What war? Relaxed and chatty Laura Bush pads through WH..... [View All]

[Olney Blue]

http://www.nysun.com/article/48700

Laura Bush Shows Off Her Home

By JURA KONCIUS
The Washington Post
February 15, 2007

WASHINGTON — It's legacy time inside the Bush White House.

On a blustery winter afternoon last week, Laura Bush ushered a reporter and photographer through the newly redecorated Lincoln Bedroom and Sitting Room, the nation's most historic A-list guest accommodations.

For 30 minutes, a relaxed and chatty first lady padded across the diamond-grid English Wilton carpet that now links the adjoining rooms, pointing out the pair of 1860 John Henry Belter sofas donated by the Winterthur Museum and a Haviland & Co. porcelain fruit basket from the Lincoln china.

"I love houses and history," Mrs. Bush said as she led the way in her leopard-print ballet flats past the famous Lincoln bed, now topped with a gilded corona that replicates the one she said was "discarded" by the Coolidges.

snip

It was, instead, a quiet glimpse into the upstairs rooms of the Bush White House during a presidency mired in an unpopular war and dogged by sinking approval ratings. But events of state don't stop the constant swatching and swagging that goes on in a 207-year-old house with 100 rooms and 35 bathrooms.