Posted on 10/27/2017 2:15:04 PM PDT by Kaslin
The recent allegations against former President George H.W. Bush for "sexually assaulting" young women who stood next to him during photo shoots are obscene -- but not because of what the president did or did not do. Enough is enough. President Bush is 93 years old. He sits in a wheelchair, and anyone who witnessed his appearance last week when all the living former presidents gathered to help raise funds for hurricane victims can plainly see that he is much diminished, physically and mentally. Unlike former President Ronald Reagan, who publicly announced that he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, neither Bush nor his family has talked much about his declining mental capacity -- but it is clearly there.
President Bush did not assault young women when his hand, which rests at a lower level because he cannot stand, touched their bottoms and he covered up his awkwardness with a bad joke about his favorite magician, "David Cop-a-Feel," as they allege. His behavior is perfectly consistent with what doctors who treat patients with dementia call sexually disinhibited behavior. The risk of developing Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia increases with age, doubling every five years after age 65. At age 80, 1 in 6 people will have developed the disease. By 85, it goes up to 1 in 3, and by 90, 85 percent of people lucky enough to still be alive are likely to have some dementia, according to the Alzheimer's Society.
Like many elderly men -- and women -- President Bush said and did something inappropriate not out of malice or with the intent to harm but because he now lacks the judgment to behave as he did all his life. And those who are using this incident to score political points or to turn themselves into victims akin to women who have been assaulted by individuals with all their mental faculties intact should show a little mercy.
saw this behavior firsthand with a relative who had Alzheimer's for at least 10 years before dying of the disease at 93. One of the first signs that something was wrong was inappropriate sexualized talk. At first, the comments were just out of character and inappropriate, but they grew to be very disturbing over time. As far as I know, nothing physical ever happened, but having spoken with those who work with the elderly in nursing homes, it happens every day, and both men and women engage in such behavior. It is one of the most embarrassing things about dementia for those whose family members suddenly start acting in ways they never would have if disease were not eating away at their brains.
According to a scholarly paper on the issue published in Current Treatment Options in Neurology, inappropriate sexual behavior "should be seen as a part of the symptom cluster of behavioral and psychiatric disturbances associated with dementia, which is disruptive and distressing, and impairs the care of the patient." It isn't something for which others should shame someone, much less criminalize. We should recognize when behavior is driven by disease -- in this case a devastating, fatal disease that strips individuals of everything that made them who they were.
It broke my heart to see President Bush onstage with his son and other former presidents. His eyes were vacant. He seemed not to know where he was or even why he was there. When the national anthem played, his hands stayed at his side and his eyes wandered. Does anyone think that President Bush would have sat there so confused if he were in control of his faculties?
The former president's office has issued an apology on his behalf to the women who have come forward, which is absolutely appropriate. And perhaps the family should say more about the former president's condition; President Reagan's candor did a great service for those families who have suffered through the experience of their loved ones' dementia. But to treat this incident as if it were akin to the stories about men who used their power and fame to demean women and solicit or force sex or sexual contact is disgraceful. It not only hurts an honorable man who served his country but also demeans the real victims of sexual assault.
He actually grabbed their butts. If it had been just the utterance of a joke that could easily be excused. I wonder if it isn’t the onset of dementia. Certainly is a plausible answer, and something to consider.
Besides Linda Chavez is 10 years older than Mona Charen and was born in New Mexico, while Mona Charen was born in NYC
GHW Bush was the architect of the bipartisan policy of non-enforcement that has resulted in half the country becoming Spanish speaking in a generation.
There is nothing decent and honorable about stealing a country from its citizens by flooding it with fraudulently documented foreigners.
I looked at the five POTUS’s sitting and standing on the concert stage and was quite dismayed. The Bush family has thrown away any decency, humility, loyalty, patriotism they might have had and, they have become decaying, political garbage in their post POTUS times.
As for Bill Clinton, he has earned the title of full time woman abuser, con man and criminal low life to Nth degree!!!
As for Barack Hussein Obama, he gets special mention as the worst POTUS in USA history, beat described for all to see and hear as the number one traitor, turncoat, would be destroyer, of the USA nation and all its people. Nothing but, scum & vermin from head to toe!!
Old ninety year old, Jimmy Carter stands out among all these loser POTUS’s as the man, while flawed, loved his nation and all its people!!! Amen!!!
Linda Chavez is not the subject of the article the stupidity of that “so-called” political columnist is, and like Mona Charen says a twit.
I have a distant cousin in Australia (whom I know only from email messages) who was conceived because her mother was raped at the age of 17. She was given up for adoption as a baby. Recently she learned who her mother was and met her for the first time last week. What her mother endured was traumatic, a true sexual assault. Having one's backside touched by a feeble old man in a wheelchair is not in the same universe.
Doesn't matter which side the girl is on, at least he's ambidextrous in his 90's...
Your sick *spit*
Linda Chavez wrote this, like Mona Charen wrote her piece, in defense of the man whose vision it was to import the workers for the jobs that couldn’t be exported, having the side benefit of changing the demographics of the country.
There is nothing honorable about any Bush.
Exactly.
You’d think that this old lecher would be trying to get right before God before he croaks instead of groping women.
GHWB is a loser x 1000. No tears or adulation from me when he croaks.
The family doesn't seem to care how they are treated.
So neither do I.
“Why are people making excuses for him?”
Makes no sense to me. IMO, it’s just the tip of the iceberg as he’s an evil man.
Bush just had better people running his bimbo eruptions unit.
Your solution is the best one. All Bushes should keep out of the public eye in perpetuity. We have had enough of them, the Clintons and the Kennedys too.
“There is nothing decent and honorable about stealing a country from its citizens by flooding it with fraudulently documented foreigners.”
I agree. He fooled us. He helped start the one world gov thing.
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