The Bush Daughters, a Secret Service Headache

Jenna and Barbara Bush, the daughters of former President George W. Bush, were not exactly a Secret Service agent's dream assignment. That's one of the many revelations in Ronald Kessler's forthcoming book, In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect (Crown), which includes the following passage:

"Jenna would purposely try to lose her protection by going through red lights or by jumping in her car without telling agents where she was going. As a result, in a total waste of manpower, the Secret Service kept her car under surveillance so agents could follow her."

More youthful indiscretion? Here's the dirt from New York Post's "Page 6":

The author claims that at a 2005 Halloween party, Henry Hager, Jenna's boyfriend and soon-to-be-hubby, got so drunk the Secret Service took him to Georgetown University Hospital. He also got boozed up with Jenna in a Georgetown bar and picked a fight with several other patrons, with agents having to intervene to avoid a brawl.

Ditching security, excessive drinking, a barroom scuffle: Should we be the least bit surprised by this information? After all, the Bush daughters had something of a reputation for these antics before Kessler's book made news. Their now-famous trip to Argentina (what is it with good times and that South American country?) to celebrate their 25th birthday resulted in the kinds of headlines that no Secret Service boss could want, and the U.S. Embassy kindly requested that the young ladies cut their vacation short and return stateside.

So, while Kessler's book may be simply filling in details of the relationship between Jenna, Barbara and the people responsible for protecting them, it still is amusing to picture Clint Eastwood, reprising his old "In the Line of Fire" role, spitting out a few choice words when told to watch over those mischievous First Daughters. Now that might make a good movie.


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