There’s no way Bush would actually serve given the circumstances, but the president has been called for jury duty.
President Bush could get a new title: juror No. 286. Someday, but not Monday, when he was summoned for jury duty.
The president was among 600 potential jurors summoned to report to court in McLennan County, where his 1,600-acre Crawford ranch is located.
State District Judge Ralph Strother told the Waco Tribune-Herald he expected to get a response about the summons but didn’t expect Bush to report for duty.
“I don’t think I’ll be sending the sheriff out to bring the president in,” said Strother, a Republican who has a grandson serving in Iraq.
And that’s fine, of course. Even if Bush were on one of his many vacations in Texas, the security logistics alone would make it practically impossible for a sitting president to serve on a jury.
But the fact that the president received a summons reminds us of the last time Bush was called for jury duty.
In case you haven’t heard the story, in October 1996, then-Gov. Bush received a summons and enjoyed some positive public relations for vowing not to use some “feeble excuse” to avoid jury duty. Then he was assigned to a drunk-driving case, which created a small problem for the governor.
Alberto Gonzales, Bush’s general counsel at the time, told the judge Bush couldn’t serve as a juror on the case because he might later be in a position to pardon the person being tried. The real reason? Bush likely would have been asked about his own personal background and would have had to admit that he’d been arrested for DUI, a secret he was anxious to keep from the public.
Indeed, Bush filled out the jury questionnaire — but left blank the section that about any previous convictions.
Ah, the memories….