{"id":2097,"date":"2016-07-06T16:26:53","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T23:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=2097"},"modified":"2016-07-06T16:26:53","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T23:26:53","slug":"kennebunkport-plays-home-to-generations-of-the-bush-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/courses-and-travel\/2097\/kennebunkport-plays-home-to-generations-of-the-bush-family","title":{"rendered":"Kennebunkport Plays Home to Generations of the Bush Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_6487\"Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author and political journalist Jon Meacham has visited Grand Rapids in the past to speak at the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum; but I caught up with him in Kennebunkport, Maine in mid-June, where he participated in the George H.W. Bush Celebrity Golf Tournament. The affable Meacham and I spoke on the porch of Cape Arundel Golf Club \u2013 itself on the registered list of historic places \u2013 but famous, too, for being the unassuming, public golf course of generations of the Walker and Bush families, including the two \u201cPresidents Bush,\u201d who summer at their nearby, oceanfront family compound. Meacham recently authored his latest revealing bestseller, \u201cDestiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush.\u201d<\/p>\n

I fear my contribution to literature is introducing the world to the phrase \u2018iron ass,\u2019 he joked, in reference to a controversial passage in the book quoting Bush. The 41st<\/sup> President told Meacham that Donald Rumsfeld, who served as Secretary of Defense to the 43rd<\/sup> President George W. Bush, was arrogant and hurt his son\u2019s presidency due to Rumsfeld\u2019s \u201ciron ass\u201d view of everything.<\/p>\n

I told Meacham – as I\u2019d told the elder President Bush a day earlier – that just a week before I arrived in Kennebunkport I\u2019d bumped into the retired Rumsfeld at a gala re-dedicating the renovated Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids. Knowing I\u2019d be seeing both President Bush and Meacham in Kennebunkport, I couldn\u2019t help myself so I asked Rumsfeld, \u201cMr. Secretary, does anyone call you \u2018Iron Ass\u2019 anymore?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rumsfeld didn\u2019t miss a beat and answered, \u201cWell\u2026I sure hope so!\u201d and walked away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s funny,\u201d said President Bush, grinning.<\/p>\n

Meacham laughed and said, \u201cGood for Rumsfeld!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IMG_6483\"The Bushes, who have been married over 70 years, once lived in Trenton, Michigan while George, at Grosse Ile Air Station, learned to fly and become the U.S. Navy\u2019s youngest aviator. \u201cThat was a long time ago,\u201d said former First Lady Barbara Bush, sitting on a golf cart nearby. \u201cWe\u2019ve been married so long because I just adored George from the moment I saw him. So he didn\u2019t have a choice.\u201d Mrs. Bush, who remarked to Meacham after reviewing her diary entries for his book, \u201cGosh I was an opinionated woman back then,\u201d was shaded by a light blue hat and wearing her signature mismatched Ked sneakers and big pearls around her neck. \u201cOh these are fakes. I could never have real pearls like this,\u201d she demurred when complimented and then joked, \u201cA lot of things on me are fake by now. God won\u2019t even recognize me when he sees me!\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the Bush family are seen frequently in the summer around seaside Kennebunkport, which is less than an hour south of Portland airport and 80 miles north of Boston. George W., the 43rd<\/sup> President, in early June, played golf at Cape Arundel almost daily and frequently posed for photos. The historic Colony Hotel, near the Bush family\u2019s very visible Walkers Point home, is a similar experience to Mackinac Island\u2019s Grand Hotel. For information visit CapeArundelGolfClub.com or GeorgeBushCelebrityGolf.com<\/p>\n

Michael Patrick Shiels may be contacted at\u00a0<\/em>InviteYourself@aol.com<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 His talk show can be heard weekday mornings in\u00a0Lansing\u00a0on 92.1 FM. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author and political journalist Jon Meacham has visited Grand Rapids in the past to speak at the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[998808,94915,813728,5941],"class_list":["post-2097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-courses-and-travel","tag-bush-family","tag-golf-2","tag-kennebunkport","tag-george-bush"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2016\/07\/IMG_6487.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2100,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2097\/revisions\/2100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}