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In reply to the discussion: I guess I'm not the badass I thought I was [View all]dalton99a
(81,485 posts)48. As reported by Tucker Carlson in 1999:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/chatterbox/2005/12/bushs_tookie.html
In pondering the relationship between governors and the prisoners over whom they have power of life and death, I find myself remembering the single worst thing I ever heard about President Bush. It was something Bush, then governor of Texas, said to a reporter during his first presidential campaign. The reporter in question was Tucker Carlsonhardly a hostile figureand Carlson reported it in Talk magazine in 1999. It was about Karla Faye Tucker, a convicted murderer whose execution Bush, as governor, had refused to stay. Here is what Carlson wrote (as quoted in National Review, another source hardly known to be hostile toward Republicans):
The ugliness of a sitting governor mocking a prisoner's plea to spare her life horrified Carlson, especially after he looked up the transcript of Karla Faye Tucker's appearance on Larry King Live and discovered that nowhere did it show the prisoner asking Bush to stay the execution. It horrified a lot of other conservative journalists, too, including George Will, Richard Brookhiser, and the editorial page of the Manchester Union Leader in New Hampshire.
In the week before [Karla Faye Tucker's] execution, Bush says, Bianca Jagger and a number of other protesters came to Austin to demand clemency for Tucker. "Did you meet with any of them?" I ask.
Bush whips around and stares at me. "No, I didn't meet with any of them," he snaps, as though I've just asked the dumbest, most offensive question ever posed. "I didn't meet with Larry King either when he came down for it. I watched his interview with [Tucker], though. He asked her real difficult questions, like 'What would you say to Governor Bush?' "
"What was her answer?" I wonder.
"Please," Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, "don't kill me."
The ugliness of a sitting governor mocking a prisoner's plea to spare her life horrified Carlson, especially after he looked up the transcript of Karla Faye Tucker's appearance on Larry King Live and discovered that nowhere did it show the prisoner asking Bush to stay the execution. It horrified a lot of other conservative journalists, too, including George Will, Richard Brookhiser, and the editorial page of the Manchester Union Leader in New Hampshire.
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Like you it brought back my own grief which is the ultimate empathetic response.
lunatica
Dec 2018
#2
i lost it when GWBush did too. My mom died when I was only 13 and my dad was murdered
trueblue2007
Dec 2018
#4
You are correct, a lot of us have already gone through this personally and we empathize.
lark
Dec 2018
#56
My 3 sisters and I sung at our Mom's funeral 4 years ago this week. We choked through it. Our Dad
demtenjeep
Dec 2018
#5
I did too- instantly and viscerally- that's what humans do when they see pain-good for you
Shaddox
Dec 2018
#11
He is a flawed but very real human being, and most of us could relate to his grief.
pnwmom
Dec 2018
#12
+1, I can't get this out of my skull ... Red Don is an ahole while Bush and Cheney really hurt
uponit7771
Dec 2018
#62
Hair Twitler is an utter disgrace, but GW is responsible for horrendous death and destruction
Martin Eden
Dec 2018
#68
Shows you are a better person than he, he'll watch that same scene played out in someone else's life
rwsanders
Dec 2018
#26
It's called empathy, and decent people have it. Tragically, Republicans are empathy-free.
catbyte
Dec 2018
#39
Dubya has always been human, the problem with him is that he is still immature and
Perseus
Dec 2018
#61