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All the entries posted on September 21, 2007.
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Home > Window on Washington > Archives > 2007 > September > 21
Friday, September 21, 2007
Housing down, but economy up
Edward Lazear, chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, said Friday he believes the housing market will deteriorate, yet the economy will improve next year.
During the taping of C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program, which will air Sunday, Lazear told reporters that the record-setting pace of mortgage foreclosures will worsen.
In coming months, more of the low “teaser” rates offered on mortgages between 2003 and 2006 will expire and reset to higher levels, sending up monthly payments, he said. That in turn, will increase foreclosures and drive down home values. Even after this summer’s home price decline in much of the nation, “I wouldn’t say it’s reached its bottom,” he said.
Still, largely because of rising exports, he sees a brightening economic outlook, following the moderate 2-percent growth of this year’s second half. “2008 will be a stronger year,” he predicted.
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National Book Festival future uncertain
There’s no guarantee that the National Book Festival, a project started by Laura Bush, will continue after the Bushes leave town in January 2009, Librarian of Congress James Billington said Friday.
Seventy-one authors will be on hand next Saturday for the seventh annual version of the festival that draws tens of thousands of people to the National Mall.
“We hope it will live beyond the Bush administration,” Billington said in a Friday interview. “We can’t prejudge that. We certainly think it has become something of a national tradition.”
The event is privately funded. Billington said $1.75 million was raised for this year’s event. Major sponsors include Target, AT&T, the Amend Group, the Washington Post, AARP and others.
The first National Book Festival took place in 2001, the Bushes’ first year in the White House. Mrs. Bush also had been instrumental in starting the Texas Book Festival in 1996.
“Generally speaking, all White Houses and presidential spouses support reading. It’s kind of a no-brainer,” he said.
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Laura Bush interview
Some insights from First Lady Laura Bush, in advance of the Sept. 29 National Book Festival in Washington, during a Friday interview with Cox Newspapers Washington Bureau:
She hasn’t read all the books written by her family members.
She sometimes just looks for her name in the index and reads those parts.
She hasn’t kept a diary, something she regrets.
She doesn’t read books about her husband.
And she thinks Crawford is romantic, but that does not mean daughter Jenna’s wedding will be at the ranch.
Click on continue reading to see the q-and-a.
Q: In addition to being prolific readers, members of your family have become writers. Your mother-in-law has written books. Your husband has written a book. Your daughter, Jenna, has completed her first book. Your sister-in-law, Doro, is among this year’s festival authors. And now you and Jenna are collaborating on a book. What’s the status of that project and tell me a little about that experience.
Mrs. Bush: Well, we have met with our illustrator. Denise Brunkus is going to be our illustrator. She’s a terrific children’s illustrator. We met with her this week, earlier this week to lay out the book. As you know, children’s books don’t have a lot of text and so you have to be very, very careful and make sure every word in it is the word you want. And that’s been fun to work with Jenna on that, and then to see the way the illustrations can illustrate parts of the story that we can leave out of the text because the illustrator puts them in the pictures.
Q: Are either you or your daughter temperamental authors, or are we getting along here?
Mrs. Bush: Oh, we’re getting along great. It’s actually been a wonderful bonding experience for us. It’s been a lot of fun.
Q: Have you read all the books written by your family members?
Mrs. Bush: I’ll have to admit, no. (Laughter.) Sometimes I just look for my name in the index, and then read what they wrote about me. (Laughter.)
Q: Care to tell me which ones you have not read cover-to-cover?
Mrs. Bush: Well, I haven’t read all of Doro’s book cover-to-cover, but I certainly have looked through it a lot and read different parts of it and different stories of it. I think she’ll be a wonderful National Book Festival author. She was at the Texas Book Festival last year; but her book didn’t come out until after the National Book Festival last year, so that’s why she’s one of our writers this year.
Q: Any other family member books you haven’t read cover-to-cover?
Mrs. Bush: I haven’t read “The World Transformed,” by President (George H.W.) Bush and Brent Scowcroft cover-to-cover.
Q: How about your mother-in-law’s book?
Mrs. Bush: I did read my mother-in-law’s book. Her latest one that included recipes and stories I thought was fun. They’re fun to read.
Q: Your sister-in-law’s book, “My Father, My President,” is a memoir about your father-in-law. It’s hard to imagine that any book could add to your knowledge about the family, but from what you’ve seen in there, is there anything in that book that does that for you?
