How heartwarming that Barbara Bush used the opportunity a Myanmar / Burma press conference to talk about her family affairs. Who elected her anyway?

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Bush to get son he never had when daughter weds
Reuters
Washington

President George W. Bush, who sometimes treats his dog Barney like the son he never had, was thrilled about his daughter's engagement because now he will get a son for real, first lady Laura Bush said on Wednesday.

Jenna, one of the president's twin daughters, became engaged last month to longtime suitor Henry Hager, who comes from a prominent Republican family and worked in Bush's re-election campaign.

"You all know that George is thrilled to have a son, finally, because he's been calling Barney the son he never had," the first lady joked to a small group of journalists at the end of an interview on Myanmar.

The engagement has prompted a flurry of speculation about the possibility of a White House wedding. But the bride's mother did not spill the beans.

"Well I'm not going to announce where the wedding's going to be because actually we haven't quite figured it all out," Bush said.

The plans will become more solid after Jenna's book tour, she said, referring to her daughter's nonfiction book about a teen mother in Central America with the AIDS virus.

The first lady's review of her daughter's choice? "Wonderful young man."

Copyright 2007 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright ? 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3562561

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September 6, New York Times
First Lady makes issue of Myanmar's junta - Steven Lee Myers

When the military government in Myanmar began crushing street
demonstrations last month, the State Department protested. President Bush
later issued a statement condemning the arrests of protesters. The
administration's most forceful response, though, came from Laura Bush.

In a gesture of public policy not normally associated with first ladies,
she telephoned the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, on
Friday and called on him to denounce the junta that rules Myanmar, the
country formerly known as Burma.

''I wanted the U.N. to be on record saying, at least, that we know what's
happened in this recent crackdown,'' she said in an interview on
Wednesday.

Mrs. Bush, of course, is well known for her campaigns on literacy,
education and health, but in the autumn of her husband's presidency, she
has turned the fate of Myanmar and its jailed opposition leader, Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi, into a cause of her own.

She has met repeatedly with Mr. Ban's envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim A.
Gambari, and last year moderated a discussion at the United Nations to
draw attention to the country's repressive policies.

In May, she joined the 16 women in the Senate to appeal publicly for Mrs.
Aung San Suu Kyi's release. In June, she met in the White House with
refugees and exiles from Myanmar.

In the interview on Wednesday, she called for a new vote on a Security
Council resolution, eight months after one sponsored by the United States
was vetoed by Russia and China as meddling in Myanmar's internal affairs.

''In fact, the United States thinks that it is an issue for the Security
Council, both because of the human rights abuses that are going on in
Burma, as well as the instability of the government,'' she said. (Mrs.
Bush, like the United States government, does not recognize the military
government's decision to rename the country Myanmar and uses the country's
traditional name, Burma.)

Mrs. Bush, 60, disputed the notion that hers was an unorthodox role or one
that seemed out of character. She noted that she had traveled extensively
with -- and without -- her husband and had previously spoken out on
matters of policy and politics.

''I think this is sort of one of those myths: that I was baking cookies
and then they fell off the cookie sheet and I called Ban Ki-moon,'' she
said in the interview, held in her office in the East Wing, where the
bookshelves are filled with the trappings of her more familiar public
persona: children's books.

Still, Mrs. Bush has come late to a cause that is, for most Americans,
fairly obscure.

''As I've lived here longer, I realize I became more aware of a chance to
speak out about these issues that especially concern me,'' she said. ''And
I wanted to take advantage of that.''

It remains to be seen whether Mrs. Bush's advocacy has a meaningful
effect. A previous involvement in foreign policy earned her a dose of
criticism. In Egypt in 2005, she praised President Hosni Mubarak's ''very
bold step'' toward democracy for holding an election that was widely
denounced as a sham.

Josef Silverstein, professor emeritus at Rutgers University, said Mrs.
Bush's public positions would likely have little effect on Myanmar's
government, which has severely repressed the democratic opposition since
ignoring the results of parliamentary elections 17 years ago.

He said more than public declarations from an unelected person was necessary.

''It can't be the statement of a first lady,'' he said. ''It just doesn't
carry any weight in Burmese corridors.''

Although Myanmar's government has withstood criticism and a decade of
sanctions, Mrs. Bush argued against resignation on the issue.

''So 'why bother,' I guess, is the question people ask,'' she said. ''But
I think the answer is, 'Why not?' I mean, why not continue to put pressure
on the regime in any way we can?''