September 21, 2007
Former Mexican President Takes Jabs At 'Cocky' Bush
Instead of "Hail to the Chief," President Bush might take his final walk out of the White House to the tune of the Eric Carmen ballad "All By Myself."
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox is the latest public figure to talk smack about his former amigo in a new book.
In "Revolution of Hope," due out next month, Fox calls Bush "the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life," according to early reports in the Washington Post and U.S. News & World Report. That's not the meanest dig Fox takes. (Isn't cocky the fuel of American politics, anyway?) In a quip bordering on schoolyard taunt, Fox calls the president "a windshield cowboy." Ouch.
Bush prides himself on his Texas bona fides, happily clearing brush and driving guests around in a truck wearing humble plaid button-downs at his ranch, aka the Western White House. So Fox appears to be swiping at Bush's very manhood when he tattles that the president is deathly afraid of horses.
The White House hasn't commented on Fox's remarks as far as we can tell, and the book didn't come up in the president's Thursday press conference, even though some recent comments by Donald Rumsfeld and Alan Greenspan did. "My feelings are not hurt," Bush declared. But can he say the same of Fox?
After all, Bush's support for immigration reform, which was in many ways simpatico with Fox's agenda, has won him the scorn of his base. In this regard, Fox has some very warm words for the president, praising his ability to see Mexican immigrants as "human beings of equal worth in the eyes of God."
Fox also gives kudos to the president for perfecting "the traditional male hug of Mexican culture, the abrazo," which may herald the man-hug's debut in the White House briefing room.
Iraq, predictably, is the centerpiece of Fox's apparent 180 on his friend and ally. "Can the United States afford the cost, in blood and treasure, of invading every nation with which it does not agree?" he wonders.
Fox would not elaborate on the reported remarks in an interview with the Chicago Tribune's editorial board this week, and has said everyone should just buy his book if they want to know more.
Fox left office last year, and he faces a possible Mexican congressional inquiry into his finances. Political foes are accusing Fox of graft -- de rigueur when it comes to ex-pols in that country -- after a magazine showcased his posh estate. But Dudley Althaus of the Houston Chronicle reports that Fox's home is "moderately palatial by the standards of Mexico's wealthy." (What's Spanish for "progress"?)
Posted at 5:06 PM
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