and thoughts on 41. Won't try to dissect all those here.
However, hearing of his simple and dignified wishes for funeral and headstone, for instance, I hope and pray family and Washington honors them.
Because, simple, dignified -- restrained -- would be a nice touch right about now.
11
A wonderful article...in spite of his flaws, he was decent and civil and respected the importance of a free press and understood the value of diplomacy. How far we have fallen!
10
A beautiful piece. Wonderfully pointing out that you can have differences with grace and kindness.
10
This was a real treat - thank you.
9
Wonderful article. I thought of him as a patrician, yes. But that was always tempered by the thought that President Bush enlisted at the age of 18, risked his life and won the Distinguished Flying Cross. Lord knows, we need more patricians like him.
27
This is beautiful, and captures so much of the ambivalence I feel about the Bush presidencies. I would never have imagined my 30-something-year-old self feeling nostalgic for either of the Bush presidents, but my 57-year-old self longs for the simple decency of both men, with all of their flaws. Thank you for this.
24
@Newton Thomas
Oh, sir, please reconsider your 'longing' for 43.
Arrogant, not very bright, ignored the daily brief before 9/11, and then went to Iraq and killed so many US -- in war zones, and since, from veteran suicides -- and Iraqis under entirely false pretenses of the fake uranium enrichment.
Nostalgia is one thing, revisionist history another.
And it's not even been 20 years! Far, far, too early to let 43 off the hook.
We families haven't even gotten the satisfaction of real answers and anyone being held accountable for the lapses and dereliction that permitted 9/11 to occur, much less a day in court with anyone at Guantanamo. It's never-ending.
And 43 is part of the struggle.
I understand almost anyone looks better than Trump.
I agree that 45 is awful, horrible, just disgusting. However, that doesn't excuse 43.
~ 9/11 family member
2
Excellent piece and a reminder that distancing ourselves from our subjects is not always possible,
But maybe that is a good thing.
5
A charming, delightful reminiscence. Thank you for sharing.
17
Your column touched my heart and gave me a new respect for the elder Bush. Thank you.
15
Bush’s “Willie Horton” ad was most unfortunate. Bush was uniquely positioned to promote civil rights, not reinforced stereotypes.
But Papi learned at the footstool of the champion of conservatives, Ronald Reagan, who disparaged affirmative action and kicked-off his 1980 campaign in Mississippi for a reason.
For Bush, it was win at any cost.
How is that different than Trump’s own philosophy?
Indeed, Bush’s unwillingness to push back against the extremism in his own party led 43 to turn Far Right (not wanting to repeat his father’s failure) and led directly to Sarah Palin and Trump.
And even if you want to give Bush a pass while he was president, there was nothing that stopped him from denouncing a lot of the right wing bigotry that is so pervasive in the Republican Party.
45
@Tell the Truth You're right, what he let happen to Dukakis was pretty low, but not as low as what W. let happen with Karl Rowe and his Swift Boat flunkies that lost the election for the most honorable man of them all, John Kerry.
It's fairly clear that repubicans were just as low and dirty as they are today. Be nice if we never elected any one of them ever again. Ever.
2
This is a delightful column. I understand the criticisms of President Bush but his underlying decency has made me feel better about this country. He cared about the country more than himself. He may not have been perfect but he was a hero.
27
In another recent NYT article, James Baker is quoted as saying #41 was the most competitive person he had ever met. I believe that characteristic was his undoing because he could not put aside his compulsion to win confirmation for Clarence Thomas when fundamental flaws became known. His sense of humanity eas less than three dimensional.
25
This is the best tribute to a person. You have captured the essence of a life. I appreciate this so much more than the lists of historical accomplishments. I always watch memorial services of famous people just to hear the stories that have never been told and would have made them seem more like the rest of us.
I laughed and cried reading this wonderful tribute, and look forward to every column you write.
28
I imagine that many tears were shed by you as you wrote this meaningful tribute. You are lucky to have enjoyed this complex and lovely relationship. I always enjoy reading your work and this is no exception.
13
Priceless! Evocative of the heady times working in the Capitol, Houston and repairing 'down east' to recharge the batteries in the 80s and 90s. Maureen you capture the spirit perfectly.
9
I didn't vote for George HW Bush and I didn't approve of everything he did, but I did go to bed at night not worrying about the nuclear codes or that democracy as we know it was being tarnished or dismantled at a time when I had a growing family. For this I am grateful to Bush Senior, and I wish his family well during the next week and the year to come.
49
A warm reminiscence, but Maureen didn't forget the dark side of that campaign against Dukakis, or give a complete pass to Poppy, but this wasn't the time for a laundry list of is failings.
Unfortunately that Atwater bile foreshadowed how increasingly nasty campaigns would get . . . and being at arms' length removed didn't absolve Bush from responsibility for those attacks. If you don't like playing in the dirt, standup and denounce the lies.
That she and the ex- President liked one's another's company comes through. (Didn't anyone take her picture sitting cross legged on the ground at the golf course, in the Jackson for President hat?)
This isn't fawning over a connection to power -- just as one of those human connections that reaches out like blackberry runners despite class and ethnic differences.
10
What a moving memoir! As someone who was too young (b. 1976) to be much aware of politics when Bush was in office, this provided me with some humanization of a person who had a significant impact on the world in which I existed as a young person. While I have mixed feelings about many (even most) of his policies, I was sincerely charmed to learn some of those personal details that reveal his deep humanity. Thank you for this lovely piece.
14
I am a liberal democrat. I both liked and respected GHWB. You can disagree without being an enemy. I leave the discussion of Trump for another day. Fair wind and following seas forever.
47
I deeply appreciate all of your pieces, but this one is the best- heartfelt, personal, moving. It is as much a tribute to you and your generous spirit, as it is to President Bush. In the days following his death, I have wondered if his death might cause a stirring among Americans for leaders driven by their passion for a generous and aspirational country, and a rejection of personalities masked as leaders who sow fear and mistrust to push their agendas . Bush was far from perfect, but any thinking adult never questioned his love for country and its people. Thank you.
29
I may be a Democrat, but I always liked and admired President Bush. After reading this column, which I’ll save, my admiration and respect have trebled.
