Bush, Carter, Trade Barbs

First lady felt weight of the world lifted upon return to Texas

(NEWSER) - Laura Bush felt a weight lift when she returned to Texas after 8 years in Washington, free of the rigors of protecting America in the post-9/11 era, the former first lady tells Politico . “I didn’t really realize how stressed we were and how vigilant we were—that hypervigilance—until we came home and I wasn’t so stressed anymore," Bush says. "I almost stood straighter, just without that weight of worry.” More»

In memoir, Bush aide regrets not defending war to public harder

(AP) - Karl Rove says in a new memoir that the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq badly damaged the Bush administration's credibility and led to dwindling public support for the war. The former White House political adviser blames himself for not pushing back against claims that President Bush had taken the country to war under false pretenses, calling it one of the worst mistakes he made. The president, he adds, did not knowingly mislead the American public about the existence of such weapons. More»

Ex-president says he won't personally make trouble for Obama

(NEWSER) - George W. Bush today offered his first public endorsement of Dick Cheney’s repeated attacks on President Obama. “I’m glad Cheney is out there,” Bush declared at a reunion breakfast for administration alumni. But he said he would personally continue avoiding the spotlight. “I didn't like it when a certain former president—and it wasn't 41 or 42—made my life miserable,” 43 said, referring to Jimmy Carter. More»

GOP faithful can't fathom why press goes so easy on new president

(NEWSER) - Supporters of George Bush are miffed about the passes the media has given President Obama for trespasses the former president would likely have been excoriated for. “We have a joke about it. We’re going to start a website: IfBushHadDoneThat.com,” former Bush counselor Ed Gillespie tells Politico. Some examples of perceived media bias: More»

In new book, ex-prez discusses Lewinsky, Yeltsin's drunken caper

(NEWSER) - Between 1993 and 2001, historian Taylor Branch met regularly with then-President Clinton for a series of taped interviews. The transcripts form the basis of a new book, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President, to be released next week. USA Today got a look and singles out some highlights:

• Secret Service agents had to corral a drunk Boris Yeltsin trying to hail a cab on Pennsylvania Avenue—wearing only his underwear. The Russian leader, who was bunking at Blair House, told them he wanted a pizza.