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Neil, Prince of Bush: why the latest outrage by a president's brother has provoked so little outrage.

Article Excerpt
In bygone decades, profiteering presidential brothers evoked national indignation, their misconduct symbolizing not merely the erosion of our civic virtue but the personal deficiencies of their elected siblings. Richard M. Nixon's parvenu image was only reinforced by the eventual disclosure that Don Nixon in 1956 had borrowed $205,000 from Howard Hughes for a line of "Nixonburgers." The wisdom of entrusting the White House to a Georgia peanut farmer was revisited when, in the late 1970s, Billy Carter became a lobbyist for Libya and introduced his own line of "Billy" beer. Bill Clinton, admittedly, had only a half brother, but Roger Clinton's general turpitude--his drug conviction, his soliciting money with promises of presidential pardons--seemed to parallel his semi-sibling's emergence as the first president to be fellated by a White House intern in the Oval Office and to have his DNA tested for a (unrelated) paternity suit.

What, then, to make of the lack of national outrage over the latest doings of Neil Bush, brother of the current President? Of Neil's current ventures in crony capitalism, it is hard to know which is the less seemly. Made public last November, as part of the messy divorce proceedings against his wife, Sharon, was a contract between Neil and China's Grace Semiconductor firm, according to which Neil was to be paid more than $400,000 per year to serve on Grace's board and to offer it "expertized advices." (Grace's cofounder, Jiang Mianheng, just happens to be the son...