Bush 41: I Still Like Clinton

NewsMax
Sep. 20, 2005

Thirty-six hours after ex-president Bill Clinton bashed and trashed his son on everything from his handling of the Hurricane Katrina crisis to the Iraq war, former president George H.W. Bush says he still likes Clinton.

Appearing during commercial breaks on ABC's "Monday Night Football," the president's father was asked how he and Clinton managed to get along.

"I like him," Bush 41 said, despite the verbal thrashing Clinton administered to his son on ABC's "This Week" the day before.

Given two more opportunities to comment on his relationship with Clinton, Bush Sr. declined to say a single negative word about his successor.

Mr. Clinton, on the other hand, demonstrated no such graciousness when asked on Sunday about the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.

"You can't have an emergency plan that works if it only affects middle class people and up," Clinton told ABC's "This Week."

He said the allegedly slow federal response disproportionately affected African Americans and was caused by the Bush tax cuts.

"This is a matter of public policy," Clinton told his former communications director, George Stephanopoulos. "And whether it's race-based or not, if you give your tax cuts to the rich and hope everything works out all right, poverty goes up and it disproportionately affects black and brown people."