Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 21, 1994 TAG: 9411030020
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT DVORCHAK ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
She's perfectly content at being the lifelong partner of George Herbert Walker Bush, the man with whom she fell in love at 16 and married at 19, thank you very much.
``I've had the most wonderful life,'' says the former first lady whose term bridged the years of Nancy Reagan and Hillary Rodham Clinton. ``I have a wonderful husband, loved him every minute. I have five fabulous children. I think I did have a career. I think I've accomplished a lot. I feel very fulfilled.''
She ticks off her accomplishments: raising awareness about illiteracy, promoting volunteerism, having sons seeking the governorships of Florida and Texas.
And, oh yes, while pursing her hobbies of gardening and reading, she's authored her third book: ``Barbara Bush, A Memoir.''
Her writing has given her a celebrity all her own, earning her appearances with Barbara Walters, Larry King and, get this, David Letterman, he of the Stupid Human Pet Tricks and Madonna romps. (For Letterman, Bush did a gag with a New York hot dog vendor.)
Her memoir is NOT a scandal-revealing, bare-all that dishes dirt. It's so tame that New York Times columnist Frank Rich called it ``one of the dullest memoirs ever to lay waste a forest.''
Based on her diary, the book details anecdotes of Barbara Bush's family and political life - the state dinners, clambakes at Kennebunkport, and relationships with an endless procession of celebrities and political heavyweights such as Arnold Palmer, Andre Agassi, Bon Jovi, Raisa and Mikhail Gorbachev and Naina and Boris Yeltsin.
Most of all, the memoir is certainly a tribute to George Bush - ``a great man, one of the truly good people I have known,'' Barbara Bush gushes unabashedly during a recent interview in her suite at the Waldorf Towers for which she wore a striking red raspberry suit and three strands of thick pearls with matching earrings.
Even when she's asked to name people she has admired, Bush lists Lady Bird Johnson, Patricia Nixon, Margaret Thatcher, Sandra Day O'Connor and George Bush's mother - ``She was always looking for the good in people. She never saw the bad.''
OK, she does admit she favors personal choice on abortion, which disagrees with her husband's view. But the few zingers she has in the book are aimed at those who caused her husband grief, namely Democrats, right-wing Republicans and the media.
For example, she writes that Patrick Buchanan made a racist speech at the Republican convention, singles out Newt Gingrich's tax package as the cause of George Bush's reversal on his ``read my lips'' tax pledge and figures the media was ``darned unfair'' for its hammering of Dan Quayle, whom she thought was a ``superb'' vice president.
On gays in military, Mrs Bush writes: ``Like Bill Clinton, I have never been in the service and so have little to base my judgment on.''
On Hillary Rodham Clinton, she says, ``She seems to be the stronger of the two.''
But asked on television if she feels vindicated when the current administration has problems, Bush laughs, ``I get no pleasure from other people's troubles.'' Pause. ``Even them.''
Most people in her book are nice, very nice, charming, dear and great. However, she does refer to ``that darned Hussein'' in the days of the Persian Gulf War and ``that darned Willard Scott'' when the TV weatherman mentioned her birthday on the air. (She's 69.)
But other sections of the book are devoted to George Bush doting on the wild ducks at the White House and loving his spaniels, Millie and her male pup, Ranger.
Bush has an easy, relaxed laugh. She pokes fun at herself in the book over issues such as her weight or her refusal to dye her hair. ``I know I'm not Marilyn Monroe,'' she says.
But there are insights to the Bushes being just folks, or about as folksy as any millionaires who have spent a lifetime of political service can be.
While adjusting to private life, Barbara Bush writes of an episode that could be an ``I Love Lucy'' episode in which an attempt at making vegetable juice sprays carrots over the floor and ceiling. Then she breaks a jar of spaghetti sauce George purchased at a wholesale shopping club.
But then the former first couple makes an ``amazing'' discovery. ``You can call out for pizza,'' she writes.
That darned takeout.
``Barbara Bush, A Memoir'' is published by Charles Scribner's Sons, $25.
by CNB