the funeral of john paul ii, and bill clinton was there, i said how about this relationship between the two of you? what is it? he said, i think he s the father i never had. it really says everything about who he is as an individual, that it is service over anything that is personal. the other point that juan williams made, as a staffer in the white house, i would never i saw democratic congress meant to be guests on the tennis court or to play horseshoes or a movie or a cocktail, a regular way that george h.w. bush worked as a president. shannon: it was very effective. anita mcbride, thank you very much. juan williams, brad blakeman, dana perino, thank you very much. bret, we just got something in, jim gray, wonderful sports memories, something has just come in, i think you mentioned earlier, the cartoon that came in the wake of the passing of
president clinton by a stroke and president ford by seven strokes a day. let me share a little story with you from spain. we were there for the ryder cup in 1997. it was a homecoming and he came over to watch the american team, and it was pouring rain one day, and we were all scattering to get off the court, and i was in my golf cart along with the technician, the sound man, a man name jun came from nbc sports and we were driving and we saw three guys standing, one guy had a glad trash bag over his head and was soaking wet and there were two men standing behd him. i got a little bit closer and i said, that is president bush, he was standing in the pouring rain all by himself, wasn t asking anybody else for help, we gave them a ride in on the golf cart and i ll never forget he had this trash bag over him and just the humility and the decency that he had and the next day, he came back to the golf course, and on his own, was seeking out
you could just tell that president bush really, really cared about sports. he called me one time after the mike tyson ear biting, and he wanted to know what kind of a guy mike tyson was. i said, he s wonderful to be around, and he had made a despicable, horrible mistake and incident that night, but a just break into so much that i thought that tyson was wonderful and he said, i don t want to judge him. he s a great boxer. he was really interested in so many different sports, and had a genuine love. it was great to be around. i asked him how many games he would watch in the white house and he said we have a pretty good satellite system, bret and shannon. i watched quite a bit of it. shannon: one of the perks of being in the white house. bret: your reflections are great. thank you. he was a wonderful man. i was lucky to spend the time with him and he was a joy, he was a joyous guy who was very, very humble. decency beyond belief.
savor. at such an old-fashioned, beautiful courtesy, and it is ultra-special thing that takes a moment of your time but will change someone s life, that you would do something so personal. i want to bring in anita mcbrien, you worked for more than one bush administration, many capacities, you oversaw personnel for this president, bush 41. your thoughts tonight? my heart is just broken and crushed but we knew this day was coming. he always sort of rallied and got past, difficult times with his health, but what a remarkable life, and for all of us that had the great privilege to work in the white house with him, and with president reagan. these are two incredible examples for young people, like myself, my husband who i met, and his personal aide as vice president, they drove a million miles together.
public could see to ronald reagan, and reagan, i think, one, was certainly respected him, and thought, i think presidents always feel that the vice president is the one who, because of the amendment that they can only serve to regrow terms, can carry on their legacy, and at that if you get somebody from the opposite party, in this case it would have been michael dukakis, they will undo a lot of what that president has accomplished in his eight years. so reagan was very supportive of george h.w. bush, bush 41, and it was a kind of seamless transition from one to the other. it was interesting, though, there was one question, you pointed out earlier, bret, reagan was so much larger than life, in a way that bush would have admitted he wasn t, that he needed to establish a separate identity and one of the things that he did at that new orleans