17
Once in those pre-email days I wrote an actual letter to President GHW Bush. I was concerned the Persian Gulf war might run out of control.
He replied.
A big manila envelope arrived, with a frame-ready White House letterhead if I'd been so inclined, and it was a nice reply.
He also did not mess up the war.
I wish he'd taken the opportunity at the end of the Cold War to impose a more organized vision on what would follow. It was a missed opportunity, and a very important loss. More so, because he'd probably have done a good job, if he'd done it.
I've got to like him anyway. And he did not mess up that war.
10
Thank you for sharing your memories. What struck me was his sense of humor and humanity. This is how presidents should be.
23
Thanks Maureen, for this wonderful piece on Pres. Bush. I haven't forgotten his years as head spook or the Willie Horton thing either, but your remembrances humanize him and bring to life his good and gentle characteristics. We're all complicated people. Thanks for this nuanced remembrance.
15
I’m old enough to have been an adult when HW was President. A lifelong Democrat, I often disagreed with him ... while feeling safe with the thought that any action he took would be thoroughly vetted. I do not feel safe these days. At all. I’m scared and I resent that. A lot.
70
A really sweet read. I grew up in Kennebunkport and used to see the Bushes around town. George HW was always so nice! I'd see him in restaurants while president, and after, and no matter how many times people approached him, he always posed for selfies, even at the White Barn.
When I was very young, my dad was a State Senator, We had a speed boat and encountered him on his. He and my dad had an impromptu race. Can't remember who won, but after, my dad said that was the head of the CIA!
I remember also seeing Maureen at the local watering holes in Kport. She always seemed to be the center of attention with the other journalists.
14
@spiffypaws I think for print and TV journalist drinking is part of the job. It allows one to keep in the flow with the competition. Probably her looks and smarts kept her as the Sun around which the other planets revolved.
Thank you for this beautiful piece Maureen. It show the humanity of both of you - differences in political beliefs does does not overshadow character, decency and love. I am a long time admirer of George HW Bush, and this was a joy to read.
15
Thank you so much for this lovely piece on a lovely man and a patriot. And just for the record, it would be more accurate to call Santa Fe Trail an Errol Flynn movie with Ronald Reagan in it.
9
I found it interesting to read Maureen Dowd’s personal perspective on Mr. Bush. No human being is perfect. We all make choices. We all believe in something’s. No one agrees with everything any one person does. And who someone is on a personal level oft times is in stark contrast from the professional level. There are many angry people in the world - seemingly more these days - and they occupy, especially, the ranks of the zealots and extremists and ‘purists’ of the religious and political venues.
Yes, we can decry the faults of Mr. Bush, and of Ms. Dowd who wrote of her personal/professional relationship with him, as some commenters have, but I choose to believe that, as imperfect as Mr. Bush was, that which Ms. Dowd wrote about reflects upon aspects of his character that more people would do wise to embrace.
15
Brava! You and I have literally nothing in common, except perhaps for some small regard for decent human interactions. Your history, and your correspondence with 41 illuminates both of you. I am glad to know this part of both of you. While I might gladly spend hours picking you apart, I respected him, even as I rarely agreed with him. I believed in him as a statesman and a grand patriot. This column softens the way that I have felt about you. I’m glad you had the experience of gaining respect from a sitting president. Is something of which to be proud.
15
A beautiful and moving tribute. I didn't agree with his politics, but context is everything. When I was watching his inaugural, I muttered under my breath whenever he said something I disagreed with. My young dog, sitting nearby, growled at me each time I did. After a few minutes of muttering a growling, I said to the dog, "That's George Bush." He barked, and we had ourselves a party trick. Thanks for the memories, Ms. Dowd.
11
Brava, Reporterette! I have read and enjoyed your columns many times but today’s was something special. I hope they have the NYT in Heaven so GHWB can read it.
29
Incredible touching tribute that touched my spirit and should serve as a reminder that,m at our core, we're all connected as human beings. Hopefully, this friendship can help show the "thousand points of light" of how we can stay united, rather than the one cloud of despair that briefly darkens our judgment. Thank you for writing what had to be a difficult piece.
9
What a magnificent first-hand remembrance of our 41st president - warts and all, but letting the good character and personality of the man be revealed. Of everything I've read and seen on the air these past 48 hours, this is positively the best. I'm sure "41" is reading this and looking down on you with a wink and a nod, Maureen. Thank you for sharing all this with us!
28
Maureen I was touched to tears reading this. So personal, so poignant, this look behind the scenes at the beautiful connection you two had.
My condolences on this loss...and thank you for sharing more of your humanity and his!
11
"With Poppy, there was decency and sweetness."
And it showed throughout your column, Ms. Dowd. Enjoyed this column very much. Thank you for the reminiscences about your interactions with Bush 41 over the years.
Anyone who described Trump the way Bush 41 did is all right in my book.
15
Maureen's oped resonates with me - my mother was a lifelong GHWB fan and worked in the old EOB for him - he took the time to sign a letter to my youngest son Michael on his birth welcoming him to the world and to our family. I may have had differences with him on policy but he was a "class act" in comparison to the current WH occupant.
17
Great column, good read, also sad, the passing of a good and noble ex pres who represented decency, civility public service.
19
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this! While I was never a fan of his policies, and I did laugh - long, hard and with more than a little "snark" - at every Dana Carvey "shot" at the man, I nevertheless respected the fact that he was, through it all, a gentleman. As the old Joni Mitchell song says, "You don't know what you've got till it's gone;" I look back on those George H.W.Bush days now and regret, most of all, the passing of the dignity and grace that used to be part of our presidency. Thank you for all the gentle reminders of what a deep-down, basically decent man George H. W. Bush worked so hard to be.
27
Thank you for sharing your memories, what a beautiful tribute.
9
Maureen, I haven't enjoyed much of what you've written over the years, but this "appreciation" was a gem. It put a smile on my face, about you as well as our late president.
Like any politician with such a long career, GHWB had some warts on his record, but I expect most Americans will remember him with respect for his prudence and character. How pleasant to think there is something about which most Americans could find common ground these days.
14
The heart of it all is that graciousness toward others we know and decency toward all whom we don't know should be sacred to each of us, and that we ensure a world governed by virtue.
