from Rush & Molloy in the NY Daily News:

"Being President of the United States may not have been George W. Bush's top job preference.

Dubya dreamed of being baseball commissioner, according to former baseball czar Fay Vincent, who has just published "The Last Commissioner" (Simon & Schuster).

Vincent writes in his memoir that, in 1992, Bush, then owner of the Texas Rangers, asked him, "What do you think about me becoming commissioner?"

Vincent, who was ousted that year, told the future chief exec, "I think it's a great idea. You're smart. You love baseball. Is it something you want?"

"Well," Bush replied, "I've been thinking about it. Bud Selig tells me that he can deliver it."

Instead, Selig, delivered the job to himself. And Bush had to settle for the White House."

An added bonus from the link to this story is a pic of Naomi Campbell's Venezuelan male model boyfriend -- it's two treats in one! -- btw, his name is Enrique Palazio -- wasn't that the name of the opera star that Leslie Nielsen's Frank Drebin knocked out so that he had to perform the SSB in Naked Gun? ... but I ramble ...

[ September 20, 2002: Message edited by: DCBucky ]

Damn you, Bud Selig, you can't even apply the Peter Principle effectively... If Shrub was commish we'd still have the Bill of Rights AND wild-card-free baseball! (Texas voted against the playoff format when W was soaking up cash in Arlington.)

[quote]Originally posted by Bill W:
Damn you, Bud Selig, you can't even apply the Peter Principle effectively... If Shrub was commish we'd still have the Bill of Rights AND wild-card-free baseball! (Texas voted against the playoff format when W was soaking up cash in Arlington.)

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C'mon, guy, you know there was a tremendous gutting out of the Bill of Rights in the Clinton administration. The fourth amendment (protections against unreasonable search and seizure), in particular, was eviscerated beyond recognition.* The first amendment didn't fare too well either.**

Sorry to step on your joke, but you act like John Ashcroft is an aberration, rather than a (very) slight improvement from the Butcher of Waco, drag diva Janet Reno.
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* Barry McCaffrey's War on Drugs; the abuse of wiretaps; surrendering fourth amendment rights as a condition of living in public housing; civil forfeiture as a means for confiscating property without just compensation (actually an assault on fifth amendment rights)

** The Communications Decency Act; Femi-Nazi Roberta Achtenberg trying to prosecute people for speaking up against the location of public housing projects; Freedom of Access to Clinics Act; religious freedom in Waco; campaign finance reform proposals

That awful stuff still pales before the USA PATRIOT Act.

Take this side argument to the Politics & Religion forum, please?

As to the topic at hand....this is from the ESPN.com article. It goes into a little more detail:

[quote] Vincent recalled the conversation in his new book, "The Last Commissioner." It was reported in Wednesday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinal.

Selig was baseball's acting commissioner at the time. According to the book, Vincent recalled: "All my alarms went ringing at once."

Vincent has been a critic of Selig's since leaving the commissioner's job a decade ago. He blames Selig, among others, for forcing him out. He was highly critical of baseball management during this summer's labor negotiations.

Vincent is also close with Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, and his mother, Barbara. He writes extensively about that relationship in the book.

According to the Journal Sentinal story, Vincent once talked with Major League Baseball labor lawyer Chuck O'Connor about Vincent's relationship with Selig. O'Connor, he wrote, "had warned me to look out for Selig, that Selig wanted to be commissioner and that he would try to knock me off. I didn't believe him. Selig was my friend, I thought."

Vincent quoted O'Connor: "Selig thinks being called commissioner is one of the important titles in American life. He thinks it would make him a great American, a historic figure. He wants your job. Watch out for him."

Vincent said he told Bush that Selig wanted to be the commissioner. Bush said that Selig had told him he wasn't interested.

"George, I'm worried. I think Selig wants the job for himself," Vincent wrote.

Bush: "He told me that I'm still his man but that it will take some time to work out."

Vincent: "George, he can't tell you the truth because the truth is painful and telling painful truths is not his strength. He has never been able to tell people what they don't want to hear."

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