Crazy Talk We Can’t Ignore: The Bush-Condi Rumors

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, assuming the position. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, via Princess Sparkle Pony)

We’ve been trying to take the high road around here. Over the past few days, we’ve refrained from writing about rumors of an alleged affair between Dubya and Condi, which supposedly caused Laura Bush to move out of the White House. We’ll willing to believe almost anything around here — but this gossip strikes us as a tad ridiculous.

As in the case of the Martin Random rumors, however, a flood of reader emails has forced our hand. We will now blog about the aforementioned crazy talk, just to stem the tide of tips about it.

Check out the dirt, after the jump.

The rumors appear to have originated with a June 1 posting at the Wayne Madsen Report:

Rocky shoals for Bush marriage? Informed sources Inside the Beltway report that First Lady Laura Bush has established temporary residence in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC as a result of a tiff with President Bush over an extramarital relationship involving her husband. Mr. Bush’s tryst is said to involve Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It is not known how long Mrs. Bush plans to remain at the Mayflower, however, her security detail has been present at the hotel during hours when the First Lady would normally be residing in the White House.

While she was National Security Adviser, Rice, who has never been married, referred to George W. Bush as “my husband” before she corrected herself and said, “President. Bush” Rice was speaking at a dinner hosted by New York Times bureau chief Philip Taubman when she made her “husband” remarks.

Now, we’re more than willing to believe parts of this rumor. Laura moving to a hotel? Sure! Perhaps they got into a big fight, maybe over W. drinking again?

The Condi bit, however, just reeks of the made-up. Are we talking about the same Condoleezza Rice — the perpetually polished, prim, and proper Secretary of State? The rumor borders on the laughable. In fact, when we (sheepishly) floated this rumor to one State Department official who has worked closely with Rice, laughter was the result.

Aside from being out of character for the uber-professional, super-dutiful Secretary Rice, we doubt that an affair with Bush would float her boat. Pravda seems to think Condi’s a lesbian; we lean towards a finding of asexuality. Either way, the notion of her having an affair with the boss, who also happens to be the leader of the free world, strikes us as highly dubious.

Of course, none of this has stopped the rumor from sprouting legs and running. On June 2, the Wayne Madsen Report expanded on its earlier coverage:

[T]wo mainstream media sources have confirmed that their sources also have reported an ongoing affair between Mr. Bush and Rice.

The mainstream media is hamstrung in reporting stories about Bush’s personal life. For example, in 2001, the media highlighted Bush’s comments about his passing out from choking on a pretzel while watching a football game in the White House. In reality, Bush, who claims he gave up drinking years ago, passed out from being inebriated. Washington’s movers and shakers knew the story about Bush’s drinking but the media studiously avoided it.

And then, on June 3, this report:

WMR can report that a Mayflower Hotel staffer has confirmed that First Lady Laura Bush spent at least one night this past week at the hotel, which is four blocks north of the White House. Mrs. Bush reportedly moved out of the White House after a confrontation with President Bush over his on-going affair with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The Mayflower’s official position on the story is that they can “neither confirm nor deny” the identities of their guests. Because it’s penchant for security and secrecy is well known to the Secret Service, the Mayflower has become a reliable hotel for U.S. and international VIPs.

Some Washington observers believe that the recent flare up between Laura Bush and the president stems from the fact that her poll numbers are twice as favorable as her husband’s (60 percent to 29 percent). Laura Bush’s recent solo missions to New Orleans, Colorado, and an AIDS conference at the United Nations represent a virtual declaration of independence from the most unpopular president in U.S. history.

As we’ve said before, we have no problem with the rumor of Laura temporarily decamping from the White House. But the Condi thing seems a trifle nutty. And the notion of Laura wanting to distance herself from her increasingly unpopular husband, like a congressional candidate in a tough reelection battle, seems similarly unlikely.

And now the rumors get really weird. Leola McConnell, a former professional dominatrix now running for governor in Nevada — a race that has also attracted an ex-porn star — alleges as follows:

“President Bush’s speech to the nation Monday. If he doesn’t say he’s a gay American or at the least a bisexual one then he shouldn’t be making one at all. And the notion that it would be in regards to writing bigotry into our nation’s Constitution is reprehensible. Too bad it isn’t me doing the rebuttal because in 1984, I watched him perform (with the enthusiasm of homosexual male who had done this many times before) a homosexual act on another man, namely Victor Ashe. Victor Ashe is the current Ambassador to the nation of Poland who should also come out like former Governor McGreevey of New Jersey and admit to being a gay American. Other homo-erotic acts were also performed by then private citizen George Bush because I performed one of them on him personally.

I am the woman this website (bushssecretlifein84.tripod.com) speaks of that has been posted on the net nearly two years now. None of this would be the business of anyone but President Bush’s little ruse to save his failed presidency by using DOMA [Defense of Marriage Act] to divide Americans one from the other has to be exposed as the act of a desperate closeted homosexual man. The only crime in being GLBT is in the hiding. The President needs to come clean with the American people about his own past sexual behavior before he tries to besmirch the humanity of people in search of sincerely committing to the same bonds of matrimony he’s afforded. He violated his own vows of monogamy having a homosexual affair with a long time family friend of whom his wife had no knowledge. His hypocrisy seems to know no bounds.

Any truth to this? Who knows. In any event, it took place back in 1984 — over 20 years ago. And we all know that when Bush was young and irresponsible, he was young and irresponsible.

We’ll continue to follow this story, and perhaps we’ll bring you some updates. But it strikes us as a bit too good to be true. Until we see some hard evidence, a la the infamous blue dress, put us in the camp of doubters.

Don’t get us wrong; we would love for all this stuff to be accurate. We fear, however, that proof of a Bush-Condi affair — or gay sex involving the president, for that matter — may turn out to be as elusive as those WMDs.

Wayne Madsen Report
WOW [BlogActive]
Condicise! Back By Popular Demand! [Princess Sparkle Pony]

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