The ‘burden of worry’
“I must tell you, I’m sleeping a lot better than people would assume,” [the president] said.
NBC: Do you know the American people are suffering?
Laura Bush: Oh, I know that very much. And believe me, no one sufferers more than their president and I do when we watch this. And certainly the Commander in Chief, who has asked our military to go into harm’s way.
NBC: What do you think the American public needs to know about…
Laura Bush: Well, I hope they do know the burden of worry that’s on his shoulders, every single day for our troops.
Look, I appreciate the fact that “Do you know the American people are suffering?” is a fairly difficult question for a First Lady to answer, but the right response is to explain that the president understands Americans’ grief. Bush sympathizes with those who’ve sacrificed the most during this tragic war.
But Laura Bush had to push it further. It’s not enough to share in the anguish; she thinks the First Couple suffers more than anyone else. Ezra suggested this morning that her comments have “the potential to become a destructively definitional moment for the administration.” I’m very much inclined to agree.
Indeed, in just a few seconds, Laura Bush encapsulated so many of the White House’s failings. For example, a common refrain for years has been that this White House has no real sense of sacrifice. Consider this gem from January:
[O]n the PBS Newshour, Jim Lehrer asked President Bush why he hasn’t called on Americans — besides those serving in the volunteer military — to sacrifice something to help our country in this time of struggle. Bush claimed Americans are sacrificing: “They sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible image of violence on TV every night.”
Apparently, the Bushes haven’t quite gotten past this bizarre worldview.
This also plays into the notion that the president somehow feels sorry for himself, as if he’s had to struggle personally. It’s the kind of feeling that might lead a draft-dodging war-monger to accept a Purple Heart without earning it.
Ultimately, though, the First Lady’s comments reflect a painful detachment. Thousands of families are struggling with the loss of loved ones, or those who come back seriously injured, only to find that their government isn’t quite as anxious to help as they’d been led to believe. Those people understand anguish.
“No one” suffers more than the president? He has the “burden of worry”? It’s a slap in the face to those who understand sacrifice far better than the Bushes.
Update: Important point from Atrios:
Consider, if you will, a parallel universe in which Bill Clinton presided over a deeply unpopular war in Iraq which was increasingly opposed by members of the Republican party. Thousands of US troops had died, and many thousands more had life-altering injuries. And, then, First Lady Hillary Clinton said, on a popular morning show, that over the course of the war no one had suffered more then she and her husband had.
Just imagine for a moment how that would’ve played out on talk radio, Drudge, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, the nightly news, the Sunday shows, the wingnut columnists, the liberal columnists, NPR, etc…
It would dominate the news cycle for a week.
Bitch.
I said this on a previous post ‘Laura Bush is a narcissistic bitch. She deserves to rot in hell with her dimwit husband and tactless, fat, bitch mother-in-law.
(More ammo for the conservative pundits to use against us, but damn, I feel much better now.)’
Saying it again after reading the transcript in this post made me feel even better…
GOD is obviously talking DIRECTLY TO THEM and CB’s sniping serves no one save SATAN . . .
CB, I admire your Sysiphusian Resolve.
I can only hope that what she says is actually true.
In related news, nothing suffered so much in that hit-and-run accident back in the day as her car’s bumper.
BUCK LAURA FUSH!
She has been hanging our with Barbara a little too much, apparently.
Yes, no one has suffered as much as the president and his lady – what utter hogwash. The Bush family has not suffered lost limbs, lives and/or livelihoods. No, the Bush family will have to wait for purgatory to begin their suffering for all the misery they have spewed upon the world. -Kevo
She’s incapable of feeling anything but contempt. She has no conscience. They suffer more because they “worry” demonstrates how shallow she is. Such an embarrassment. For her to stop worrying she just needs to turn off the TV. What a frigid person.
Maybe Laura the drug-addled Lump was referring to Bush’s poll standings.
And it is not just the families who have lost loved ones or whose loved ones have come home injured. It is almost each and every family who has a loved one over there, both financially and emotionally, particularly as they have been forced to stay on much longer tours and go back on tour sooner than contracted, or for more tours than contracted.
I may have said this in a previous post that was eaten: Laura Bush apparently wants her own Purple Heart.
Oh, and on this: “Do you know the American people are suffering?”
In Bush-speak, it’s “Is our people suffering?”
Hey, come on… she suffered more than the boyfriend she ran over and killed, and his family too.
Her “beautiful mind” is hurting. Badly.
no one sufferers more than their president
Al Gore is my president, you cunt.
