Could she possibly be an activist . Part of the following an International Activist first lady, with, as Hillary Clinton. I suggest to all of us that we have to look the fact that conservative women care about the world, too. And we have as much interest in our sisters and progress around the world as our liberal counterparts do. One person who commented on this quite beautifully actually and recently was the first lady of afghanistan. I racer because they can at this point of consistency. Laura bush said she worked on afghan womens issues for the rest of her life. And recently in dallas, the new first lady of afghanistan came for a meeting of u. S. Afghan womens council, established 13 years ago not long after the fall of the taliban, still in existence come a Publicprivate Partnership between afghan and u. S. Government many individuals and private institutions in our country. Weve never left the women of afghanistan and laura bush has been our leader. And since in the last few years Hillary Clinton has enjoyed mrs. Bush as cochair. And now we have mrs. Wobegon, the first lady of afghanistan as cochair. So last month in dallas, laura bush is someone who knows what the word commitment means. She described mrs. Bush as relentless and resourceful. You dont appreciate her power until you are faced with all of her achievements. You have not forgotten us and we will never forget you. Laura bushs comment in her characteristic way because she doesnt like to bring attention to herself come and i think would be partly others but all the wonderful things that we are saying but they are just some true. A response was when it comes to keep issues in your life that you care about you get to just rub your hands and say im done with that. You have to keep working. And thats what the work come the ongoing work with the Bush Institute has allowed both president and mrs. Bush to do. Anne mention a very fun project that i just had to comment on the big read. Where you talk about communities around the country that mrs. Bush inspired to get around about and to enjoy that and to have the libraries and Community Organizations get involved. One of the books is to kill a mockingbird. And just across Long Island Sound it is the town of bridgeport, connecticut, where i grew up and that was one of the cities where we brought the big read. And they took on to kill a mockingbird, restaurants and stores and all got involved in this including one of the local bars that we need a drink tequila mockingbird which is the kind of impact, the fun that you can have with these initiatives when you do have that podium and you do have that power. You mentioned katrina, and i think this was alluded to in your paper dana but what most people dont know is laura bush made 25 visits to the gulf coast after katrina. And her Library Foundation continues to rebuild those libraries. The Ripple Effect of her work is astounding. Im proud to have served with her. Im proud to have served in the white house many times with the opportunities ive had to be a fly on the wall for the arc of history, and to be able to continue to tell the story of remarkable Women Leaders who continue to lead in our country and the huge element of the leadership come and particularly for laura bush for the privilege and honor to represent the American People at home and abroad. Thank you. [applause] so we have a microphone that will travel to you if you raise your hand with a question. And i will say that we will get priority for the first questions if there are students. If not we will go to others. Thank you very much is this on . Thank you very much for a wonderful forum. I heard a lot of positive things about laura bush that you dont hear in the media. I also appreciated the Historical Perspective of the other first ladies. And i must say i was a little surprised, i think its patricia, the way you portrayed nancy reagan. Not terribly involved with White House Affairs at least thats what i heard. He talked about purchasing a tea set and other things that she was criticized for spending so much money on. But when i read back in those days i remember the media attacking her for being responsible, for example for getting rid of donald regan, the secretary of the treasury and the chiefs of staff. I think i heard it also say that she was responsible herself for bringing together they kill gorbachev and president reagan. Mikhail gorbachev. Didnt hear you correctly . I thought she was a much more involved first lady. I do agree with you. Can anyone hear me . I guess for purposes of brevity in my paper, i compared to rosalynn carter, shes very different but i do agree with you on a number of remember shows the whole campaign to say no to drugs. She gets very involved in the. I think she was takes on a very big role when president reagan is shot. We realized how much she is probably setting, shes one of the country. I do agree with you, or flavor did not come out in the paper. I guess i was working there just to rosalynn carter, but yes, i think as determined on a fictitious example shes all bit of both. She does have a politically active role, i think different than Hillary Clinton but she definitely initially comes in and is going to purchase a tea set, its 200000, and the data she goes out to purchase that come it comes out and immediate that the School Lunch Programs are going the money is being decreased. So i think that i dont disagree with you. I think she kind of takes on all bit more of a political role later on especially when president reagan is shot. Can i add just a little bit of commentary to that is will and and i appreciated the question because i worked with mrs. Reagan as well and i think shes a misunderstood character in our history. I will leave you with a humorous response that she had. She was criticized for all the clothes as she