Ann Richards

It was sad to hear of the death of the woman who uttered that famous phrase about Bush senior at the 1988 Democratic National Convention: "poor George, born with a silver foot in his mouth".

But, as an inidcation that there's pretty much no news that can't be tied in some way to the incompetence, dishonesty and deceit of the current Bush administration, it's this incident that both ended Richards' political career and foreshadowed the political atmosphere that we now enjoy:

George W. Bush ousted Ann Richards from the Texas governor's office in 1994 after a whisper campaign focused on a small number of Richards appointees who were lesbians and even suggested that Richards was gay. Bush himself stoked the fire, saying some Richards appointees "had agendas that may have been personal in nature."