Of course Bush is suffering more than anyone else – he *could* have been the most popular president in history – but nooooo – those dirty hippies and liberal media types and defeatocrats have refused to act like real Americans and get fully behind the patriotic global war or terror. Their communist pinko lack of patriotism is going to cost him his almost-guaranteed spot on Mt Rushmore.
First Lady Hillary Clinton said, on a popular morning show, that over the course of the war no one had suffered more then she and her husband had.
Just imagine for a moment how that would’ve played out on talk radio, Drudge, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, the nightly news, the Sunday shows, the wingnut columnists, the liberal columnists, NPR, etc…
It would dominate the news cycle for a week.
A week??? Can you say, “Vast right-wing conspiracy”? HAW HAW HAW! AS IF THERE WERE SUCH A THING!!!!
I guess that’s why Bush accepted the Purple Heart: for watching painful television reports above and beyond the call of duty. Maybe he should get some oak leaf clusters on that Purple Heart if he watches Bill Moyers tonight on selling the war.
Republican victimhood from their own idiocy is very much alive and well.
Hey, Laura’s just as thoughtless, self-absorbed, over-priveleged and isolated as her husband. Who’da thunk it?
people, people. . . please. These comparisons to Babs are just uncalled for. While I’m sure Babs is proud of her protege, the blunt reality is that she remains a student, and still needs a fair amount of tutelage to be fully ready to fill Babs’ white pumps. Laura, for all of her efforts to be Kennebunkport-worthy, remains several steps away. How many steps? Well, lets just take a look at “Babs Bush’s Guide to Bitchiness for the Bourgeoisie”. . .
Ok, it looks like Laura is on Step 5:
“Work on showing concern for the lesser people. If you can’t honestly muster concern, feigning it is fine. The real key is not the concern for the proles, but rather the fact that once you identify such concern, you can internalize it – and once you internalize it, you can claim their suffering as your own. Never let anyone tell you the privileged have it easy. Why, any poor person suffers only their own discomfort, while we bear the cross for all of them at once (figuratively, of course – any physical strain leads to unsightly callouses.”
In Step 6, we learn:
“At the end of Step 5, you learned that your own suffering is what is really important. But given your importance, why should you suffer at all? What’s the point in being in the ruling class if you still have to suffer? The whole idea of the ruling class is that we can make rules, inspire policies, impress upon the press so that we do not have to suffer. Who expects us to suffer anyway? How silly. . . ”
In Step 7, Babs teaches:
“In fact, to carry one’s self with proper aristocracy one must learn that those who suffer are not worthy of our concern. Maybe, as my friend Jerry Falwell suggests, they bring it on themselves. But really, the ‘why’ is of no concern either. Consider Ronald Reagan’s sunny disposition – he looked out on the Mall and saw no homelessness in America! How liberating! How peaceful! Keep your head up and you’ll never see those below your station, and that is how it shuold be. . .
And finally, Laura will, if she works hard, get to Step 8 with her Ma-in-Law:
“Once you accept that certain people are not worthy of your concern, you may find it occasionally pleasurable to mock them, or, if you just can’t bring yourself to do so, to at least point out the hollowness of their lives compared your yours. Come on – everyone knows those people who overracted to a little Louisiana rain were having a gay old time in Texas. I mean, I loved Texas, until all too many of those Mexicans showed up and actually wanted to get paid, but thats another story. . . ”
So it appears Laura is, in fact, still 3 steps short of appropriately being compared to Barbara. (Little known trivia fact: for each Step acheived, a pupil’s sponsor provides her with another strand of pearls, so you may see Babs in a 8-strand necklace, but you should never see Laura wearing more than 5.)
I wonder if she calls him “Commander in Chief” in the bedroom too?
Probably he insists on it.
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Is Jim’s point (Re#13) that the current MSM & RWMedia never lets go of a meme? And the hypothetical senario would never die?
After all, I’m still hearing that Al Gore invented the Internet from these creeps.
Whe we get a Dem President, the Media needs a thorough houscleaning.
[comment deleted]
Ann Currie: Laura. I kiss you!
First Lady Laura Bush: I understand the sacrifices people have made for this– the ‘merican people love their commander-in-chief. As do I.
Ann: I want to hold you, admire your feet!
Laura: Yes. George has had to sacrifice more than anyone. He once had to end his afternoon exercise early in order to take a phone call from King Muhammed or something.
Ann: Listen to my voice. It is fellatio for your ears!
Laura: Freedom is hard work. Living is hard work. Hard work is hard work. Do you like my new dress?
Ann: Like it? I want to be buried in it! *inaudible* … *To camera*: Up next, mango recipes.
Oh Vei, #18 and #20-
Don’t you mean Oy Vei?
