First Lady 'is White House power broker'

[Batgirl]

By Philip Sherwell in Washington
(Filed: 26/03/2006)

Laura Bush plays a much greater role in shaping White House policy, appointments and even budgets than previously acknowledged.

Mrs Bush, 59, has stayed largely in the background for the past five years. White House advisers have portrayed her as the "non-Hillary" - a reference to her predecessor, Mrs Clinton, who made no secret of her interest in public policy during her eight years as First Lady.

But a different picture of the influence the quietly spoken former Texas librarian exerts on her husband, President George W Bush, emerges in Laura Bush: An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady, to be published in America next week by Random House.

"The Bush administration asks for her opinion, and for any suggestions that she might have, on possible appointments and on issues affecting a range of agencies dealing with subjects which she has committed herself to promoting, or in which she has a strong interest," says its author, Ronald Kessler, who has been granted unprecedented access to family insiders and senior administration figures.

These issues include education, the arts, women's rights, and Aids. Because of her, Kessler says, budgets for some agencies have been increased or spared from cuts.

Kessler also claims that Mrs Bush vetoed an appointment to a senior political post, but has refused to give further details before the book is published.

Last year, in a rare public pronouncement, Mrs Bush openly encouraged her husband to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court, setting the scene for the botched nomination of Harriet Miers, the White House counsel, who is a family friend.

The First Lady acknowledged her influence on her husband's personnel decisions in a rare television interview with Larry King on CNN on Friday night.

"That's one of the things we do talk about the most," she said. "I know everyone as well as he does who works here. I've worked with them also. So certainly I would give him that kind of advice."

In the book, Kessler reveals that the First Lady became pregnant with her twins, Jenna and Barbara, only after taking powerful fertility drugs. The Bushes had been trying for children for three years before seeking medical help, according to Nancy Weiss, a close friend of the couple, from Texas.

Kessler describes how Mrs Bush continues to "bum" cigarettes from friends, even though she officially quit smoking more than 10 years ago, and retells how, as a 17-year-old, she accidentally drove through a red traffic light, killing a schoolmate.

Her CNN interview may be connected with the fact that Mr Bush's approval ratings remain extremely low. Mrs Bush consistently scores approval ratings of between 80 and 90 per cent and the White House likes to deploy her at times of political trouble for her husband.

After discussing a campaign to warn women of the dangers of heart disease, she also used the platform to defend the president's policies in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"It's very difficult to watch on television and see the loss of our soldiers in Iraq, and to get the idea that the Iraqis don't care - that they don't want us there, that it's a sacrifice they don't respect or regard," she admitted, adding firmly: "I think they do."

The revelation that the First Lady exerts a behind-the-scenes influence coincides with pressure on Mr Bush to breathe fresh life into his White House inner circle.

The President, renowned for his loyalty and dislike of staff changes, has previously indicated that he has no plans to shake-up the close-knit team of aides. However, when he was asked last week whether he would make changes, his response - "Well, I'm not going to announce it right now" - only fuelled speculation.

The future of Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, is also being debated by Republican insiders.

Telegraph

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this has been a open and not open secret/fact for a huge number of years. First ladies have historically had a lot of power. Mrs. Wilson pretty much ran the White House (and the govt for that matter) in the last months of Pres Wilson's term when he was pretty much disabled by a stroke.