New George W. Bush Presidential Center will include -- surprise! -- some Texas style

 
Much like the man who inspires it, the new George W. Bush Presidential Center will be a combination of Texas style and East Coast tradition. That’s the word on the renderings of the 225-square-foot, $250-million center.

The plans for the center, to be built at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, were released Wednesday and, in the words of Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, “carry no hint of the swagger, bravado or taste for confrontation that Bush was known for as president.” Among the Texas touches will be pecan wood paneling and, outside, wildflowers, bluebonnets and prairie.

On The Times’ Culture Monster blog, Hawthorne writes:

Designed by New York’s Robert A.M. Stern, arguably the country’s leading historicist architect, the library is a handsome, contextual piece of architecture wrapped in Texas limestone (which may sound like a euphemism, like "Texas tea," but isn’t) and red brick. Though on its main facades it uses classical themes in a mostly abstract way, rather than literally, it is very much meant to complement SMU’s predominantly Georgian-style landmarks.

A statement released by the center sums up the blend of styles this way:

The light-filled building is both presidential and welcoming, includes elements that evoke both Texas and Washington, and will house the three components of the George W. Bush Presidential Center: an Archive, a Museum and a policy Institute.

Check out Hawthorne’s full article for more on the center, plus more renderings of the buildings and site.

We can’t help wondering if the center will include an exhibit on weapons of mass destruction. It could even be interactive -- visitors could wander the complex and never find the WMD. Just a thought. 

-- Steve Padilla

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Upper photo: Artist rendering of the Bush Presidential Center. Credit: Robert A.M. Stern

Lower photo: Former First Lady Laura Bush at news conference Wednesday announcing plans for the new center. Credit: Associated Press 

George W. Bush warns about too much government without naming gee-who-could-it-possibly-be?

Speaking of politicians' books, it looks like we'll have to wait for next fall to discover what exactly former President George W. Bush meant Thursday when he spoke, seemingly regretfully, about the $700-billion Wall Street bailout decision he made near the end of his term. He said:

I went against my free-market instincts and approved a temporary government intervention to unfreeze the credit markets so that we could avoid a major global depression.

Bush was speaking in Dallas at the formal unveiling of plans for a $300-million presidential library and think tank at Southern Methodist University, his wife's alma mater. Sources said fundraisers have already assembled more than $200 million in donations to begin construction next year.

Besides housing his presidential archives and memorabilia such as the bullhorn the 43rd president used atop the World Trade Center rubble after 9/11, the presidential center will focus, he said, on four policy areas: education, global health, political freedoms and economic growth.

Appearing refreshed and energized before a friendly crowd of about 1,000, the 63-year-old said he was retired, not tired. He covered a broad array of subjects in his remarks.

But Bush kept to his promise from earlier this year not to comment on specific policies or decisions of his successor, something his former vice president, Dick Cheney, has not felt obliged to do. Oh, and he's writing a book too. Who isn't these days?

In fact, Bush did not mention Barack Obama's name, nor the Democrat's policy moves into the banking, financial, automobile, healthcare and insurance industries.

But some might interpret an oblique warning when Bush said:

The role of government is not to create wealth but to create the conditions that allow entrepreneurs and innovators to thrive.

As the world recovers, we will face a temptation to replace the risk-and-reward model of the private sector with the blunt instruments of government spending and control. History shows that the greater threat to prosperity is not too little government involvement, but too much.

Whomever could he possibly be talking about?

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: ABC News

Small moments from Fort Hood's memorial

It’s hard to catalog all the moving moments and images from today’s memorial for the 13 people shot dead last week at Fort Hood in Texas and the dozens wounded, as investigations continued into Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter.

President Obama delivered remarks that were both somber and inspiring, using the ceremony to praise today’s military while honoring the victims of the shooting.

Other simple images stand out:

Soldiers, in fatigues, wiping away tears while listening to “Amazing Grace.”

The large color photographs of the dead.

The rifle volley.

The roll call of the dead -- and those chilling silences after each name was called and no response came back.

It was also one of the those events in American public life when religion somehow sits side by side with the secular. “Amazing Grace,” of course, contains the phrase, “How precious did that Grace appear the hour I first believed.”

Obama, in his remarks, asked, “May God bless the memory of those we lost.”

