WTF? One of Bush's best friends is a Democrat???

[quaoar]

His name is Roland Betts, he says he's a Democrat, went to Yale with Bush, one of the founders of Chelsea Piers in New York, persuaded Bush to have the Republican Convention in New York, taught public school in Harlem, has an interracial marriage, has financed several movies, etc.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/14/politics/14betts.html?ex=1263358800&en=ba3a828ca99bc31a&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

< snip >
Clearly, Mr. Betts is not the person to go to for an unvarnished view of the president, and he invariably describes a more thoughtful and curious chief executive than Mr. Bush's public image suggests.

"He asks me a lot of questions," Mr. Betts said. "As we're going for walks, he wants to know, 'Well, who do you think would be good here, and what should I do here?' "

Before the war with Iraq, Mr. Betts said Mr. Bush frequently asked him, "As a citizen, what do you think here? Do you think the case is adequately made?" Mr. Betts said that he often responded no, but that by the eve of the invasion he had said yes.

At the same time, Mr. Betts describes a president more concerned than he lets on about the perception among some critics that Vice President Dick Cheney is running the country. When Mr. Bush spoke to the commission investigating the attacks of Sept. 11, Mr. Betts said that the president took along Mr. Cheney not to present a consistent story but to show the panel that Mr. Bush was in charge. "What he told me was that he wanted people to see how deeply he understood all this," Mr. Betts said, "and how he was calling all the shots."
, snip >

[paineinthearse]

1. Ever hear of Zell Miller?

Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia explains why he plans to vote for President George Bush in November.

[cruadin]

2. It's what they call a DINO.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

3. "Zell (Dick Russell-Pro Segregation) Miller" ring a bell?

[noamnety]

4. Funny donations for a democrat

Where I come from, we call that an opportunist, not a democrat.

BETTS, ROLAND W
NEW YORK,NY 10025
CHELSEA PIERS MANAGEMENT INC
7/8/2002
$1,000
Schumer, Charles E

BETTS, ROLAND W
NEW YORK,NY 10025
CHELSEA PIERS MANAGEMENT INC
7/8/2002
$1,000
Schumer, Charles E

BETTS, ROLAND W
NEW YORK,NY 10011
CHELSEA PIERS MANAGEMENT
11/3/1999
$1,000
Kelley, Stephen P

BETTS, ROLAND W
NEW YORK,NY 10025
CHELSEA PIERS MANAGEMENT INC
3/23/1999
$1,000
Bush, George W

BETTS, ROLAND W
NEW YORK,NY 10025
4/20/2004
($25,000)
Republican National Cmte

BETTS, ROLAND W MR
NEW YORK,NY 10025
CHELSEA PIERS MANAGEMENT INC./CHAIR
12/31/2003
$25,000
Republican National Cmte

BETTS, ROLAND W MR
NEW YORK,NY 10025
CHELSEA PIERS MANAGEMENT INC./CHAIR
4/15/2004
$25,000
Republican National Cmte

BETTS, ROLAND W MR
NEW YORK,NY 10025
CHELSEA PIERS MANAGEMENT INC./CHAIR
4/28/2004
$12,500
Republican National Cmte

BETTS, ROLAND W MR
NEW YORK,NY 10025
CHELSEA PIERS MANAGEMENT INC./CHAIR
4/28/2004
$12,500
Republican National Cmte

BETTS, ROLAND W MR
NEW YORK,NY 10025
CHELSEA PIERS MANAGEMENT INC./CHAIR
1/6/2004
$2,000
Bush, George W

BETTS, ROLAND W MR
NEW YORK,NY 10025
CHELSEA PIERS MANAGMENT INC./CHAIRM
4/10/2000
$2,000
Bush, George W

BETTS, ROLAND W MR
NEW YORK,NY 10025
CHELSEA PIERS MANAGEMENT INC./CHAIR
6/7/2000
($1,000)
Bush, George W

[PROGRESSIVE1]

5. He gave a few thousand to Democrats and a hundred thousand to...

the Rethugs. Mr. Betts is NOT a DEMOCRAT. He's a PR stunt to make Bush look bi-partisan.