Mrs. Bush: Well, a lot of the personal stories are in that book. She contacted a lot of people and asked them to tell her stories about President Bush and she included those. And then she included, I think, some very funny family stories that hadn’t been in any of the other books. And what her book shows is what every member of President George H.W. Bush’s family knows, and that’s how sweet he is and how funny he is, and how much fun he is to be with.
Q: The book you’re writing with your daughter is a children’s book, which I know is among your favorite genres. Do you have any plans for a book about your unique role as the daughter-in-law of a president and a wife of a president?
Mrs. Bush: I don’t now; after this is over, maybe. But at this point, no, I don’t have a book planned.
Q: Are there some stories about that unique role that you think would be interesting to people?
Mrs. Bush: Sure. I unfortunately though have not kept a diary like Barbara Bush did and Lady Bird Johnson did. I mean, I can reconstruct my schedule and I can reconstruct important things that happened and how we felt when they happened, but there’s something very immediate about a diary; So I’m sorry I haven’t kept one.
Q: This year’s (National Book Festival) line-up includes authors of several books about presidents. Michael Beschloss has a book about presidential courage, covering presidents for two centuries. Elizabeth Drew has a new book about President Nixon. James Swanson has, as you mentioned, a volume about the search for Lincoln’s assassin. And Douglas Wilson has written several books about Lincoln. Your husband may be setting a record for having more books written about him while he was in still in office than any other president. Why are none of those authors of those books included in the National Book Festival?
Mrs. Bush: Well, sometimes they are. I think some of them have been. They’re certainly included in the Texas Book Festival, I think. The Library of Congress really has the last word on who’s invited and I don’t. I stay abreast of who they’re inviting slightly; but getting close to the festival is when I really start paying attention to who all they’ve invited.
Q: Would you have any objections to any of those books being included?
Mrs. Bush: No, absolutely not. I mean, this is a book festival. You want every viewpoint included. If you’ll remember, we invited Garry Mauro (Bush’s opponent in the 1998 Texas gubernatorial race) to the Texas Book Festival, where I was a little bit more knowledgeable about the ongoing authors meetings and who they were thinking of inviting.
Q: Have you read any of these books about your husband?
Mrs. Bush: No.
Q: Why not?
Mrs. Bush: Just, I’ve lived it. You know, I know what really happened, and so I don’t have to read some outsider’s view.
Q: And I would be remiss if I did not ask you about the upcoming big event in your family. Will there be a White House wedding before your husband leaves office?
Mrs. Bush: Well, after Jenna’s book tour, we’re going to decide what we’re going to do with the wedding. Her book comes at the end of next week, September 28th, and then her formal book launch is on October 1st. And then she’ll be on a book tour, 26 cities, around the country. And after that, we’ll have a chance to decide what she wants to do and what Henry wants to do.
Q: There are some people who would say, how could you possibly turn down a White House wedding. But are there good reasons not to have it at the White House?
Mrs. Bush: Well, I mean, obviously, everyone chooses where they want to get married for personal reasons; a site that most appeals to them for sentimental reasons are whatever. So we’ll see what Jenna thinks.
Q: But is there a more romantic spot in the world than Crawford, Texas?
Mrs. Bush: There is not a more romantic spot than right by the lake. (Laughter.)
Q: Is that a hint about something?
Mrs. Bush: No. No, it’s not.
Q: And a rehearsal dinner at the Coffee Station (in downtown Crawford) perhaps?
Mrs. Bush: Exactly. (Laughter).
White House: None of your business
Still an official stonewall today from the White House as to what the U.S. knows about Israel’s attack on Syria earlier this month. President Bush no-commented it yesterday at a news conference. Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto did the same this morning at a briefing.
“I’m going to let you all in on a little secret, that there are a lots of things that we know about and learn about in this building that we don’t share with you from the podium,” Fratto said. “You can get it from my e-mail exchange.”
The latter was a joking reference to a Washington Post mention of Fratto e-mails that somehow were copied to a Post reporter. Included was an exchange this week with the spokesman for Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle.
Fratto, referring to a Nussle TV interview about the Fed’s rate cut, wrote that “We don’t comment on FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) decisions - and neither should anyone else. … The appropriate reaction is: ‘We don’t comment on Fed decisions. We respect the independence of the Fed in setting monetary policy. If pressed: ‘We have confidence in Chairman Bernanke.’ “
The response from Nussle spokesman Sean Kevelighan: “Yep. Made that clear to Jim.”
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