Last night, George and Laura Bush appeared on Larry King’s show. The transcript looks like something out a Marx Brothers comedy. Or maybe Monty Python.
Read the whole thing, et cetera, but some choice quotes first:
On North Korea
KING:Were you surprised by the missiles?
GEORGE: You know, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Obviously, we knew the missile was teed up. We rallied our partners in the six-party talks to make clear statements about not firing a missile. Sure enough, a couple of days ago, he not only fired one, he fired seven.
LAURA: But we knew by the time the party started that the rockets had pretty much failed or…
KING: But when it happened…
LAURA: … you know, weren’t that destructive.
KING: … did it destroy your day?
LAURA: Well, sure. You know, we worried about it, obviously. But what I spent the day doing actually was watching our shuttle take off from Florida.
On the presidency
KING: How do you deal with bad news?
GEORGE: You know, in this job you get quite a bit of it.
KING: I know.
GEORGE: That’s what you do, is you deal with it.
On Iraq fatalities
KING: You ever go to funerals?
GEORGE: No, I don’t.
KING: Why?
GEORGE: Because it’s hard. Whose do you go to and whose do you don’t go to?
On Putin
LAURA: I think he’s very Russian. But I like him a lot.
On Latin America
KING: [T]he Mexico elections have been decided, apparently, and the conservative, Mr. Calderon, narrowly wins. Any thoughts?
GEORGE: I look forward to working with whomever the Mexican people have elected and…
KING: Do you know him?
GEORGE: I don’t know him. Looking forward to getting to know him.
KING: Apparently he won. I’m glad to bring you the news.
GEORGE: You sure did.
On Ken Lay
KING: Do you know him well, Mrs. Bush?
LAURA: Not really. Not really well.
KING: Did you know his wife?
LAURA: But I did know him. And I know Linda and I’m sorry for her.
KING: Do you have contact with her?
LAURA: I haven’t.
GEORGE: I haven’t yet. I’m going to write her a letter at some point in time.
On Katrina
GEORGE: Well, I think there were some unbelievably heroic things done and there were some responses that could have been better…there was a lot of ice and water delivered. Obviously, the thing that happened that needed to happen better was, how do you deal with a breakdown in law and order.
On the GOP in 2006
GEORGE: [W]e’re right on winning this war on terror and we’ve got a good economic record. People are working under the leadership of the Bush administration and the Congress.
KING: Going to get bin Laden.
GEORGE: Oh we’ll get him. Oh we’ll get him.
KING: Why has it been so hard? Five years coming.
GEORGE: It’s a …
KING: More than that, really.
On relaxing
GEORGE: Well, one way to get your mind off work is to exercise and I’m an avid exerciser and I would recommend anyone who is 60 or approaching 60 or over 60 to exercise and — well, I don’t have time but you’ve got to make time.