The Bush Legacy Project, Version 2.0

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Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Pete Sessions are Republicans from Texas. So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that the two lawmakers—who chair the GOP’s Senate and House campaign committees, respectively—went on television this weekend to stand up for their fellow Texas Republican, former President George W. Bush. Here’s the Washington Post‘s Chris Cillizza recapping the latest Bush reputation-rehabbing offensive:

“People had jobs when Republicans were not only in charge but George Bush was there,” said National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (Texas) during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press”.

John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program that “Bush’s stock has gone up a lot since he left office,” adding: “I think a lot people are looking back with more fondness on President Bush’s administration, and I think history will treat him well.”

The rhetoric from Cornyn and Sessions reflects a gamble by Republicans that Bush, who left office in 2008 deeply unpopular with broad swaths of the American public, will, as almost every president does, rebound in terms of his public image as time passes.

ThinkProgress does the (easy) spadework on this ridiculousness:

Clearly, though, the American public is still sour on Bush’s record. A recent Time poll found that 71 percent blame Bush for the “balky economy,” versus 27 percent who blame President Obama. By a whopping 53-to-33 percent margin, Americans favor Obama over Bush.

As for Cornyn’s claim that “history will treat” Bush “well,” the Siena Research Institute this month released its latest poll of presidential scholars, who ranked Bush as the worst president of the modern era and in the bottom five overall.

Jon Stewart actually addressed this issue a few weeks ago, noting that Bush “really was a terrible president who ran the country into the ground”:

None of this should be surprising. Sessions and Cornyn are conservative Republicans. Conservative Republicans voted overwhelmingly for Bush in 2000 and 2004. Most conservative Republicans never thought of Bush as a bad or failed president. As late as December 2008, 72 percent of conservative Republicans still supported Bush. His overall approval rating was in the low 30s at the time. There’s probably not much strategy behind the GOPers’ comments: This is just what they really think.

When Sessions and Cornyn defend Bush, they’re simply giving Americans a preview of what the GOP campaign committees have to offer: a return to the years when the country was run by conservative Republicans. Hey, at least people will know what to expect.

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“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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