Reflections Life After the White House

Amid golf-club-polite compliments about the ”delightful” dinners, given by ”dear” friends in ”glorious” rooms, that have filled her social calendar between 1993, when her husband left the White House, and 2001, when her son moved in, Barbara Bush lashes out at two folks who, in Bush-speak, do evil: Saddam Hussein and ”New York Times” columnist Maureen Dowd, who gets even harsher judgment (”she sounds so bitter, so unhappy, so negative, so clever, and straining to be different”). That’s our Bar, who, now 78, continues to mow down enemies while reporting chirpy family news suitable for Christmas-card mass mailing. Her unreflective reflections include her review of ”L.A. Confidential,” which she disliked because ”it was all about ‘bad cops.’ I think ‘cops’ are good, and I hate for children to see them denigrated.” Unlike journalists.