Former First Lady Laura Bush claims that she, the president, and other members of their entourage were poisoned in 2007 in Germany during a G8 summit meeting. Mrs. Bush’s assertions open up a diplomatic can of worms in her new book, Spoken From the Heart. Members of their entourage also lost hearing, had difficulty walking, and other issues that seem more indicative of poisoning than a virus. The Secret Service went in to overdrive but came to no definitive conclusions. According to CNN:
“Nearly a dozen members of our delegation were stricken, even George, who started to feel sick during an early morning staff briefing,” Mrs. Bush writes. “[O]ne of our military aides had difficulty walking and a White House staffer lost all hearing in one ear. Exceedingly alarmed, the Secret Service went on full alert, combing the resort for potential poisons.”
“George felt so ill that he met with [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy and did not even stand up to greet him,” she continues, adding later, “We never learned if any other delegations became ill, or if ours, mysteriously, was the only one.”
Excerpts of the book were first published by The New York Times on Tuesday.
The 432-page memoir is both a recount of the rare experience of being a first lady and a reflection of the eight years she spent in the White House as her husband’s popularity gradually declined.
One has to ask themselves what makes a family choose politics. Is anyone thick skinned enough to have a loved one attacked like George Bush was attacked? Can you imagine being his parents or his wife and children? Perhaps politics are just too cruel for the average person to participate. Perhaps the Ukrainians throwing eggs at each other are ultimately more civilized than the American people and their politicians.
I suppose we will never know if the Bushes were poisoned. Wasn’t a shoe bad enough? Perhaps now Mrs. Bush has gone public, we will find out the truth.
