As weekend readers may recall, the mister and I just returned from a mini-vacation, so I was out of the loop on all the primary stuff. It was a nice break, honestly. But we did raise a glass to the implosion of the Bush dynasty Saturday night when we saw the primary results on a Fox News crawler at the rustic honky-tonk we were visiting. (Quietly, since our fellow revelers were decidedly of the Republican persuasion and almost certainly armed, though I suspect they were among the Trumpenproletariat.)
You can quibble with when the Bush Dynasty actually started. You could make the argument that it ended on President Obama’s first inauguration day, when a jeering crowd sang, “hey, hey, hey, goodbye!” as GWB boarded Marine One for the last time.
But we suspected The Smart One was lurking in the wings, and so he was. That wretched clan of entitled psychos has dominated politics since I was in high school. And now The Smart One has been roundly rejected by wingnuts in the most humiliating manner possible.
And yeah, I know there are Bush spawn rising up through state politics even now, but let us savor this moment and hope their toxic surname forces them to adopt their mother’s family name or give up on national politics. Ding dong, etc.
Open thread!
Elizabelle
Good post, good art.
Although I think W needs to be painted in a bathtub.
JBL72
Your forgot a picture of Prescott Bush (Poppy’s poppy), without whom none of the others would have ever existed. And even though he was never president, he was still a very influential U.S. politician in his own right.
JPL
Betty, your drawings, say all that is need to be said.
Immanentize
@JBL72: Prescott Bush and Joe Kennedy. Really two sides of a very american coin.
patrick II
I enjoy the simple pleasure of using “The Smart One” ironically.
raven
Catch any fishes?
Gin & Tonic
Since this is labeled “Open Thread” here is my PSA, for those of you who live in an area serviced by the Showcase Cinemas chain. This Wednesday, February 24, they will be screening (yes, on the big screen) The Maltese Falcon. They screened it yesterday (I was busy) and will be repeating it on Wednesday. Check local listings for time(s). This is a Big Biden Deal, IMO.
Germy
Here’s Poppy chuckling about that deluded gunman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TloGm6kS66I
Iowa Old Lady
Given that the man was your governor, Betty, I’m not surprised you celebrated. The rest of us could forget him most of the time.
Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim
Maybe Neil was the Smart One all along. Sure, he busted Silverado, but he kept out of national politics.
Punchy
This family was so popular that even Booger Presley couldn’t contain his excitement about George Sr.’s presence in government during Revenge of the Nerds…
Germy
Here’s George saying Jeb could beat “his sister-in-law” HRC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBOdvNWNz2E
MattF
I think Jeb!’s fall is a big deal– it shows, for example, that those controversial Supreme Court decisions that have (basically) allowed unlimited money into political campaigns have had some unintended consequences. All those conservative talking heads who were touting the notion that unlimited money is just like free speech should be having an ‘oopsie’ moment now.
Felonius Monk
@Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim:
Barely kept out of jail also, if I remember correctly.
Betty Cracker
@raven: We ended up just riding around, mostly. Ever been to Lake O? I hadn’t seen it since I was a little kid. Somehow, I’d forgotten about the locks and surrounding canal. My dad’s a saltwater fisherman, though, so we only went there once that I can remember.
Keith P
Look for George P. (Jeb’s son) to pick the pace up on his experience, as it really falls on him now to rescue the family reputation. The big problem for them is that they’re gonna be in the wilderness for at least 8 years, unless they can somehow manage to retake the party after the inevitable post-election autopsy report.
singfoom
Goodbye !JEB!, we hardly knew ye. I think that Dubya shit that bed for his family. !JEB! never had a good answer about the Iraq war because he wasn’t going to throw his brother under the bus. Which is fine, that’s being a good brother.
Let’s hope this is the real end of that dynasty and they just stay down in Texas, clearing brush until the end of time.
Mike J
This just demonstrates why it’s silly to talk about “dynasties” in American politics. If you don’t like somebody, don’t vote for them. If the Bush family was a dynasty, it wouldn’t matter if Jeb was so bad even the Republicans didn’t want him.
raven
@Betty Cracker: Just skirted it once but I’ve read a good bit.
PaulW
to hell with the Slate article giving a “poignant farewell” to Jeb Bush for his “decency” and “compassion”.
BULLSH-T.
Jeb was never decent, never compassionate.
He used other families’ tragedies to score cheap political points, not just the Schiavos but others as well.
