The mythic image of Barbara Bush as "America's Grandmother" suffered another body blow this week. The Houston Chronicle revealed that Mrs. Bush directed contributions to the Bush-Clinton Katrina relief fund on the condition that the undisclosed funds be spent on products and services from the company of her ne'er do well son Neil.
Of course, Mrs. Bush's cynicism towards and disdain for the victims of Hurricane Katrina is nothing new. Touring refugee evacuation centers in Houston with husband George just days after the inundation of New Orleans, Barbara told NPR's Marketplace program:

"Almost everyone I've talked to says we're going to move to Houston. What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."

This week's revelations highlight Mrs. Bush's lesser-known role in paying off family albatross Neil in exchange for his staying out of the limelight. Mrs. Bush is not only a dealmaker for Neil, who was disgraced during the S&L scandals during the late 1980's, but an investor in his company Ignite! Learning as well. She is joined by many of the same friends of Bush who helped establish Neil as a player in Dubai and throughout the Middle East. Her fellow investors in Ignite!, which raised $7.1 million from 53 investors, includes exiled Russian mogul Boris Berezovsky, Hosni Mubarak associate Hamza El Khouli as well as unnamed bagmen in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the British Virgin Islands.
But as Vanity Fair reported back in 1992, Barbara Bush is not only the family dealmaker and puppeteer; she is also its enforcer. During the 1984 vice presidential campaign, America's Grandmother famously described her husband's opponent Geraldine Ferraro, "I can't say it, but it rhymes with rich." When George W. ran for President, she is rumored to have praised her son's Machiavellian campaign, "Son, I love your strategy: don't let them get to know you." In 2004, Bush the Elder reported that his wife was "steamed" by attacks on her son, joking that "if Barbara gets her hands on John Kerry, he might get another Purple Heart." It's no wonder that an admiring Richard Nixon, an expert in such matters, said of Mrs. Bush, "she knows how to hate."
Fear of the wrath of Barbara extends to friends and foes alike. One long-time Bush associate speaking confidentially to Vanity Fair said, "I don't want to be dead...I really like her, but I don't go anywhere near her." A veteran of the 1988 campaign added that "when she frowned it had the capacity to send shudders through a lot of people." Perhaps most telling, an aide during the vice presidency of George H.W. Bush said it wasn't Nancy Reagan she feared. "I always thought Mrs. Bush was the one who would kill you."
The kindly, white haired aristocratic Barbara Bush has also been a staunch if tone-deaf defender of another family vocation - war. "War is not nice," she glibly said. More incredibly, Barbara on March 18, 2003 explained to Diane Sawyer on ABC's "Good Morning America" why she didn't watch television coverage of her son's invasion of Iraq:

"But why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's, it's not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that. And watch him suffer."

If Barbara Bush is "America's Grandmother," then we have a serious problem with American family values. Clearly, her dog Millie wasn't the only bitch in the Bush household.
UPDATE: Hat tip to reader "Hugagbug" for the fitting Nixon tribute to Babs.