More saddening than the inevitable end of a glorious life is that graciousness and decency is always at risk from the vast plurality of social animals.
2
A very loving tribute for a good man. Thank you.
12
God, this made my heart smile!
10
Thank you, Maureen, for sharing these wonderful stories. I enjoyed this column more than any other you have written.
How lucky you were to have had this relationship with this extraordinary man!
I will keep this column, and will enjoy reading it again to bring sunshine into my life.
18
Thank you for this beautiful intelectual love story. The lyrics -we mean the words- you wrote today are wonderful.
9
I love this. Thank you, thank you. A wonderful piece, Maureen, with a perfect ending. What a beautiful relationship you two had. It makes me smile in a time when I don’t have much to smile about when it comes to politics and presidents.
18
Oh, Maureen, this was so beautiful and poignant to read. I did not share President Bush's policies, but I always liked and respected him and his wife Barbara. Their warmth, honesty, and forthrightness reminded me of my own parents. They were all of that Greatest Generation when honor and grace and a moral compass were the attributes which counted the most. They were from a time when in company we did not speak politics or religion out of respect for those who did not share our personal philosophies. It was called love and empathy, both buried now within a democracy gone awry.
While reading about your conversations and even meetings with Mr. Bush, it was hard not to compare him with Donald Trump. I won't list each of the differences between both presidents, only one being true to his office. We all know too well how one man served his country while the other serves only himself and his insatiable ego and narcissism. How one helped bring down a wall while the other lusts to build one or more both literally and metaphorically.
I will miss Poppy Bush. And I send my deepest sympathy to his loved ones. I'm sure all of us know the pain of losing Mom and Dad. And I have to say, you gotta love the guy when he asks, "Bar, what's a bikini wax?" ;)
664
@Kathy Lollock -- I like the way both of them went along in good spirit with being presented as crazy characters in Leslie Nielsen's Naked Gun 2-1/2. That had the Barbara Bush character going over a balcony, hanging on the edge.
8
Maureen Dowd finally made me cry. I hope it was from reflecting on the passing of a fundamentally good person, illustrated so well in this engaging piece. I hope it was from thoughts of a life well-lived in service to a greater cause, taught by a mother who disdained the the regality of “I” at an early age. I hope we weep for the passing of a man, and not the passing of basic decency, respect for the rule of law, and the overarching belief that the best interests of the nation remain inviolate. I hope, as I cry.
585
@Dan Pingelton
A decent man does not plot coup d’etats of democratically elected governments and abet the assasination (or forced suicide) of gentlemen presidents of sovereign nations (please see Republic of Chile and Dr Salvador Allende) as the head of the CIA.
I can list 10 more items as bad but don’t have the space (see other comments including mine anc Socrates).
Cry your heart out. I have no tears for such people.
9
Piercing Ms. Dowd,
Once again you capture an essence of shared humanity. Oh Donald is such an easy foil. Anyone glows in comparison. However you obviously struggled w your personal fondness for the man and most of his family to write a relatively fair piece. My concern would be that here was a man with enormous power that at the end of the day, although graceful, did far more harm and hurt far more people than necessary. His decision to stick with Clarence is felt to this day. He squandered a chance to press Kuwait effectively to leave behind a feudal political system. You mentioned Willie Horton. That hatchet job will stain his memory forever as will Iran Contra. The ADA improved lives no doubt and he gets full credit.
Btw, I did some fact checking. Google. Farnsworth Horatio may have graced Wisconsin in the 1800's under the name Farnsworth Horatio Clapstonestacker III. Timeline, Friends, guestbook. Farnsworth Horatio Clapstonestacker III ...
You and your writing are a treasure, Ms Piercing Dowd. My 4 kids, youngest 20, I force fed your columns from time to time. I don't have any regrets on that.
Paul S. Rothstein
.
193
If I had to choose my friends between GHWB & Maureen Dowd (as people), I would have not a moment's hesitation to select Maureen Dowd: At a minimum, she is passionate about her opinions: You know that her admiration or cynicism, beliefs, and taking sides is genuine -- not opportunistic. By contrast, I always thought of GHWB as a Man Who Believed in Nothing -- unless it suited his needs & purpose, for example compare his views of Reaganomics as 'voodoo economics' before he became Reagan's running mate... and after). I don't believe in saying nice things about the deceased, unless such words would be true while they were alive too.
A friendship between the bright & smart Irish lass and this changeable, cold-hearted patrician is truly hard to imagine --except that it comes from her account -- and therefore must be genuine. Love you, Maureen.
109
@Dan Joel You don’t have to say nice things about the deceased, but as my grandmother used to say to me, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.”
2
@Dan Joel Highest compliment 1 can pay to a fellow commenter is "You took the words right out of my mouth," as in "I don't believe in saying nice things about the deceased unless such words were true when they were alive!" Bravo, or as my late sister would say if she were here today, "Just because someone dies, that does not make him a saint." Bush "pere" used the race card against Michael Dukakis in 1988 to get himself elected--remember Lee Atwater, his dirty tricks expert and fabricated story about Willy Horton?--sold chemical weapons to Sadaam through his intermediary at the time , Rumsfeld, then attacked Iraq when the strong man attacked Kuwait, which once actually belonged to Iraq!Was always suspicious of April Glaspie's motives, high ranking US diplomat who simply nodded her head when Hussein 1 day announced to her his intention of going to war with Kuwait. If Glaspie had raised strenuous objections on behalf of the president, have a hunch that Sadaam would have thought twice, pulled back. Finally, chemical weapons were used in Desert Storm and there r still a good number of American troops involved in the conflict who continue to suffer the after effects today.I like Dowd's writing, but believe that in this column she is being opportunistic, "showing off her insider status--"elle fait de la bombinette"by genuflecting to the rich and powerful, no offense where none intended. But your remarks are perspicacious!
8
@Dan Joel I so agree with you. You have said it perfectly. As for a "friendship" between the two, to me HW was quite a flirt. And the fact that he had Dowd on a panel when "Bar" was out of town, says everything to me about him - quite a sneak.
