That is such old "news" I think it was found in a Cro-Magnon cave painting. People have made a life-long hobby of "misunderestimating" Bush and rather than face the simple fact that he his a whole f**king lot smarter than they are, they stagger blindfolded by their own butt-ignorance trying to pin various tails on various donkeys.

Look at the history of Bush in politics and you come away either believing he's a puppet with a thousand controlling hands stuck up his butt or he is his own man who commands with a tightly controlled, loyal staff. People who hate him will only see a thousand hands up his butt, which will result in underestimation and loss. Look at the record.

On Ann Richards, she was one of the few politicians that I always enjoyed listening to. I'll bet she wrote that "silver foot in mouth" speech herself, rather than one of Clinton's Hollywood writers. It was just so classically Richards. Pungent and finely targeted. As governor, she was competent but not inspiring. She governed from the middle-left in TX (which is just about dead-center for the rest of the USA). She was not a boat-rocker or innovator. She was a manager.

The truth is that folks in TX were looking for something new and different when Bush ran against her. The truth is also that Richard's campaign did some serious smearing of their own. Neither campaign was unique in that regard in American history. Much less Texas history.

I rather doubt anybody will take the time to do it, but Texas politics is "colorful," and has been forever. My favorite source of great stories is the Texas Railroad Commission. Nice, innocuous sounding title, huh?

Texas and America are poorer for her departure.

B