brought the it was a dramatic change from the carter administration. This Heart Truth Campaign and make it the laura bush was involved in, one of the president ial libraries that we went to to talk about the Heart Truth Campaign or the Red Dress Campaign as it was called there was an exhibit of Nancy Reagans red dresses as part of this advocacy and awareness program. There were hundreds and hundreds of people there to see it, line out the door. Nancy reagan whispered to laura bush, she system also is used in the white house and i was vilified for my close but now theyre laying out the door to see them. So she understood. She made fun of herself and an event in washington, the annual gridiron dinner where she showed up wearing secondhand clothes and saying to the tune of secondhand rose, secondhand clothes. She knew precisely because one of things patricia said was true was the timing of releasing the china which by the way with privately funded, not 1 cent of taxpayer dollars but it didnt matter that the fact it was a huge price tag and it came at a time, were in a recession in our country and school lunch program, the timing was terrible so she suffered from some bad press. It was very hard for her to ever recover. Its still refer to often times as queen nancy. But again i would say most profoundly devoted to her husbands success. Another question . I also want to say fantastic panel, really enjoyed it. I wonder if anybody on the panel would speak to the magnetic power of laura bush over her husband . I would say that in a very positive way and i can think of a couple examples i would offer but i would be true to the authors. I was surprised by the choice of as in you as the president ial library. I was thrilled about it but thats where laura bush went to school. So i think she had some sway on the location of the library which couldve been in waco. But i am impressed. I also understand president bush had a habit of not want to stay overnight anywhere without laura. I wonder what are some other things about how she i would say positively influenced her husband, whether its in speeches. We heard a statement of that but what was she doing for her husband . I can touch us two of them come its very powerful and positive. I would love to hear the panel talk about that. I will just make two comments and then give i have known the family since the 80s but they are partners in everything. She is an anchor to him and he is hugely supportive of everything that she does. In fact, i will just say one comment here about even going to afghanistan. Canard about the trip that we planned 10 years ago this month. When laura bush interviewed me and she said i want to go to afghanistan that was the first thing she said and to my first question to was does the president know . And she said yes. Because i knew what that meant. If he knew, thats also support in the world we need to. He supported her to go, he sent her all over the world as an advocate as a representative of them come the closest personal envoy you could possibly sent all over the world is your spouse and she was so effective. They were partisan everything. Personal lives obviously and devoted to the family but also in this important work of the country. She was there in every single part of it. It was grounded for him and defining that zone of privacy and family life which is so important. I would often remember being on the phone with mrs. Bush and i was in my office, the president had come home, which they are over this door they live over this door. She would go. That was it end of conversation. That was her time than to be there for him. Because the job is just so hard and they depended on each other so much. I think anger is a good word anchor a mountain is something that is fastened down something you can count on. Just by her presence you can count on her. I was very privileged because i state a lot with them in the Governors Mansion when he was running, thinking about running for president. Ive been in the white house where he just we touch base with her no matter where he was. He would say unwinnable in time he would say i said just the opposite of what i mean. Something like that the she would take him you know she was always just this calm assurance. And he said i produce a more than once, how win i think youve been so fortunate to be from a loving family. Its like youre not afraid of success and joy not afraid of failure. I was there one time at the Governors Mansion and she was on the phone and i just was sitting there listening. When she got off the phone she said, you know as Time Magazine and the george wins he will be on the cover of Time Magazine, and if al gore wins he will be on the cover of Time Magazine. Its like, as far as she was concerned she was going to be fine no matter what happened. So just having someone like that in your life when youre in that kind of arena is extraordinary. I think we can do one more question. Thank you. I just want to know if the Hollywood Community where music energy or Broadway Community gave mrs. Bush cant Enter Initiative with the arts . If they reached out to her and help her out . One thing i will say that we didnt mention, at the very end of the administration, well first of all i will say this. When youre in the white house in the white house if you need a musical performance our group to come play basically no one will say no. They are happy to come. We had many broadway performers and other performances through the Kennedy Center honors every year, hollywood is always honored. But at the very end of the Bush Administration all the Cultural Arts agencies got together to honor laura bush. I will not transform talk to about this because you have it organizing it but they all spoke everything that she had done to support the opening of performances come to go to opening