He ignored the need for more schools, more teachers, better funding for education, smaller classrooms, and set a tone against our state’s educational system being followed by his acolyte Rick “No Ethics” Scott that’s putting it on the brink of collapse.
He was part of a Republican legacy of ecological malpractice on this state, who oversaw a period of toxic dumping into the Everglades by the local sugar farms.
F-ck any eulogy for Jeb. Sonofabitch deserves no pity, no sympathy at all.
Mike R
@PaulW: Your comment was a very fitting good bye to a first class creep.
SFAW
@PaulW:
Thanks.
raven
@PaulW: Someone posted this earlier”
“Oh, so NOW Jeb is willing to pull the plug when someone’s on life support.”
Ultraviolet Thunder
The Bushes started out as the kind of New England small-business type Republicans who supported things like Planned Parenthood. Fiscal conservatives and social moderates, very broadly. But that wasn’t the way the political wind was blowing once Ronaldus Magnus got elected and they changed with the times.
Betty Cracker
@Mike J: I think it’s silly to talk of the Clintons as a dynasty because Bill and Hill came out of nowhere without a family with its hands on the levers of power to grease the skids. Hill definitely benefits from being married to a former president now, but she built that as much as he did. GWB and Jeb individually didn’t build jack-shit; their powerful family and party friends set them up in governorships to position them for the White House, and it goes back much further than that. That’s much more dynastic, IMO.
C.V. Danes
I have a mental image of Arnold Schwarzenegger intoning “They’ll be baaack.”
Betty Cracker
@PaulW: Amen, brother.
raven
Or Scalia for that matter.
Eric U.
the funny thing is that George W. was no better or worse than any other republican would have been. However, his was the first Republican administration that ate their own dogfood. Prior to that, GHWBush and Reagan said the same nonsense, but didn’t really push the full agenda if it would hurt the U.S. too much. GWBush’s people actually believed the propaganda. Now we’re stuck with that same kind of Republican, absolutely no practical utility to their political philosophy at all. In particular, Rubio would be the second coming of GWBush, just more thirsty.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@PaulW: Perfect summation of the appropriate, that is, actual (factual), story of Jeb.
scav
@Mike J: Think of Napoleon III and the later Bourbons bouncing in and out of power with varying amounts of public support and hopes of magical solutions. If only the bearer of the King’s Touch woud return, all would be well and we’ld all have no scrofula!
Germy
@scav: Baud has actually promised no scrofula.
Amir Khalid
@Keith P: Is that George Prescott Hispanic-middle-name-he-won’t-admit-to Bush? If he waits 15 years or so, everyone may have forgotten about uncle W’s presidency and Dad’s embarrassing run at it this year. Or then again, maybe not.
Applejinx
@Mike J: I’m not sure it’s that silly. On another thread I was arguing with Technocrat about examples of tech industry hyper-success, ones where something or someone got into that positive-feedback zone where everyone’s talking about them because everyone’s talking about them. Whether it’s Notch, Flappy Bird, or PewDiePie, especially in the modern networked world this is a major mechanism of how things work.
Jaron Lanier has written about this in books, about how it’s a race to seize the high ground because it only keeps getting higher and becomes unassailable. It’s a sort of lockdown, like how only Google can destroy Google at this point (probably why they’ve been turning Evil™ for years, to avoid that fate).
I think it’s absolutely valid to generalize that to political dynasties. Goes to show you how the Bush-spawn have been predictably, increasingly awful and yet still did very well over the years. Clinton benefits hugely from this and if her platform and record had been swapped with Sanders’ record, he wouldn’t even have got out of the starting blocks. A primary argument for supporting her is that as a dynasty ‘heir’ she has all the connections and influence and can presumably get more done. You can’t simultaneously argue that and also that she begins on the same ground as say O’Malley or Sanders.
We could end up with a Trump dynasty in a worst-case scenario (might not be the worst: Cruz dynasty?). The mechanic is very real, and it’s heightened by the way we process name recognition, publicity and celebrity in the very ‘free market’ machine of the Internet.
gene108
@Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim:
Nah…that’d be Marvin or Dorothy…they both have kept a low profile, and as far as I know haven’t destroyed everything they’ve touched…
MattF
@Germy: Yeah, he’s promised to build a yuuuge scrofula wall to keep out all those dusky scrofulas, who, btw, will pay for it…
Sandia Blanca
@Keith P: I agree that George P. will definitely be their next attempt to get back into power. I had the pleasure(?) of shaking his hand on MLK Day, when he was wandering around the post-parade festival, schmoozing with anyone he could find. I was working at a Voter Registration booth, so he stood there and chatted with several of us for a few minutes. Fortunately the woman he was talking to the most had not caught his name, or she might have insulted him on general principles.