[Tigress DEM]

6. Yup

Every repub needs a token Dem on the payroll these days - right?

[Menshevik]

13. yup

sure is a lot of money that "democrat" gave to the RNC!

[magnolia]

7. Oh please!!!

Mr. Betts must be hallucinating if he claims to have heard Bush say: "Do you think the case is adequately made?" Even if the question were written for him and he were cued through his earpiece he still wouldn't have communicated it so clearly and concisely without any uhs or ums!

And if Bush wanted to prove he was in charge and understood everything so "deeply"...he would have gone in front of the 9/11 panel alone, under oath and he wouldn't have been afraid to have it televised. Mr. Betts must think we are all idiots!

[Joe Chi Minh]

15. They are very limited

in their choices, Magnolia, and seem to think that a foolish dissimulation is better than nothing at all.

And too limited in their own intelligence to realise that, on the contrary, remaining a mute inglorious neocon will beat staging a transparent masquerade, any day of the week.

It is as if they were aiming these attempts at subterfuge at the people who are too unworldly to bother to vote in any case!

[Dr Fate]

8. Oh, I see- good-hearted Democrats are supposed to like Bush.

More propaganda- "...see, good-hearted "Democrats" LIKE this nice man dont have a problem with Bush."

[crispini]

9. The operative part of your post is:

"he SAYS he's a Democrat."

Yes, and I SAY I'm the Queen of Spain! People can SAY anything.

[unblock]

11. we are honored by your presence, your highness!

:hi:

[crispini]

12. LOL. Thank you, you may kiss my hand. :) nt

[ZombieNixon]

17. Mmwah!

...waaaaait a minnit...Spain doesn't have a queen. You're a fraud! ;)

[oldtime dfl_er]

10. this is one more piece of propaganda

to soften junior's image. It's bs. Remember that -- very specifically -- some of the people who have left the administration have used these EXACT words to criticize smirky. Universally he is called "incurious", described as one who "never asks questions", etc. This is a typical rovian tactic to take a negative and , through whatever means necessary including lying, change it around to a positive. They lie. They lie.


And the crap about bringing Cheney along to show he (bush) was in charge? How fucking cynical and insane is that answer? Who the fuck is going to believe that horsepucky? sorry for the swearing but Im getting angrier and angrier. The friggin NY Times should know better, what the fukc is their problem?


www.cafepress.com/showtheworld

[noamnety]

14. Propaganda? Never!!

I was laughing when they got to the part where they managed to slip in that Bush's friend actually married a black woman. :)

[quaoar]

20. But look here.....

In 1972, he married a fellow teacher, the former Lois Phifer, who had passed muster with Mr. Bush. "I wanted her to meet George; I wanted George to meet her," Mr. Betts said. "An interracial marriage in 1972 was a very uncommon thing." Mr. Bush approved, and by the time Mrs. Betts was in the hospital after the birth of the first of the couple's two children, in 1975, the still-single Mr. Bush came to keep his old fraternity brother company at Mr. Betts's town house on West 102nd Street, where the Bettses still live.

See, that proves that Bush is progressive and generous, right? After all, he allowed his friend to marry a black woman.

[noamnety]

21. Buahahahahaha

I should have kept reading, I didn't know they worked it in again! That's hilarious.

They should have used it as a headline. "President chooses to Remain Friends with Man who Married Black Woman"

[w4rma]

18. They do know better. They are part of the problem. (nt)

[Contrary1]

16. Well, I for one, am convinced

that these two are best buddies. Doesn't everyone
autograph pictures they have taken with friends?

[robbedvoter]

19. Teresa Lapore, Ed Koch, Zell Miller...Also I remember mcClellan once:

"The president has many friends who are members of the N.A.A.C.P.,"

I believe you all know the original "My best friends are..." quote.