The Elusive Barbara Bush
By Lloyd Grove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 10, 2001; 12:30 PM
No link -- this copy was emailed to TheFirstTwins
It's tough being Secret Service agents charged with
protecting presidential progeny. How tough? Well, if
you're in the detail assigned to 19-year-old Yale
freshman Barbara Bush, you get mocked in a campus
publication called the Rumpus.
"O Daughter Where Art Thou?" screams the New York
Post-like front cover of the monthly's April issue
alleging two incidents in which Bush managed to elude
her long-suffering protectors. "The Secret Service Is
Neither Secret, Nor a Service. Discuss," the tabloid
continues.
The inside article, by apparently well-connected Yale
freshman Nathaniel Pincus-Roth, reports a recent
episode in which President Bush's twin daughter was
riding down the highway from New Haven with college
friends bent on attending a WWF match at Madison
Square Garden. "Naturally the Secret Service followed
the car she was in," Pincus-Roth writes. "Everything
was going well until they got to the bridge into
Manhattan, where they made one crucial misstep: 'They
didn't have an EZ pass,' remarked someone who was in
the car with Barbara, 'but we did, so after they paid
their toll they put on their sirens and sped 120 mph
until they caught up with us.' "
In our own interview with Pincus-Roth's witness, who
asked that we not name him, he essentially confirmed
the account, adding that the agents waiting in line at
the toll booth were in two cars. "I believe they've
gotten their own EZ pass since then," the student told
us.
In the other incident reported in the Rumpus, a female
agent approached a fellow resident of Bush's
dormitory. " 'She was like, 'Do you know where she
is?' And then I said, 'No, I hadn't seen her,' " the
article quotes the student. "After a pause, the
officer then nonchalantly asked, 'Do you think she
would turn her cell phone on?' "
The witness, who also asked for anonymity, told us
that the encounter took place on a recent Monday night
"right after 'Ally McBeal.' " We demanded: Do you
think your parents are paying your Yale tuition so
that you can watch "Ally McBeal"?
"No, of course not," she answered, "but we do get a
study break every so often."
She added that she was baffled by the agent's
questions. "It's not like I'm Barbara's keeper."
The Secret Service declined to comment on
the Rumpus article.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
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