After eight years of Hillary's attempts to nationalize health care, I thought for once we would have a first lady who was relatively harmless and might even do some good with her power. Laura Bush gave the impression of an unpretentious person who wanted to use her position as a bully pulpit for relatively modest and realistic goals such as encouraging more children to read. Apparently, I was wrong.

Laura Bush has used her clout to put more artists on the dole. She is credited with persuading Dubya to propose a twenty percent increase in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the largest in twenty years.

This is small potatoes perhaps compared to nationalized health care. Then again, her husband, who took a giant leap toward that goal by signing the prescription drugs bill, seems to be getting along just fine without her help.