Friends can disagree, friends can have a dust-up or two. But friends always have respect for each other. Maureen and Poppy...not exactly Tracy and Hepburn, but fun, none the less.
290
@rslay
Even foes, even rivals can respect each other. And respect the institution they represent.
7
Maureen Dowd is lucky. There are many many professions in which impertinence is a career killer. (I should know.) Maybe she got there *because* of her impertinence (and scary intelligence), and good for her. I'm glad that there is still room for impertinence. I'm not so glad that there is less and less room for the evil college-educated white male. An awful lot of them, like George HW Bush, have made great contributions.
This column should be read as a metaphor for how the impertinent upstart from the wrong side of the tracks has a place beside the polite, self-restrained patrician ("to act for the good of the country and the world"). Unfortunately, the current liberal (I'm very left) tendency is to remove one of those parties. Do you really think that's a good idea? Maureen Down isn't always the most complimentary of reporters. There should be a lesson in this column.
PS. It may well take a polite, self-restrained patrician white male to win in 2020. Just sayin'.
4
Just beautiful. Bravo.
23
I always love your articles and opinion col's in NYT. THIS WAS GREAT!
9
I truly enjoyed this article. For a few moments I forgot how H.W.s election seemed like the end of the world, my fury at the way he sold out to the far right on abortion rights, and the first Iraq war, which in retrospect seems to have set up the situation we are in today. I appreciate that at least this WASPy Bush was a decent human who could come to reluctantly respect one of my very favorite New York Times columnists. Maureen, your insight and humor are worth the cost of subscription.
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@Julie Metz
The first Iraq was strategically conducted, with thought given to what would happen if the US did more than simply restore the balance of powers in the region. Even though the optics looked bad to some American voters when Saddam Hussein was left in power, Bush and James Baker knew that removing him would have led to chaos in the region, something that later happened when GW Bush removed Saddam. The first Gulf War did not set the stage for ANY of what transpired in subsequent years with one exception: Bin Laden stated that a motivation for attacking the US on 9/11 was that the Saudis permitted US troops (ie, "crusaders") to be stationed in Saudi Arabia during the war, something that Bin Laden found unacceptable.
19
@Middleman MD Dead civilians were bad optics back then. A little later they were collateral damage. But both times the U.S. didn't acknowledge them by keeping a count.
3
@Julie Metz. Julie, no doubt you thought HW’s election was the End of the World, ditto Nixon’s, Reagan’s, W’s, Trump’s and the Next GOP President (not that such an event could possibly become a reality, ever.) In any case, I’ll wager both you and the planet will miraculously survive.
3
A lovely, charming homage to a lovely, charming relationship.
19
Madam: OK. I mistakenly thought that the former President's golfing consisted of his striding, after the fashion of long, after his shots in record time, finishing a somewhat time-consuming game both healthily and rapidly. Golf cart! Huh. Perhaps he came to that game late. That is certainly a beautiful photo of you. It's inspiring. So I wonder if you've seen the documentary "Stealing a Nation" by John Pilger, and read the book "Island of Shame" by David Vine. Pretty spooky.
4
What a beautiful read. It’s a wonderful thing to be reminded that human beings with disparate backgrounds and beliefs can not only be civil, but share mutual respect and affection. I had almost forgotten.
38
Thanks, MoDo
10
Reporters like yourself Maureen are always critical of a person or a president for not measuring up to some abstract standard of perfection, which is nonsense. The difference between an evil person and one who has faults but is a good person is currently on display today: President Bush vs. Trump.
12
Fascinating story Maureen.
And one that is about as American as you can get!
14
Need to find the tissues. Well done MD.
9
thanks for a humanizing glance at this man,condolances to you
9
Sorry Maureen to pop your balloon of infatuation but the narcissistic, amoral, vulgar reality-TV Trump and the modest, principled, classy, old-world Bush Sr. were two peas in a peapod when it came to denying Global climate change.
The former was the lone holdout on taking action on global climate change recently in Buenos Aires, while the latter was a holdout at the Earth Summit in 1992. Both Trump and Bush Sr. betrayed the public trust doing heavy lifting for the dirty fossil fuel industry that supported both of their candidacies.
Clinton blasted Bush: https://www.google.com/search?q=ravaging&oq=ravaging&aqs=chrome..69i57.515j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Bush apologists have argued that in 1992 Global Climate Change was not settled science. This is a pathetic Trumpian lie. Global Climate Change was first proposed in the 1850's. By the 1870's there was strong evidence to support Global Climate Change and by the 1930's it was accepted science. In 1986 the Republican Senator Chafee of RI said at the Greenhouse Effect, and Climate Change Senate hearings “there is a very real possibility, that man--through ignorance or indifference, or both--is irreversibly altering the ability of our atmosphere to perform basic life support functions for the planet.”
That George H W Bush did not know for sure in 1992 is a lot of bunk.
49
Just because we are currently living through a nightmare presidency, don't think your trying to put a human touch on Bush makes him any better. He was an arrogant patrician who lived his own fairy tale and fathered another Bush to become president and call himself The Decider. I was thrilled to see him voted out. Other than Eisenhower, the Republicans have given America the most vile presidents of the past 100 years. Because this Bush was a tad less vile and stylistically smoother does not make him better than Nixon, his stupid son and Trump. You are just with the Trump effect prejudice. Give us all a break.
27
Thanks Maureen Dowd. Socrates spelled out the litany of Poppy’s misdeeds. But his decency wasn’t insignificant. It might be the only thing between us & oblivion.
7
If H.W. truly, really put his country first, he would never have foisted his eldest son on us. He knew all along W. was not up to the job. He always preferred JEB as his "successor", if you will. But when push came to shove, he allowed a total nincompoop to damage us and the world beyond comprehension.
He knew better!
He could have stopped it That he didn't is unforgivable.
51
Fabulous
4
A photo with the Bush's in front of a Christmas tree?! Journalists shouldn't be so cozy with those in power. Izzy Stone and Erwin Knoll warned us of that decades ago.
26
@Killoran
Thanks for the reminder of Izzy Stone!
2
Thank you Maureen. I had no idea that Poppy Bush had such a self-deprecating sense of humour.