The Bushes think he is their Golden Boy because he is half-Hispanic, and thus will draw in minority voters. He is definitely a good looker, and seemed to have a bit of charisma. I’m not sure whether we need to worry about him yet, but he definitely bears watching.
scav
@Germy: Ahh-hhh! As this is the 21st century, is it enough to skype him in his bathrobe, or do with have to arrange for some sort of haptic digital interaction? What is our 21stC BitAngel?
Chris
@MattF:
I’m having a good laugh remembering all of Right To Rise’s trolling.
Brinks trucks backing up!
It’s all about the Benjamins baby!
Perception IS reality!
Do you remember the rubble?
Remember the LAST time you libs underestimated a Bush!
jeffreyw
I have to say that Clay Bennett is my favorite political cartoonist, these days. Excellent draftsmanship and his cartoons are so on point that a summation would take many more than a thousand words.
Applejinx
@Betty Cracker: The Clintons are a ‘dynasty’ in the very broad sense of ‘tons of name recognition and brand identity leading to a feedback situation where their celebrity feeds itself, and causing their choices to be automatically newsworthy’.
It’s a factor of starting off far, far more privileged (or indeed cursed, but there’s no such thing as bad publicity as we’ve seen) by public attention. The idea of dynasty is broadly ‘the people who automatically get to do this thing, outsiders need not even bother to try’.
We’re seeing that in a very real sense, so best get adjusted to it. Personally, as a moderately cynical and nihilistic nerd, when I am confronted with seeming evidence that the Clinton political dynasty is completely impossible to fight, I turn all Machiavellian and rather than seeking pyrrhic victories over our own side by electing psycho rightwingers, my attention is more drawn to this other question:
If the Clintons are indeed a ruthless Democratic dynasty of their own making that cannot be crossed or opposed, how do we persuade them to swing all populist and have ’em think it was their idea?
When you’re faced with overwhelming, unaccountable power, it’s not unreasonable to ask what that power’s real intentions are, whether they can be negotiated with. Suppose the Clintons are actually undead vampires that devour babies and creep in the night, making dead-eyed thralls that vote in accordance with the Arkansanian voices in their heads. (note: not a serious suggestion)
In that case, we OBVIOUSLY also have some fuckers doing that on the Republican side, so let’s have OUR vampires going out and taking control of as many Republicans as they can bite :D
And no wonder it starts to seem like football teams, the way things are! We’re almost compelled to turn wholeheartedly to issues-free cheering like the audience of a prizefight. Yay team our vampires!
kc
I’ll drink to that.
bemused
@gene108:
Such a sweet family. I had forgotten about Doro but it reminded me of the Florida recount when she joined protesters in freezing cold in front of the VP mansion yelling things at the Gore family like “Get out of Cheney’s house”. I thought that story just came out of Kelly’s book but Doro actually wrote about this in her own book about her father, “My Father, My President”. Not a bright bunch, the Bushes.
SteveinSC
The best schadenfreude, for me, is reserved for: The beautiful mind of Babs Bush. That old bitch deserves every bit of humiliation that can be heaped on this gang of bullies, liars and hypocrites that fell out of her nether parts.
kc
@Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim:
Although didn’t he say in a deposition that he thought the lady coming to his hotel room to sex him was just one of the hotel amenities?
ThresherK (GPad)
@Betty Cracker: I have little recollection of any NoMoreDynasties! stories in the MSM which didn’t try to equivocate Bill and Hill with the Bushes.
The one thing I didn’t care for about Will Ferrell’s SNL role as GWB is that he towered over Dana Carvey as GHWB, by maybe 8 inches (?) in the sketches with them together. The elder was an a-hole but the younger was even worse, and a twerp to boot
gbear
That was such a long, sweet moment when the inaguration was over and the news feed covered Bush and Cheney (in a wheelchair so that he didn’t have to stand up for Obama) getting into the helecopter, lifting off, and slowly disappear out of sight while the ‘hey hey hey – goodbye’ chant grew out of the crowd. It was surreal and beautiful and a perfect bookmark to the end of an era.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Applejinx:
Thank you, Rain Man.