The ceremony began with Chaplin Michael Lemke asking for divine help to "sustain us in our sorrow and in time restore in us a spirit of join and hope."

Later in the memorial, Lemke quoted from the Book of Isaiah. In a way, the words seem to describe not just the fallen, but the soldiers who must find strength to carry on:

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 

“Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 

“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

-- Steve Padilla 

Photo: Reuters

Houston man refuses to vote electronically, proceeds to go home and complain on the Internet

Could we even call it election day without a completely absurd poll story?

Here's the best one the Ticket has found so far: A Houston man named Rad Rich shows up at his neighborhood polling place, expresses discontent with the philosophy of electronic voting and is told he can't log his votes without using a computer, according to the Houston Press.

Naturally, Rich's distaste for voting on computers led him to lodge a public complaint -- using a computer.

"I was told I cant vote because I refuse to use the computers so I was denied the right to vote," Rich wrote on the Hands Up Houston message board, according to the Houston Press. "I have filed a complaint."

In a follow-up with the Press, Rich said his protest wasn't due to a computer allergy but instead because he is skeptical of computer voting.

An absentee ballot would have eased his worries, but voters must swear they will be out of town on election day in order to receive a paper ballot.

We realize this story is a little ridiculous, but it raises an interesting question. With polls increasingly going digital, should election officials be required to offer a dead-tree version for the computer-phobic? Tell us what you think.

-- Mark Milian

Photo credit: Associated Press

Obama, in Texas, hails Bush I and volunteerism

Remarks by President Obama at 20th anniversary of Points of Light, Texas A&M University, as provided by the White House

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. So, howdy, Aggies.

AUDIENCE: Howdy!

THE PRESIDENT: It is an honor to be here with all of you today at this outstanding university.  (Applause.)

Now, I was told that if the winds had been different today, President Bush would have parachuted in to kick things off here.  (Applause.) That's the story. But that's OK, I am still thrilled to be introduced by this man whose vision of service we celebrate today, and whose life of service is an inspiration to all of us. (Applause.)

And much to his likely embarrassment, I'm going to talk a little more about the singular nature and impact of that service in a minute.  But before I do, I'd like to recognize several other people joining us today, starting with President Bush's extraordinary wife, Mrs. Barbara Bush -- (applause) -- where did she go, Madam First Lady?  There she is over there.  (Applause.)   As we all know, Mrs. Bush has an impressive record of service herself, particularly her tremendous work to promote family literacy across this country.  So we are very, very grateful for everything that she's done on behalf of our nation.

We have our Secretary of Defense here, Secretary Bob Gates, who I think you know a....

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann are 2 'sick puppies,' Bush I says

According to former President George H.W. Bush, civility in American public discourse has worsened in recent years.

"I don't like it," the 85-year-old ex-president said shortly before civilly hosting current president Barack Obama in Texas to celebrate volunteerism. "The cables (TV) have a lot to do with it." The full text of Obama's gracious remarks at Texas A&M are now available here.

Bush said the current president is entitled to "civil treatment and intellectual honesty when it comes to critics."

But Bush told CBS Radio News the volume of presidential criticism is higher now than during his 1989-1993 term in office. "It's not just the right," Bush added. "There are plenty of people on the left."

Then he singled out two little-known and predictable talkers on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann, calling them both "sick puppies." That could help their ratings.

"When our son was president," Bush stated, "they just hammered him mercilessly and I think obscenely a lot of the time. And now it's moved to a new president."

Bush said presidents have come in for tough criticism throughout U.S. history. But, he added calmly, "People ought to be civil. I worry about yelling at people and this yelling mentality that seems to accompany presidents."

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press

Obama risks egg-throwing in trip to Texas A&M

Texas is not Obama country. In fact Barack Obama lost the Lone Star State to Republican John McCain by a not-even-close 55-43 margin.

But today the president makes his first trip to Texas since winning the White House, accepting the invitation of former President George H.W. Bush -- otherwise known as Bush 41 -- to join him at Texas A&M University to celebrate volunteerism.

And conservatives on the Aggie campus are planning to protest, a wide-ranging complaint about everything from Obama's healthcare plan to his recently announced Nobel Peace Prize. As one put it on meetup, "The opportunity to make sure Obama gets a very clear TEXAS-SIZED MESSAGE to stop the liberal assault on our country cannot be passed up."

