ABSTRACT
We open by considering two articles, one from the New York Post and one from the National Enquirer , each alleging disputes involving former First Lady Laura Bush. The fi rst appeared in 2006 with the headline “A (First) Lady-Like Way to Go on Attack” and reported Laura Bush’s response to Hillary Clinton’s quip about Republicans running a “plantation” in the House of Representatives, claiming Bush “deftly cut the former fi rst lady down to size” without appearing “shrill” in her “ladylike” rejoinder to Clinton’s “ridiculous comment” (Orin, 2006). The second article, titled “Feuding First Ladies!,” leads with “Nancy Reagan BLASTS Laura Bush’s memoir as ‘shameful and undignifi ed’ ” and explains that “oh-so-prim and proper Nancy” is “in a snit” over Bush’s “unseemly” and “crass bid for publicity,” to which Bush reportedly responded that Reagan is a meddling “old biddy” (“Why Nancy,” 2010).