By the way, for literary comparisons, Trump is not the flimflam man from Huck Finn, he's more of a Milo Minderbinder from Catch-22. Would sell his mother if there was a buck in it.
P.S. You're still as cute as you were in 1989.
6
Wonderful!
3
Sounds to me like he flirted with you for decades.
11
i like this Teeter guy. And a good editor at the old Daily News would have shortened this up...
2
George H W Bush ruled over an empire a Patrician Caesar would've envied. No Hadrian perhaps, but no Caligula either.
5
Thank you Maureen for such a lovely, first-hand vignette of HWB.
It is obvious that you've truly written it from your heart.
9
I may not have voted for him but reading this made me admire him a lot more. And it made me realize that what's been lost is much more than a person.
9
Oy. It’s distressing how compromised you are. I loved it.
10
Gosh. My condolences at your losing a good friend.
7
When I read Maureen Column, I felt a cleansing in my mind like when you free of your sins. G.H.B personality and his time and his conduct in presidency compared to this age and particularly the a Trump presidency seems so remote like Jesus Christ and todays Vatican.
I wouldn't like to desecrate this comment section with mentioning Trump who chose him but didn't vote for G.H.B in 1992.
George Bush himself brought his fate the most expensive way of life, stepped behind the step of the greatest hard work for the people of his country and other nations. The undeniable phased work of his life drop by drop and punched the dictatorship of the communists. The result and contribution of his work; America provided an ocean of freedom for us, citizens of the USSR and other peoples of the Eastern bloc and other countries. Thank you with tears. It is true that only this nation can give birth to such strong people brought up by the democratic tenets of an absolute people, such as President George W. Bush. Thank you, George. Thanks to America for its conviction in the rights of every person. Thank you for your great defenders of freedom. Thank you so much
3
Thanks for sharing.
You could have chosen not to.
Much appreciated!
10
She's as irrationally positive about Bush as she was irrationally antagonistic with the Clintons; the word for this is partisan. Bush, "head spook", sure had her seduced. He was the guy who used CIA partisanship and Iran to overthrow Carter, the prototype Trump move, after all; from a family of arms dealers, "Poppy" was just his public cover, Barbara was the tell.
48
I love a writer who understands "career" as a verb!
4
I was mad at you after reading your other op-ed about the Clintons just now, but this piece makes me less so now. I can see why 41 kept you close after so many years. Thank you, Maureen, for giving us a peek at your lovely relationship with this decent man.
7
A thoughtful and joyful read. Thank you
7
Too bad that so many of you avail yourselves of the chance to comment by venting spleen gratuitously. Politics is a complicated matter, frequently requiring a choice among the least of many terrible options. Sometimes what one picks turns out even worse than expected. I think it's worth noting at this moment that the late 41 was a habitually gracious person and a chief executive who brought a wide variety of relevant experience to the Oval Office.
13
Not surprised to see so much detraction in the comments. One does not play the roles a guy like his and not come out with detractors and harsh criticism. At the end of the day, he was a product of his station and time. Frankly we could use more of this now. I never voted for him or particularly supported him but I respected him because he respected me. He was clearly about service to his family and his country, and he treated his opponents well. Trump is incapable of understanding people like GHWB. Completely incapable.
18
I read it three times. Heartfelt and simply beautiful.
7
lovely story thanks for writing it.
4
I absolutely love this. It makes me laugh out loud!
2
Thank you. Just thank you. They WERE my parents! God bless them both.
3
A "splash" of Vermouth. That's a keeper.
4
After Saturday's news, I kept checking the NYT site for this. Best remembrance among many. Thank you
9
Perhaps you took the place of his lost daughter? A lovely story to read on this Sunday. Thank you.
12
Incredibly touching. I cried.
18
@Ji
Ditto.
2
Simply, perfectly lovely.
14
Fabulous piece --- very touching and a joy to read. Thanks for sharing.
26
What an informative and involving article; thank you, Ms. Dowd. Most often - almost always, actually - I disagreed with Bush 41's politics, policies and many of the people working for him, who I considered evil (and still do); and let's never forget that among other things he was the CIA Director and one never truly leaves "the company." That said, one could tell he was a good family man and that for all his faults (the WIllie Horton ad remains unforgivable), he believed that he had what he considered the best interests of the country at heart. He also gets Brownie points for voting against Trump and announcing it. But (as some commentors have said) best president ever? Please remove the blinders even as we remember him in our own ways.
11
Well done.
Simply astonishing and beyond belief that we have allowed the Oval Office to sink to such depths with the current occupant.
I wish it were a bad dream, but it is not.
48
George H.W. Bush is history's greatest unilateral nuclear disarmer. Without demanding a treaty with the Soviets, or their Russian seccessors, he unilaterally removed all nuclear weapons from the U.S. Army and the surface Navy. He let the Air Force keep tactical nuclear weapons, but no other leader has made such a bold move toward nuclear disarmament. He did it simply because the weapons had no plausible military utility, and, as forward-deployed tactical weapons, they were the most vulnerable to theft or misuse.
Some day, another leader may apply the same reasoning to the rest of the nuclear arsenal.
26
Beautiful writing, wonderful stories. Thank you.
This morning I heard other reporters speaking of their personal relationship with H.W. Those stories, along with this, surprised me. Do all presidents have such friendships with members of the press? If so.....is that a good thing for our country? Would liking a president as much as Maureen obviously liked H.W. get in the way of honesty?
I never liked the idea of the White House Correspondents Dinner as I feel it's just too much enmeshment between reporters and pols.
But I had no idea how close Maureen was to Poppy Bush and she was tough on W.
So....I don't really know how I feel about all that. But I really enjoyed your stories, Mo.
When Barbara passed I found myself crying at different points of reading and watching the funeral. Today I started crying about this man that I never really thought about much. And I realized I was crying about his decency and kindness and telling the truth. And then I realized I was crying because all of that now seems long gone from America.
Thanks for the stories.
48
Simply beautiful. Cried thru most of it.
6
Really wonderful, one of the best pieces I have read.
14
The most eloquent obit ever written.
11
Wonderful piece. Thank you for sharing such personal, and wonderful, memories.
19
When I think of GHW two words come to mind. Willie Horton. He approved that message.
