The Starr Report, June 19, 1999
Bush family hypocrisy strikes again!

By Linda L. Starr

 

The wife of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ran afoul of U.S. Customs agents Thursday afternoon, upon returning from a five-day Paris shopping spree, with $19,000 in clothing and jewelry she seems to have "forgotten" to declare. Interestingly, she was allowed to pay some $4,100 in duty and fines, for the items that apparently slipped her mind, with a personal check.

In a statement released by Tallahassee yesterday, Columba Bush is quoted as saying, "I am sorry for exercising bad judgment and can assure everyone this will never happen again."  Was this an admission of an intentional failure to declare her luxurious goods?

Yes, no doubt she does regret her lapse in judgment and will, undoubtedly, be reminded of it by her brother-in-law Dubya (Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who is seeking to become the GOP's presidential candidate). What a revelation that another member of the infamous and scandalous Bush family has such an outrageous lapse in memory!

This almost reminds me of the larger scandals involving the alleged memory lapses of her father-in-law, former President George H. W. Bush, who gave sworn testimony as vice president that he was "out of the loop" when it came to the Reagan Administration's involvement in Iran-Contra . Almost as scandalous as the even more notorious allegations that the former president's father, Prescott Bush, collaborated with Nazi Germany and, as a consequence, suffered American government seizures of Bush family assets!!!

What other skeletons are lurking in over-bulging closets across the globe involving the Bush family?  A new Texas drivers license number apparently issued to Dubya on March 31, 1995, and this lapse in common sense seems almost minuscule by comparison. I can almost feel sorry for the Mexican-born Columba Bush, who's father-in-law referred to her children as "the little brown ones," except this family uses every conceivable excuse for slipping past the rules of law the way others rationalize a parking ticket for not inserting enough change in the meter.  Isn't this what experts call "selective reasoning?"

I'd like to suggest that if Mrs. Bush spent her money purchasing American clothes and jewelry, she might not find herself in this predicament.   Of course,  Paris can be a necessity for the wife of an American Governor!  No decent first lady of any state in America would be seen in anything less than Paris fashions, right?   How many other times has this Florida first lady "forgotten" to declare her foreign purchases on previous shopping trips?  And if this were Mrs. Average John Q. Citizen, would she be allowed to pay with a personal check for a "lapse in judgment?"  Would Mrs. John Q. Citizen even dare to try such an alleged attempt at violating the laws of our country?   Would Mrs. John Q. Citizen dare to "forget" to declare $19,000 worth of purchases?   I think not, or I hope not, but this is no longer surprising when it involves the Bush family.

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