Worried the protests might get out of hand, Bush 41 wrote an open letter to "the A&M Family," on Wednesday that began with “Howdy” and concluded, “I cannot wait for Obama to experience the open, decent and welcoming Aggie spirit for himself. This will be an important national moment, and a moment for Texas A&M to shine in the national spotlight as it always does. I hope and believe it will serve as a point of Aggie pride for many years to come.”

Does the first Bush have cause for worry? Well, you be the judge. Last fall the school's Young Conservatives held an anti-Obama event on campus, encouraging students to throw eggs at a picture of the presidential candidate and participate in a "socialist on a stick" Obama ring-toss.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Candidate Barack Obama at a 2007 campaign rally in Austin, Texas. Credit: Ben Sklar / Getty Images

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Olympia Snowe votes yes on healthcare overhaul, risking retaliation by fellow Republicans

For months now, the White House has been courting Maine's Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe.  A moderate politician from a moderate state, Snowe was essential to the administration's hopes to claim bipartisan victory on one of the thorniest domestic issues facing President Obama during his first year in office.

In today's Senate Finance Committee meeting, Snowe was the only Republican to support the bill by Max Baucus of Montana, which passed with unanimous Democratic support on a 14-9 tally. "The consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of moving a healthcare reform bill," she said. "When history calls, history calls."

But Snowe, who has served in Congress since 1979, warned that she might yet oppose the bill when it comes to the Senate floor later, particularly if subsequent versions contain a public option, which Republicans fear will cripple private industry, “My vote today doesn’t forecast what my vote will be tomorrow,” she said.

Snowe, 62, is a unique character on the national scene, one of the last East Coast Rockefeller Republicans, a survivor whose personal life was marred by failures in the healthcare system.

Olympia Bouchles was 8 years old when her mother died of breast cancer. Her father, a short-order cook, died of a heart attack less than a year later. Raised by an aunt and uncle with few means and six other children to support, she became a widow at 26 when her first husband, Peter Snowe, a state representative, was killed in a car crash. Winning the election for his seat, she has been in politics ever since, in 1989 marrying John McKernan Jr,, then the governor of Maine.

“Especially when you lose your parents at a young age, you definitely learn to pick yourself up and dust yourself off,” she told the New York Times recently. “You just have to keep working and moving and living. And, in my position, you learn to translate that empathy of your experience into legislation.”

She may need a lot of empathy in coming weeks, if Republicans decide to retaliate. Already some are talking about robbing her of appointment as the top Republican on the Commerce Committee, a perch that will open up when Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison returns to Texas to run for governor.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Snowe and fellow Republican Orrin G. Hatch of Utah at today's Senate Finance Committee. Credit: Associated Press

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Tom Delay goes 'wild' on 'Dancing With the Stars'

We hardly know what to say. Yes, that’s Tom DeLay, the former Texas Republican congressman, making his debut Tuesday night on ABC’s "Dancing With the Stars." With partner Cheryl Burke, he danced the cha cha cha to — and we’re not making this up — "Wild Thing."

On the show’s busy website, DeLay is quoted as saying, “One thing I wasn’t prepared for in learning to dance was getting in touch with my feminine side.” We weren't prepared for that either. Remember, this is the guy whose hardball tactics as a lawmaker earned him the nickname “The Hammer.”

Said judge Bruno Tonioli: "You're crazier than Sarah Palin."

Click to the jump for another photo of DeLay in action.

News shocker: Dick Armey now admires Bill Clinton

Back in the day, when Republicans ran Congress and the Clintons were in the White House, few adversaries were fiercer than Dick Armey vs. Bill Clinton.

Armey, the Texas congressman and GOP House leader, was scathing in his criticism of the Clintons — both personally (he famously told First Lady Hillary Clinton, as she testified on behalf of her healthcare reform bill, that reports of her charm were overstated) and, of course, politically (Armey credits himself with being one of the main obstacles to passage of said healthcare legislation).

President Clinton acknowledged the fraught relationship in that false-bonhomie way of Washington. "I met with Sen. John Glenn recently to decide who should be the next distinguished member of...