71
GHWB was human and made mistakes. The Horton add was vile. But Trump and his entire existence has been vile.
4
The Horton ad was also true.
Put it this way,’’ he wrote me once. “I reserve the right to whine, to not read, to use profanity, but if you ever get really hurt or if you ever get really down and need a shoulder to cry on or just need a friend — give me a call. I’ll be there for you. I’ll not let you down.
That’s the essence of the man right there. He was inherently decent and good.
Rest In Peace Gentle President.
40
In the end President George H.W. Bush and Mrs. Barbara Bush stood up to Donald J. trump and decided not to vote for the con-man.
May his soul rest in Peace.
77
@B.Sharp — May THEIR souls RIP.
6
@Dede Heath
I stand corrected
3
At best, HWB is a mixed bag: an ex-spook master who helped engineer the treason of bargaining hostages and arms for political ends, who facilitated the transfer of money to the Contras, and who was instrumental in covering up those actions. He may present a patriarchal patrician facade, but some of his actions were indeed indecent. Let him not be lionized as Nixon (Elder Statesman) was to the point of glossing over his misdeeds.
46
@Lawrence Zajac Thank you for speaking the truth. While George HW Bush had many excellent qualities, and was an enviable husband father and friend – –which in the light of today's president's greed, boorishness, narcissism,and total lack of compassion tempt us to honour him even more Than we otherwise would--he definitely weren't no saint. I am very disturbed by the media outpourings that cover up the facts. When he was president at least one third of his actions offended most Democrats greatly and left-leaning humanitarians even more so. And he definitely was not the "last gentleman president." Barack Obama was that.
26
@Lawrence Zajac— Maureen Dowd would no doubt agree with you, but that’s not her mission in this OpEd piece.
2
Thank you MD. Wonderful piece.
9
Thank you Maureen,I felt like I was in the room...
7
Has everyone lost their memory? George Bush Sr. was CIA director supporting some of the most repressive regimes around the world, and lied about the DC assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffit. When Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh concluded his investigation of Iran-Contra, finding the principle players guilty, Bush pardoned them and effectively pardoned himself as he was also implicated.
He did next to nothing during the AIDS crisis. As president elect he appointed the incompetent Dan Quayle as his VP. He treated Democrat opponent Geraldine Ferraro with boorish, sexist contempt, he drummed up racist fears to beat his Democratic opponent Michael Dukakis. During the Gulf War -- his war -- we slaughtered an entire convoy of fleeing Iraqis, and buried alive under sand Iraqi soldiers attempting to surrender. The decision to base US troops in Saudi Arabia and the imperial nature of the war caused reverberations we are still facing today.
He was also an unpopular president and people seem to have conveniently forgotten the protests against his war and his domestic policies.
222
@nanohistory— Once again, that is not the mission of Maureen Down in this OpEd piece. You seem to have forgotten this.
8
@nanohistory
Let's not forget his successful invasion of the banana Republic of Panama which we cobbled into being in 1903. Hagiography's an unsubtle art form.
18
Thank you very much for giving me a reason to feel really good!
4
This is a great column by Maureen Dowd. She appears to have really caught the essence of George H. W. Bush, the irritating and the warmth. In doing so, she has also given us a good self portrait, including her origins and how she has changed over the years. Very good writing Ms. Dowd.
24
A very sweet reminiscence. I guess it would be boorish to wonder whether old "Mr. Cop-a-feel" ever tried to grab the reporterette. If he did, the reasons for the decision to edit that out would make an interesting story in itself.
4
A loving tribute and the true measure of a man. This is one of my favorite columns you have published--and I am a Democrat!
12
While Bush I was one of the best of the old-style Republicans (which was why he couldn't get re-elected), he participated in quite a few not-so-good deeds, along with helping Reagan do his damnedest in making greed good. I respect a lot of what he did, but he's no saint.
What *is* it with our need to instantly worship the recently dead? He lived to a good old age, he had a lovely life, but that does not make him a saint.
The fact that his gentlemanly ways are considered the gold standard shows how far we have fallen.
Still, lovely story from Maureen Dowd, which explains a lot. She could become less submissive to men and less damning of those who don't maintain a quasi-flirtatious relationship with her. I cannot forget her stenography for Trump and continuous attacks on Barry and Hillary when it might have made a difference for her to be less of a mean girl. I'd love to see her outgrow that, but that family does excuse a lot.
29
@Susan Anderson
Agreed!
2
For some, the school-boy/school-girl crush can be a lovely lifelong adventure. The heart speaks -- or whispers -- though summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy Montana
9
Thank you for sharing a warm and kind memory. That aside, I think I realize why GHWB was so fond of you. If you look at the photo under your byline, you could easily be mistaken for their daughter. The resemblance to Barbara Bush is remarkable.
3
This piece beautifully captures the essence of the best President of our generation.
2
I enjoyed this article. I was wondering when you were going to post your two cents. I recall reading many a time of your complicated relationship with President Bush. I always got the impression from your writing that you kept him on his toes. He knew that you weren't going to be taken in by his need for power and adoration.
Sure, he was a gentleman but being a gentleman does not mean he wasn't loaded with white privilege arrogance and misogyny......even if it is unconscious misogyny and arrogance.
I think it's interesting that not one person has mentioned the affair that he had. Not even you.
Privilege?
5
@Julie Was this alleged "affair" ever proven, and if true, was it ever relevant to anything other than his marriage? We don't need to know everything.
4
@TC I agree TC. I really don't care about people's affairs. I just don't like creating saints after they die. I prefer hearing about real people like myself who struggled through the same human condition as everyone else and in the midst of it did the best that they could to improve the world.
5
Ms Dowd always contrasts her working family background to that of the elites that she writes of (Clintons/Bush/Gores etc)
I understand it is important to share your rags to riches story to inspire others, but it becomes a little dishonest when you’ve been the elite for as long as Ms. Dowd has or she is just unaware.There is some dissonance here in the way Ms. Dowd doesn’t consider herself a part of the same elites who she distinguishes herself from - the moment you have an assistant who you’re asking to send gifts to the president of the US on your behalf - I think you have to draw the line there
26
@Laura The Clintons were/are by no definition American elitists of the Bush and Gore ilk. Bill Clinton was the son of a poor single mother and Hillary decidedly middle class. The Gores and Bushes represent multiple generations of wealth and exclusivity.
