I was doing my standard Sunday afternoon reading, trying to catch up on what's happened in the past 6 years, when I came across a
CNN/AP story from 1999. In it, the first President Bush offered sharp remarks about the "lack of respect" for the office.
Former President George Bush worries about Bill Clinton's apparent "lack of respect" for the presidency, but is optimistic any embarrassment to the country will be short-lived.
(More...)
I thought this was funny for two reasons. First, it's a reminder of how far the discussion of the Oval Office really has changed since then, and second, I seem to remember people complaining about how badly Clinton breached protocol when he criticized Bush II.
More article:
"I have tried to stay out of all the Washington mess," Bush said at the end of a keynote address to the Safari Club International's 27th annual hunters' convention.
"But I must confess I have been deeply concerned by what appears to be a lack of respect for the office I was so very proud to hold," he said Saturday.
"The presidency -- just let me tell you this, because you probably worry about all this just as I do. Just as my sons and my daughter do. And as Barbara does," Bush told the crowd of big-game hunters and conservationists at the Reno Hilton Hotel-Casino.
"Our country is strong and it is resilient. And the presidency, the office of the presidency, is strong and it is resilient," he said. "The trials of the present will soon pass away and once again our country will be respected and strong around the world."
Bush made no direct reference to impeachment.
Praise for Bush, sons
Retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, a lifetime member of the club, drew a raucous standing ovation by introducing Bush as "a man of unimpeachable integrity.
"And a man of great moral courage, my commander in chief, George Bush," he said.
The two worked the crowd earlier in the day at one of the largest trophy hunting conventions in the world.
Criticism of President Clinton flowed just as freely as the praise and admiration for Bush and his sons, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and George W. Bush, the Republican governor of Texas.
Schwarzkopf and the elder Bush were met by strong support for a presidential bid in 2000 by the newly re-elected Texas governor.
"He comes from good stock," said Robert Charlton, a knifemaker from Tyner, North Carolina, selling his goods at the convention.
"I'd certainly like to see him run if he's anything like his dad," said Bradford Williams, a sculptor from Belfry, Montana.
"Mr. Clinton is a pretty trashy individual," said Kenny Jarrett, who owns a rifle company and a farm and hunting plantation in Jackson, South Carolina.
"If he'd 'fessed up about it all, it probably would have gone away. But he perjured himself. If I'd done that, I'd be sitting in the jailhouse," he said.
Jarrett, who talked briefly with the ex-president Saturday, said Bush "and Barbara are such a decent all-American couple.
"I think his boys are going to be players on the national scene in the near future," he said.