The controversy over Pesident Obama’s speech to the nation’s schoolchildren will likely be over shortly after Obama speaks today at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia.
But when President George H.W. Bush (pictured) delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, the controversy was just beginning.Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush's speech -- they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue.
Most of the 1991 controversy came after the Bush speech.
The day after the Bush school speech, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president's political benefit.
"The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props," the Post reported.
Emboldened by the Post article the Democrats pounced.
"The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"
The General Accounting Office was ordered to investigate the cost and legality of Bush's appearance.
Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials were ordered to testify at a hearing devoted to the speech.
Unfortunately for the Democrats, the General Accounting Office concluded that the Bush administration had not acted improperly.
As it turned out the 1991 accusations and hearings by Democrats amounted to no more than a tempest in a teapot.
More of the story here.
A picture of my cave
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