Former Texas GOP chairman: Bush ‘was a lousy president of the United States.’

By Amanda Terkel

Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken, a former chairman of the Texas Republican Party, has a new book called “Bringing America Home,” a harsh criticism of how conservatives have squandered the “political capital” built up by Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. He has particularly harsh words for his state’s former governor, whom he has known since he was a “young man”:

George W. Bush might have made a terrific Major League Baseball commissioner, but he was a lousy president of the United States. [...]

The Republican Party needs to become, once again, a party guided by basic conservative principles. We need to think about more than just the next election — or what the polls say we should do. Instead, we need to make decisions based on what’s good for our country in the long term.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Pauken says that Bush, even when he was younger, never seemed particularly interested in the “issues”; he was always more into baseball and seemed “pushed” into politics. Listen to the interview here: Quick comment: The only job I can see George W.Bush succeeding is a video stacker at a Blockbuster video store.