Former President George H.W. Bush is still licking the wounds of his 1992 defeat to Bill Clinton, but it’s not Bubba he’s angry at. In an interview with Parade, the 1988 candidate who won on a no new taxes pledge and then lost in 1992 after reneging on that promise, takes a shot at the godfather of anti-tax movement.
“Who the hell is Grover Norquist, anyway?” the 88-year-old Bush says in the interview out Sunday in a reference to the president of Americans for Tax Reform, which presses GOP candidates to sign a no tax pledge.
“The rigidity of those pledges is something I don’t like. The circumstances change and you can’t be wedded to some formula by Grover Norquist,” he said.
Wife Barbara took her own shot at Norquist. “I think he ought to go back to Alaska. Don’t quote me!,” she said in a reference to a comment she made about Sarah Palin in a 2010 interview.
But they had some very nice things to say about Clinton.
George Bush: “Well, he knows a lot about everything. He’s a very knowledgeable, bright man. He sat out here one time, and we talked about every possible [subject]–one after another.”
Barbara Bush: “He never said a mean word about anyone. ‘[My] brother by another mother,’ the boys call him. But he’s very nice–I think he thinks of George as the father he never had. Truthfully. I mean that as a compliment. He’s been very thoughtful about calling and he’s a good fellow.”