Paul in KY
@Eric U.: All Dumfuckya wanted was to be a 2 term President. Then they allowed OBL to do what he did, and voila, ‘war president’.
He should be in jail.
MattF
@SteveinSC: In fact, I don’t think the Bushes really coalesced into a dynasty until Babs joined in.
different-church-lady
Uhh… people? A dynasty is something that occurs over multiple generations.
What you’re talking about with the Clintons is a power couple. If Chelsea starts winning political offices, it turns into a dynasty.
Paul in KY
@Germy: I thought that was no touching his scrofula? May have a court order on that…
different-church-lady
@Applejinx:
What do you mean “suppose”?
Elizabelle
@Eric U.:
LOL. Well said.
Betty Cracker
@gbear: I let my kiddo, who was 10 years old at the time, stay home to watch the inauguration. She says the “hey, hey, hey, goodbye” part is her most vivid memory of it.
Betty Cracker
@ThresherK (GPad):
Same here. It’s a bullshit comparison, IMO.
MattF
@Betty Cracker: Modo does the Bushes, and it’s a gory mess.
martian
@Sandia Blanca:
If George P. has kept his nose clean since his little home invasion/stalking incident involving an ex-girlfriend got swept under the rug way, way back early in Dubya’s admin., then he’s probably got a bright, Republican future. And maybe even if he hasn’t kept his nose clean, too. Nobody wanted to press charges, iirc. Youthful peccadilloes, right?
NotMax
May the name Bush remain a reviled four-letter word in American politics forever and a day.
Last time a Republican won the White House without either a Bush or a Nixon on the ticket?
1928.
gene108
@Applejinx:
So did John Q. Adams, Benjamin Harrison and Franklin Roosevelt. It’s not the first time in our nation’s history name recognition from a prominent family member has helped people to the Presidency.
Bill and Hillary started off about as far, far from the centers of political power as anybody else. Bill was not born rich and neither was Hillary. Everything I’ve read about Hillary indicates her family was solidly middle-class.
Both Bill and Hillary went to public schools for their K-12 education.
They both studied hard and worked hard to get where they are.
If they can become a political force, why can’t other people?
They should be an example of people, who work hard and got ahead on their own.
NotMax
To all above mentioning George P. – you’ve bought into the whitewashing.
Correctly, he is George P. G. Bush.
For reasons unknown, he suddenly dropped use of the second middle initial* and scrubbed references to it online shortly after announcing his run for state office in Texas, but has not legally changed his birth name.
*which stands for his mother’s maiden name, Garnica, so it’s a slap in the face to her and her family as well.
eemom
Those drawings are amazing! Poor old W would be green with envy.
Paul in KY
@gene108: I would say Hillary’s family was wealthy. Bill’s was certainly not.
chopper
@Amir Khalid:
the bushes are like the bad guy in the horror movie. they never stay dead. and then there’s a sequel.
Sandia Blanca
@martian: Oooh, did not know about that story. Given today’s Trumpish atmosphere, that type of incident might be seen by The Republican Base as a positive.
Aleta
@Germy: A mean drunk.
Applejinx
@gene108: They’re the PewDiePie of politics. It’s fine for people to work, be in tune with the times, and get ahead.
I start to ask questions when their opportunity turns into a total lock on the system and makes them indispensable. For all intents and purposes they ARE the Democratic party: if Bernie nearly matching Hillary’s PAC funding through grassroots fundraising (and still failing) isn’t enough to establish that, nothing is.
Nobody but Hillary Clinton could POSSIBLY have stood against what Bernie has done (and continues to do). I’ve said before, on the R side Trump is doing the same populist thing a different way, but he’s obliterated all the other Republicans. Bernie has certainly not obliterated Hillary: it’s at best a stand-off, at worst he is just outmaneuvered and outpoliticked.
‘working hard and getting ahead’ really doesn’t go nearly far enough. It’s nice that they’re Dems, because the Clintons are TOO powerful, unreasonably so. There may be no stopping them, which is why I’d like the Left to influence them.
Depends on whether they see the grassroots as a legacy to co-opt and have, or as enemies to be punished.
The fact that it’s not up to us to decide that, IS the problem. If they decide to punish the Left for their disloyalty they will justify all the mistrust being expressed.
At least there’s no question they will align against racism and sexism. That’s worth a lot, and that’s obvious at this point.
