'Decision Points'

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'Decision Points'

Barbara Bush Says It Was Housekeeper Who Put Fetus In A Jar (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | November 23, 2010, 10:21AM

One of the most shocking passages from former President George W. Bush's memoir is the one in which he describes his mother having a miscarriage when he was a teenager. According to him, she put the fetus in a jar and showed it to him as they were driving to the hospital.

"I never expected to see the remains of the fetus, which she had saved in a jar to bring to the hospital," he wrote. As he said in one interview, "She said to her teenage kid, 'Here's the fetus.'"

But on Larry King Live last night, Barbara Bush told a decidedly different story.

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Topics: 'Decision Points', Barbara Bush , George Bush

Alberto Gonzales

Alberto Gonzales: My Book Will 'Set The Record Straight'

Ryan J. Reilly | November 20, 2010, 9:23AM

Fmr. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and President George W. Bush

George W. Bush isn't the only official in the prior administration with writing chops. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is also hard at work on a book that he told TPM will "set the record straight" on his public service and offer a "very candid, very honest" assessment of the people he worked with and decisions he made in the White House and at the Justice Department.

Gonzales also told me that he's in the midst of reading Bush's book Decision Points -- and while he's found his former boss' memoir "insightful," he remembers some events a bit differently than the former president.

"I would just simply urge your readers [to note] that he and I could observe the same thing and come away with completely different conclusions or memories of what we observed," said Gonzales. "So the fact that I might observe something or remember something differently than what he writes about in the book is just, I think, the human condition of people remembering something or observing something differently."

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Topics: 'Decision Points', Alberto Gonzales, Department of Justice, George Bush, Justice Department, Torture, U.S. Attorneys

George Bush

Bush On Social Security: 'Privatization' Was A 'Poll-Tested Word'

Rachel Slajda | November 10, 2010, 11:18AM

George W. Bush signs copies of his book, 'Decision Points'

In the debate over his plans to partially privatize Social Security in 2005, "privatization" was "obviously a poll-tested word," says former President George W. Bush.

Bush, who has called the washout of his Social Security plans his biggest failure, told Rush Limbaugh yesterday that he was never out to privatize the program.

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Topics: 'Decision Points', George Bush, Social Security

Bush: Waterboarding Legal 'Because The Lawyer Said It Was' (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | November 9, 2010, 9:01AM

President George W. Bush in an interview with Matt Lauer

Former President George W. Bush was asked during an interview last night why he believes waterboarding is legal.

"Because the lawyer said it was," Bush said. "He said it did not fall within the Anti-Torture Act. I'm not a lawyer, but you gotta trust the judgment of people around you and I do."

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Topics: 'Decision Points', Afghanistan, George Bush, Hurricane Katrina, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Torture

'Decision Points'

More Bush Bits: The Libby Pardon, Bombing Syria And A Fetus In A Jar

Rachel Slajda | November 8, 2010, 10:42AM

President George W. Bush in an interview with Matt Lauer

The day before former President George W. Bush's memoir is set to release, we have a few more bits and pieces to share.

In Decision Points, Bush wrote about his decision to commute the sentence of Scooter Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, who was convicted of perjury and other charges for his role in the Valerie Plame leak. According to Bush, Cheney was "angry" that Bush didn't grant Libby a full pardon.

Cheney confronted him and said, "I can't believe you're going to leave a soldier on the battlefield."

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Topics: 'Decision Points', George Bush, Scooter Libby, Valerie Plame

'Decision Points'

Bush On Wiretapping, The 9/11 Shootdown Order And Executive Power

Rachel Slajda | November 5, 2010, 6:26PM

Fmr. President George W. Bush

Former President George W. Bush, in his new memoir out Tuesday, contends that he gave the original order to shoot down planes on Sept. 11, 2001, according to excerpts in the New York Times.

"I told [Vice President Cheney] that I would make decisions from the air and count on him to implement them on the ground," he wrote. "I told Dick that our pilots should contact suspicious planes and try to get them to land peacefully. If that failed, they had my authority to shoot them down. ... I had just made my first decision as a wartime commander in chief."

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Topics: 'Decision Points', George Bush, Wiretapping

George Bush

Bush: If I Hadn't Quit Drinking, 'I Really Am Convinced' I Wouldn't Have Been President

Rachel Slajda | November 5, 2010, 12:58PM

President George W. Bush in an interview with Matt Lauer

The dribbling out of excerpts and interview clips continues as former President George W. Bush re-emerges to promote his book, Decision Points. In the latest round of pre-release strategic leaks, Bush says he was able to quit drinking cold turkey at age 40 because he was never "chemically addicted."

The book reportedly opens with Bush's decision to quit drinking. In his interview with Matt Lauer, which airs in its entirety on Monday, Bush said alcohol had become a "love" that "began to compete" with his love for his wife and daughters.

"I was a drinker. Now I wasn't a knee-walkin' drunk. And I have concluded I was not chemically addicted, like some of my friends were, who required a 12-step program for some," he said.