Did you hear the one about Jenna Bush interviewing Bill Clinton? No, this is not a joke. Last year, NBC’s Today Show hired George W. Bush’s daughter, Jenna Bush Hager, a teacher, as an occasional correspondent. She recently sat down for a chat with Clinton. It was aw-shucks softball all the way. One revealing thing: Jenna confessed that her grandfather, George H.W. Bush, considers Bill virtually one of the family.
” They love you,” said Hager. “In fact, they joke that you’re my grandfather’s stepson … because he talks about you more than he talks about anyone else in the family.”
Aside from what this says about the continued diminishment of the corporate-owned media (Today does consider itself at least in part a news program) it also speaks volumes about the country’s growing love affair with the idea of dynasty and quasi-monarchy. And it holds out the promise of what may become a ping-pong of Bush-Clinton in the White House. Though Hillary did not (yet) make it to the top, she got awfully close, and still might—she would be 69 at election time 2016, or about nine months younger than Reagan was at his election). And then there’s Jeb Bush, who is now one of the GOP’s bright lights and barnstorming the country as a top party spokesman. And Jeb’s son, George P. Bush, who aspires to a political career. (this newest version of three generations of “George Bush” is serving in the Naval Reserve as an intelligence officer, thereby continuing another longstanding Bush family tradition—Navy and spy work.)
Finally, this Bush-Clinton coziness should be seen in the context of little-understood financial and political interests that have made a practice of taking care of, and essentially co-opting, Republicans and Democrats alike. For more on this, please see our WhoWhatWhy investigative articles along the right-hand side of this site.
Russ,
One glaring ommission in your otherwise brilliant book on the Bush’s is the Bush-Clinton connection, which goes back (at least) to the Iran Contra in the 1980’s. Hillary herself has a Watergate connection. Both she and Bill may be long-time CIA spooks, just like Poppy. I commend to you a book that was published in the early 90’s by an insider in the Iran Contra op, Terry Reed, titled “Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA”. It supports well with the overall thesis of your book, “Family of Secrets”, but focuses on the Bush-Clinton connections in the 80’s, which your otherwise brilliant book overlooked.
Russ,
No way to preview and edit comments, eh? I didn’t realize I had one shot. Let me refine my last post a bit:
One glaring ommission in your otherwise brilliant book on the Bushes is the Bush-Clinton connection, which goes back (at least) to the Iran Contra op in the 1980’s. Hillary herself has a Watergate connection. Both she and Bill may be long-time CIA spooks, just like Poppy.
I commend to you a book that was published in the early 90’s by an insider in the Iran Contra op, Terry Reed, titled “Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA”. It supports the overall thesis of your book, “Family of Secrets”, but focuses on Iran-Contra and the Bush-Clinton connections in the 80’s. I am of the belief that Poppy intentionally threw the 1992 election to his spook-protege, Bill Clinton.
Russ,
Thank you for this article. Awesome job in finding the all too important needle in the cow pie. I just wrote an article for my blog involving the effects of printing trillions and sending it all down to South America for Private Equity investment.
Of course the FTAA is the ultimate goal of both Bushes and Clintons. And we know what NAFTA did to national competitiveness.
Printing trillions out of thin air and sending it all down to South America (either like GM did, restarting their franchise in Brazil, or sending cash down to directly invest in Private Equity investments), the effect is obvious. The dollar drops and the Real jumps.
The problem is that the scenario impoverishes both Americans and Brazilians and twists both into some future trade agreement in order to mitigate the effects of currency shifts. South America has built its entire economy on weak currencies and North America on strong ones.
It’s not just burning down the house, but burning down the whole neighborhood, all so you can put up some new condos (FTAA).
http://www.arbitrarynation.com/?p=64
Dear Mark, thank you for your suggestion. We have considered the ability for readers to edit their own comments but decided against it since that would require everyone to create an account in order to come back and edit their comments.