of exhibits. She was always there. And begin another one of these underreported activities of laura bush. Do you want to respond . That was really calm and she went company, the thing is she enjoys all that. I mean, its really her leadership was an extension of who she was. So when she was first lady i remember jim leach his wife jim leach was was head of the national trauma, a congressman from iowa and they love grant would advocate an exhibit of grant would over across the street from the white house at the renwick. But she would like to negotiators would have a group of friends every book festival. She said you only take over the instigator i would open and what went over there and what you ought to go see. One time when i was there we went to fords theatre to see this performance over the president s shoulder which was a one act, it was a one person play about a ballet, a white house ballet pinup boy did she take us but she sent all the valleys at the white house to see that they were all so excited. So she was always present not to get attention. She would sit in the back, when we were to fords theatre she was not the back of the room just out of enjoyment. But they did i think everybody. Appreciator and that was a wonderful event. It was that the National Portrait gallery in the smithsonian american art museum. Can i add one comment . That gave me a minute of two occasions and if i did talk about the traditional hollywood that we think of, but they call it would start. Its no secret republican administrations maybe have a different relationship with hollywood than democratic administrations do. There were two occasions i remember where Steven Spielberg came through one time, tom hanks came to another time and theyre going to a photo receiving line and mrs. Bush told Steven Spielberg aside, the movie schindlers list had been out about a year and she said they started talking about both their fathers experiences serving in world war ii. Her father had been in europe. His father had also served in world war ii in the pacific theater. And he was astounded, Steven Spielberg was, by this very personal conversation as he had with her practice is not what hollywood expected of george and laura bush, to put it on a human level. They are human beings like the rest of us. After Steven Spielberg and his wife came to the line understanding their in the green room and he said hello and he walked on at the turn back and and he came back to me and he said can i really like your first lady. And i thought, well of course, we all do. We love her. And tom hanks and his wife rita wilson, after a christmas reception from reid wilson was really interested in like the human life at the white house. How did she order a Christmas Gift . Like where do they go and how does she do it online . That she use amazon . Those kinds of things. I think people are intrigued by the michigan even people at that level, the celebrities that come how do they relate and in the presence house they related as human beings. I was actually very interesting experience for me but promote bush it was natural to have a conversation about something that connected them. When i was at the education department, we went to an evening event and we were in the photo line. Unfortunately, that was the day that spot had died. And one of my dogs have died that day to the as i came through the line, i said im so sorry about spot. And depression started to cry and i started to cry. Rod paige wanted to kill me come and laura bush came over and she said can i just love that he cried. And she said can but now he needs to wipe his eyes because its going to ruin the rest of the photographs. Get back to work. I will mention one other story. I am from el paso and it was a movie called glory road about our basketball coach don haskins who took the Texas Western all black lineup team against kentucky and won the ncaa 1966 tournament. But when they had that the bushes showed that movie at the white house and had the actors here but they also what they really had were the real people who were part of that. They also come with a place in el paso called h. H. Carwash. Its a real car wash. It would start about syrian emigrants and they are the biggest utep fans. When lower and the president would come to el paso they would always go there and eat mexican food to get a count of three tables. Is very exclusive, only three tables. But the owner of h. And h. Carwash was invited to the event at the white house because hes such a fan of the miners and the fact that the president table. So when you go and h. And h. Carwash now we all signed the menus and has a picture with them, but what jesus all the time, he said i wish people could meet him. I wish they could experience the love and that make him how much he cares. And so anyway, i love hearing maynard say that, and those of us who do know them just a what a struggle it is the struggles that theyve had about how much they really care about people. I think thats an appropriate last word. I want to thank everyone for coming to the panel. Thanks to you all so very much for your research your commentary. Your memories. I think its been a terrific panel. Thanks very much. [applause] [inaudible conversations] and the senate to end at 2 00 eastern time today on cspan2. Expected to continue work on a building with Human Trafficking that would increase penalties and create a fund for victims. It has been held up over how the money can be spent on abortion service. Leaders say theyre close to compromise and we will learn more when the senate towels and that they too. The house back for legislative work tomorrow at 2 00 eastern working this week on funding for the Consumer FinancialProtection Agency and guidelines for sharing information in the event of a cyber attack but you can watch the house live on cspan