41
@P Wilkinson
Exactly. Bill Clinton was raised in near poverty by his grandparents and single mother. I've been to Hope, Arkansas, it's pretty stark. Bill was a self made man, along with the American dream supports that helped him get there (and the sacrifices of his wife, Hillary).
6
Awesome column Maureen about wonderful relationship.
5
Maureen, that was really nice.
8
"I come from a line of Irish maids who worked for the first families of America, the Mellons and the Gores, wealthy, aristocratic families like the Bushes."
What is Maureen's relationship with women who work as maids today. At the end of any day she has so much more in common with the Bushes. Still it is nice to see the human side, tender caring side of people like George Bush and her. And my condolences to all those that loved him
Another commenter gave a link to to a very powerful piece by Ariel Dorfman in the Guardian. The divide between Maureen, Frank Bruni on the one hand and him on the other is quite instructive.
6
Ms. Dowd,
Beautifully said as always. No doubt he continues to relish your needling wit. Your mother is in good company.
5
This patrician president was not "of the people"---a hero to his "class" maybe.
10
Lovely piece on Pres. Bush, the elder.
7
Thank you, Ms. Dowd. Now I understand George H.W. Bush, and what is a kind and loving person.
8
If G.W. Bush was insightful and had the U.S.'s best interest at heart, he would have noticed the coming storm, in the form of Newt Gingrich. Bush's Republican party was infected by the cancer that Gingrich wrought and now the whole country is on its deathbed because of it. All roads leading to Trump go back to the Reagan administration players and their ability to let a cat like Newt Gingrich get out of the bag.
If Maureen was blinded by her view of Bush's patrician upbringing, she also missed the lowlife Republicans, headed by Gingrich, that caused all decent Americans to lament the loss of honor and trust politicians were once granted.
51
@Sue Yes. Bullseye. The roots of where we are now were branching and deepening then. Newt, Ralph Reid, Falwell, Robertson, Atwater, Ailes... we live in their world now.
25
All class. Intelligent, sensitive and thoughtful. Bush, too.
7
Golly, Ms. Dowd (pardon the profanity), such a loving column, which I didn't want to end.
Human decency cleanses all who come in contact with it--yours and President G.H.W. Bush's.
Thank you so much, and God bless.
16
It is embarrassing to read all the sentimental poppycock from the American press about Poppy. Yes, he is better than Trump but that bar is practically subterranean.
George H. Bush was an entitled millionaire who was chauffeured to school during the Great Depression. He and the entire Bush family believe they are American royalty. He fought in World War II but honestly how could he not? Bush's public service helped him enrich himself and his family. As a parent he produced Jeb and George - two clueless and cruel politicians. Neil cost the taxpayers millions in the Silvarado Savings and Loan debacle and was bailed out by the Republican Party. Not one son of George and Barbara ever stood on their own feet and accomplished anything on their own. Let's not forget the House of Saud connections and the Carlye Group. Not one of these people have paid a price for their stupid and reckless mistakes.
232
@Chris—Oh dear, you *guys* keep forgetting: This is a personal memory of a relationship between a « gentleman » and a reporter.
8
@Chris:
you wrote: "He fought in World War II but honestly how could he not? "
Bet Trump could have figured a way out of it.....
12
@Chris
Accusing anyone of having volunteered to serve in WW II or in our military at any point in time in order to "enrich himself" is disgusting. You should be ashamed of yourself. You should get down on your knees every day of your life and thank God for the fact that a whole generation of young American men and women put their lives on the line in WW II to literally save the world.
3
George H.W. Bush was also admired and praised by Bill Clinton, Barrack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, Julián Castro, and Beto O’Rourke. This should be enough to make the entire country wistful.
12
@JSK
Politicians (except the grifter) are smart enough to say nice things when one of their own passes on.
Wistful?
More like nauseated.
5
@Dave T.
There are reasons to avoid your (common) cynicism in this case: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/12/bushs-death-deprives-america-bipartisan-icon/577135/ ("The Democrats Who Adored George H. W. Bush," 1 Dec 2018).
So yes, wistful.
3
Sweet story about you and "The Last Gentleman" president! Unexpected friendships in this life are honey. Trump's vinegar is reigning in America today.
7
Thank you, Maureen. A little kindness goes a long way.
10
Surely am glad y'all were BFFs, surely am.
When notable persons pass on, we must always dodge an avalanche of stories about how "I knew [insert name of deceased] and just last year over cocktails at the Yale Club in Manhattan..." so that riffraff readers can have a glimpse of their insiderness (definitely planned) and neediness (no! why would you say such a thing?)
This column is no different.
Maureen, I don't care how tête-à-tête you were with HW. In no particular order, this is the guy who:
~Presided over a recession.
~Was so out of touch he didn't know what a price scanner was at the grocery store.
~Chose the Christianist cipher Dan Quayle as his VP.
~Chose the hateful Lee Atwater to dig up dirt on Michael Dukakis.
~Easily tossed aside his earlier support for Planned Parenthood and his contempt for Laffer gas to be Ronald Reagan's VP.
HW Bush was a politician. It's plain to see that he used you, Maureen. If I were you, I'd be ashamed of that.
Haven't you read Kevin Phillips' take down of the Bushes?
That's who they really are.
89
Thank you Ms Dowd. You've lost a friend. My sincere condolences.
9
The references to The Great Gatsby are apt, even with the Clintons, although few reading this will admit to it.
The Bushes did not intend to be mean, probably, but their cluelessness about middle class life made them so, it is now easy to see.
Their patrician air and way of thinking is going the way of the Dodo. Good Riddance.
13
Yes those jokes about psychiatry sure are funny. I assume he also laughed about Lee Atwater falsely claiming a candidate he was opposing had had ECT, describing it "hooked up to a car battery."
Yes, with the rising suicide rate in this country jokes that frighten people away from proper mental healthcare are just wonderful.
14
Good job Ms. Dowd. A nice read. GHWB would probably smile at the sentiment, as if he had won an hand at gin.
