Laura Bush-whacks Hillary over House-keeping
By Beth Teitell
Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - Updated: 10:30 AM EST
‘‘Laura Bush says Hillary kept bad house; West Wing decorations were gaudy, outdated.” - Drudge Report reporting allegations made in an authorized biography due out today, ‘‘Laura Bush: An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady”
And I worry that I’m petty. I can tell you this, if I were first lady-in-waiting and the reigning FL was gracious enough to give me a tour of the White House, as Hillary did for Laura in December 2000, I’d be so knocked out by the history of the place and the weight of the moment that the last thing on my mind would be my host’s housekeeping skills. Even if the carpets were fraying and the Lincoln Bedroom looked worn out, as Laura apparently thought.
Yeah, right. I’d be on my cell the second I got out of earshot. ‘‘You cannot believe how this woman has let the place go,” I’d be saying as a Secret Service agent gave me the bum’s rush.
So Laura’s just like the rest of us, I guess. And she seemed so nice. I wonder, did she excuse herself for a trip to the powder room and rifle through the Clintons’ medicine chest? In retrospect, Hillary’s lucky Laura didn’t ask the Clintons to scram early so her own decorators could get in and redo the Oval Office, which Laura reportedly found to be decorated in a ‘‘loud” manner with red, blue and gold. (I thought those colors were mandatory at 1600 Pennsylvania, just shows what I know).
The first lady’s office didn’t return my call, but I’d love to know how Mrs. Bush acted during the tour. I’m betting it was a Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Snide deal: ‘‘Oh, Hillary, I love what you’ve done with the place” and ‘‘You’ll have to give me the name of your decorator,” while she was surreptitiously swiping the chair rails for signs of dust.
With all due respect to Mrs. Bush, my guess is that while she herself keeps a tidy place, the twins, and Jenna in particular, are more Oscar than Felix. Tell me Jenna’s pad isn’t strewn with $250 designer jeans, inside-out tops, flip-flops and half-used tubes of makeup and hair gel?
Not that I’m accusing anyone, but could Laura, owner of two rambunctious dogs, be laying the groundwork for a future ‘‘it was like this when we moved in” excuse as chewed carpets are discovered?
As for Sen. Clinton, you’ve got to wonder about her take-away from that December 2000 day. If memory serves, Laura’s look was really Texas then (and not in a good way, if there is such a thing). So, when the tour finished, did Hillary regale her own camp with less-than-generous remarks? Remember, those were the days when Laura wore Those Suits. Alas, the senator’s office didn’t return a call.
I guess both women were too busy spring cleaning to talk to the press
