Prodigal Dubya, Texas Slowly Get Reacquainted

Former President Bush is gradually reentering life as a private citizen in Texas, Newsweek reports, but he's doing it gingerly and on his own terms. While many Texans agree that Dubya's still the friendly, aw-shucks guy they sent to Washington eight years ago, he's definitely keeping clear of dissent. “He is in home territory for sure,” a Texas historian said. “He doesn't enjoy naysayers and critics and opposition. Never has. And right now, he needs that nurturing cocoon that he is in.”

That “nurturing cocoon” includes friends and neighbors in his Dallas community, but not Texas’ political class. “It is the name that shall not be spoken,” said a consultant, adding that “it's a different time and a different deal” than the Texas that sent him to the White House in 2000. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t a hit at a local school appearance, though his response to a parent urging him to help out with a haunted house was telling: “I'd make a good ghost,” Bush replied. (More George W. Bush stories.)