7
Very nice.
7
He's laughing in heaven and Barbara is likely slapping him upside the head for consorting with you. His family and his nation treasure this unequaled perspective on 41's humanity. Thank you.
10
@M Davis
How do you know?
2
SPQR devolves to Trumpism.
Patrician isn't just a word, it describes a conspiracy, a way for the wealthy to run the world from their investor class comfort. It described the Romans who eventually led Rome to disaster, and equally to the Athenians and those of London who decided things were better run in their interest than that of the state.
The Patrician dynasty needs politicians who are bought and sold for, who work for the highest bidder, and that describes our Congress, and the Bush family did its share.
The Bush dynasty has killed hundreds of thousands in the destabilized Middle East, and are dangerous.
Hugh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrician_(post-Roman_Europe)
One good NYTimes column deserves another.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/opinion/sunday/what-the-rich-wont-tell-you.html
14
Too bad Dowd couldn't have been this gracious and understanding when she was raking Pres. Obama over the coals. Pres. Bush was in many ways a good man, in many other ways he harmed the country and humanity. Something about that job, wanting that job, having that job exposes one's character. Given that all of our characters are flawed, he did better than many.
22
@John Griswold
I always thought wanting to be President was the first disqualifying character.
The job should be awarded in a different way. Like our Congress should be.
3
Maureen Dowd, I only wish you could experience the Clintons or the Obamas with a quarter of the compassion you show GWB Sr. Also, I find it peculiar that you only relate to these powerful politicians based specifically on how they treat you and their place in your bubble. Many times I feel I am reading Pulitzer-level People magazine celebrity profiles.
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@H. G.
Maureen Dowd has long stopped being a serious writer. When she used to be funny and relevant, she now just tries to be charming and is completely irrelevant.
Opinion columnist hang out for way too many years in the NY Times. A decade should be enough for us. Make room for new voices.
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Maureen,
Just Great,Thank You for sharing,just being friends with 41,should get you through any Rainey day.
J.F Fitz
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What a classy tribute. Thank you for your insight.
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Thank you Maureen. A beautiful tribute, and reminder that we humans aren’t all one thing or another, but very complicated.
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Worth pointing out that even those who always seem to have the daggers out for the current president can be quite "fair and balanced" when the subject is a person of good character and decency.
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I am reminded that HW signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which may price to be his longest lasting legacy.
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In our current world of talking heads detesting one another this article deserves a Pulitzer Prize for illustrating the humanity required for a functioning democracy.
15
Aren't martinis truly and forever made using gin? Oh well. In my world they are!
Thanks for a wonderful column, Ms. Dowd. A joy to read.
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Mutual respect is a lovely, civilizing, and necessary thing. Chapeau.
11
Never knew 41 had such a great sense of humor. Some of these personal insights (money on a string!) made me laugh out loud. Thank you for this beautiful tribute. Sorry you have lost such a good friend.
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This made me feel good. Maybe there is still hope for us after all.
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“Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.” Attributed to Socrates...
We have only to look at motives to understand how President George H. W. Bush's patrician lineage created what is described as a modest, nice man; a caring father and husband. It is said that his motive for his career path was to serve. Seeing images of him with his large family and grandchildren crowding about him and sitting on his lap only reinforce how loved and respected he was. You can't choreograph that behavior, I don't think.
I am guessing President Trump's motives for becoming president were for power and to fill up the empty hole in his essence. His upbringing by his what is described as a ruthless father has to have contributed to this path.
Even though he was born rich, as was President Bush, no one seems to have taught him values, or he did not get the lesson. It is never too late to make a psychic change, but it is unlikely he will change, and may never know the love and respect President Bush captured.
President Trump is all bluster...I am guessing he is only valued for his money, and is lonely and feels unloved and not respected.
Even though both President Bush and Trump may have attained their heart's desire, the richness of life most likely was captured by President Bush.
I doubt his last words will be "I love you too"...
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@Claire Douglas It was not Socrates, but Oscar Wilde who spoke of those tragedies--and much more wittily than you have put it.
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The sincerest form of commemoration for President Bush by our leaders would be emulation-country before self, less talk, more friend, see good not bad in those who disagree with us . The greatest sadness is not his passing after a full life but that there is nothing like him on the horizon.
9
Thank you Ms. Dowd, an affectionate reminiscence that shows the grace of a president who understood the burdens of the job, the determination of a journalist who understood hers, and the threat of mutual respect and humanity that connected them.
No president is a saint. None can satisfy everyone. Patricians will have blind spots for which it is hard to compensate. I wrote some pretty harsh stuff about GHW back in the day. But with hindsight (and contrast with a current miserable excuse for a president who lied and bullied his way into office and uses mass loathing of unappreciative Americans to rally is base), and despite his human flaws, the Elder Bush represented the country with decency, a healthy measure of self-doubt, and a charming reluctance.
9
Thanks for this. Loved every word.
Never understood how anyone could think the youngest WW II fighter pilot who was captain of his college baseball team, left New England to make his fortune in Texas, and headed the CIA could be a wimp on the grounds that he was a decent thoughtful man with a playful side and preppy tones in his voice.
It’s important when patricians like Mr. Bush are willing to put themselves in harms way during a just war, and to rub shoulders with we plebes when they go into politics. And it’s worth noting that many of us associated him with Dana Carvey’s signature line in his Saturday Night Live impersonation of the president: “Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.”
Prudence, decency, thoughtfulness, and bravery sound pretty good nowadays.
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@Jack Spot on. Wimps don't fly combat missions.
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Thanks Maureen Dowd. This one brought tears to my eyes.
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Thank you. You revealed over 500 points of his life.
3
Principles. What a concept.
Seems especially anachronistic today.
4
Of all the tributes I've read, this one is my favorite. A reminder of how to get along, even when you don't necessarily agree. Thank you, Maureen Dowd.
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Interesting article - it gives us a perspective of the reporter-white house relationship during 41’s presidency, and also gives a good comparison to where we are at today.
The only unfortunate part is why does Ms.Dowd have to give anecdotes where she is shaming an assistant for sending the president the wrong gift - and giving the assistant’s name and current position. Unnecessary info.
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