You are off-topic, and you sound like a nut.
Everything is all about the Bushes. Shrub can’t drop Torture Boy Gonzo because of his self-regard; he can’t accept the Democrats trying to assert themselves on the war for the same reason. Old Man Bush thinks the country doesn’t want Jeb!’08 because of “Bush fatigue.” The Queen of Xanax asserts that she and the Deciderer suffer more than anyone.
It can only be a matter of days before Jenna and/or Not-Jenna come forward to complain about how they can’t score good dope because the high-end dealers won’t sell to Bushes.
Sacrifice by the American people? Bush couldn’t do that. That require that spending for the Iraq war be included in the regular budget–not the supplement spending bills. Not to mention, the responsible funding for the war would require a rollback of the tax cuts for the wealthiest American. Can’t do that!
I believe, ladies and gentlemen of the blogosphere, that Laura Bush has just handed us her “let-them-eat-cake” moment….
Is it the environment or the genes that make a person?
In this case, it has to be the environment. Laura ain’t related to Barbara Bush by blood, but they both are able to make the most condescending statements when it comes to offering sympathy.
Remember Baba saying that the refugees from New Orleans were doing good for themselves camping out in the Astrodome?
Baba telling people she doesn’t watch the news because all those ‘ugly” stories might ruin her lovely, wonderful day?
And now Laura tells the country that no one suffers more than the boy king and herself. Talk about empathy from people that I personally don’t think have the inner qualities to be able to even know empathy!
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Heh…
Laura’s fuckup just hit the Post. Froomkin:
“To call attention — even when prompted by an interviewer — to the first family’s supposed suffering when American troops are losing their lives and American families are losing their loved ones in a war of choice doesn’t strike me as appropriate.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/04/25/BL2007042501330.html
Sister (#2) is dead-on right.
It’s “Oy Vay”
I know five investment bankers (I live in a North Jersey bedroom community) who make in excess of 1 Million per year. Four are Catholic ~ 3 Irish, 1 Italian. It’s actually a Popish plot you anti-semite assholes.
I just left a message on Froomkin’s column stating that he’s nuts if he thinks Laura Bush’s remarks would even cause a ripple in society today. Certainly her cunt mother-in-law’s words about her “beautiful mind” and the displaced New Orleans were never decried by Americans. Bush and his family are much more “teflon” than Reagan EVER was.
I’m sure the fRighties are gearing up to defend the sweet sainted virginal BushBitch.
I’m just happy to know that she deserves to be married to the Demander-in-Chief.
What do you expect? Like monster-in-law like bitch. The whole family is full of psychopaths.
As I posted at another site:
Loony Laura and Ga-Ga Georgie are two of a kind, equally yoked, perfectly matched bookends. Both self-medicate, both self-deluding, both self-consumed and self-centered.
Perhaps she could come to Georgia the next time a young man is sent home from Iraq to be buried. Perhaps she could go to the VA hospital and see how the injured suffer deeply, but bear it all courageously and with supreme dignity. Perhaps she could visit the homes of returned Iraq/Afghanistan vets to witness the anguish of their spouses, children, and parents as they realize that their loved one will never be the same again. Perhaps she could talk to spouses of soldiers/Marines still in Iraq and listen to the innumerable problems they’ve encountered dealing with burdensome bureaucracy and coping with being a single parent.
Loony Laura nor her dingbat husband know the first thing about true suffering.
It’s not enough to share in the anguish; she thinks the First Couple suffers more than anyone else.
Everything in Texas is bigger than anywhere else.
CB, is there anything you can do about the sewage-spout at 18, 20 & 27? It seems to have gotten stuck somewhere between Mein Kampf and the Elders of Zion.
‘Laura Bush is a narcissistic bitch. She deserves to rot in hell with her dimwit husband and tactless, fat, bitch mother-in-law.’
harsh words…but true.
“Hey, come on… she suffered more than the boyfriend she ran over and killed, and his family too.”
thats way out of line racerex!!!!!
“no one sufferers more than their president
Al Gore is my president, you cunt.”
OMG. LOL!! that is too fucking funny, ‘haik’!!!!
libra wrote:
“CB, is there anything you can do about the sewage-spout at 18, 20 & 27? It seems to have gotten stuck somewhere between Mein Kampf and the Elders of Zion. ”
Thank you for make me laugh out loud.
…”making” me laugh out loud
Preview is our friend…
I would love to hear Laura Bush talk about suffering with Elizabeth Edwards on the campaign trail.
Just kidding! She’s not a bitch, I love Laura Bush.
Whoops, I hope a lot of people didn’t see that comment all day long.