Gin & Tonic
@Applejinx: One person sees “total lock” or “dynasty” while another sees a couple who has been working within the Democratic Party and its system for four decades, in the positions of state Attorney General, Governor, PotUS, US Senator, and Secretary of State, winning elections, supporting other winners of elections, raising funds for candidates and, in short, scratching backs and accumulating IOU’s, and now calling in some of those chits. You know, the way American politics works.
Aleta
The Bushes are a shell game and I’m not counting them out. Behind the hucksters in the front are the organizations that get big paychecks (somebody sure ripped Jeb off, though); the older loyal machinery is not going to let itself die. Personally I think that they are still concerned about protecting buried information about George-41’s CIA, Iran Contra, the Saudis and oil. They have to keep playing, by proxy at least.
martian
@Sandia Blanca:
Cleek’s Law would apply, probably. If Dems are opposed to over-entitled doucheweasels, naturally the Republicans must support them. Reposition as circumstances require.
nutella
@Applejinx:
Even in a post about the Bush family, you have to pontificate about the evils of the Hill-Monster.
Give it a rest.
Applejinx
@Gin & Tonic: But we’re not disagreeing. I never suggested the Clintons didn’t have to work twice as hard for their ‘dynasty’, but work they did and here we are: they managed to alienate a lot of people and push their luck to the limit, and now we’re stuck with them whether we like it or not.
That’s not precisely democracy, that’s politics. Not even ‘American politics’, but politics writ large.
America was set up with a tripartite system JUST to prevent people like this, on either side, from becoming power brokers on this level. Yet here we are. Again, I hope they tack left, and I hope they don’t decide to punish the Left for this obvious disloyalty.
Scott Walker ain’t got nothin’ on Clintons for holding a grudge when you seriously, intentionally cross them. We are doing that and I just hope there’s enough of us that we can’t be ignored or punished.
Kissinger would’ve told Hillary that you can’t always punish the bad people: sometimes you have to think in terms of power blocs and play some realpolitik. I hope she’s still friends with him, and that he’s telling her to co-opt the Bernie forces and play all nice and stuff, for the sake of her legacy and the acceptance of future pundits and Very Serious People.
After all, look at his. He got away with it.
nutella
@Sandia Blanca:
That plan may be another casualty of this election. Hispanic voters are probably not so thrilled with the Hispanic candidates running this year on the standard Republican hate-the-brown-immigrants platform.
Gin & Tonic
@Applejinx:
You’re hyperventilating.
Applejinx
@nutella: I guess talking about a Trump dynasty, or a Cruz dynasty, is too horrifying to contemplate. By contrast, Clintons aren’t necessarily awful to contemplate, and if you want to talk evils look over at the Republican side. The question is whether we’ll be able to look at the name Clinton in the long run and have it resonate like the name Kennedy, or the name of FDR.
I think it’s possible but should not be assumed.
And if you want to talk liberal dynasty in a good way, there’s Kennedy: if you want to talk unreasonable amounts of power being wielded in a good way, there’s FDR. These are not automatically evil things.
It’s just that when it scales up that much so we as voters literally can’t control it in the least, it becomes super interesting what the power bloc is like. We could end up very thrilled about the name Clinton. The times are right for bold liberal action.
ruemara
@Applejinx: say they’re connected then. You’re changing the entire meaning of the word dynasty by ascribing it to what you’re talking about.
Betty Cracker
@Applejinx:
No, it would be nonsensical since one has never held elective office at all and the other is the first in his family to do so. Unless you’re talking about some dystopian future, I guess.
cokane
like you said tho Betty, the new gen bushes are coming up, theyre half-latino. they’ll be a wrecking ball some day. just hope they never make it national
Germy
@cokane: If they all exhibit these behavior patterns, and enough people are willing to expose it, maybe there’s hope. See Martian’s comment #58:
If George P. has kept his nose clean since his little home invasion/stalking incident involving an ex-girlfriend got swept under the rug way, way back early in Dubya’s admin., then he’s probably got a bright, Republican future.
Less sweeping…
Mike G
@SteveinSC:
Nixon once remarked of her, “There’s a woman who knows how to hate.”
Considering the source, that’s pretty damning.
MCA1
Here’s my take:
It’s not necessarily true that Jeb has just put a period at the end of the death scene his brother wrote into the family story, and that no Bush will ever succeed in politics again. But, I do think it’s the case that the next Bush to make a splash on the national political scene will probably have to earn it, by showing some actual talent, and by running against W’s legacy. He may have a leg up due to money and connections, but we’ve learned that that name is an anchor.
Dave
One child left behind.