By Peter Baker
WASHINGTON Condoleezza Rice will be there. So will Karen Hughes and Dan Bartlett and Michael Gerson. And George W. Bush himself.
The old gang is getting back together next week in Dallas for a reunion of sorts the Bush teams first since leaving the White House. On tap is a dinner with the former president and a daylong discussion of the future George W. Bush Policy Institute.
Barely 80 days after turning the Oval Office over to President Obama a tanned and rested Mr. Bush is emerging from seclusion to begin his postpresidency. He has started giving speeches joined an off-road bicycle club thrown out the first pitch at the Texas Rangers home opener and scheduled a trip to China to speak at an economic forum.
More important Mr. Bush is trying to map out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. Relatively young at 62 and in good health he plans to build a library write a memoir and make some money but he is also eager to use his time to promote the policies he cared about most while in the White House and to help define his legacy.
More than most other former presidents Mr. Bush faces a daunting challenge on that front. After the war in Iraq Hurricane Katrina and the financial crisis he left office with some of the lowest poll numbers on record and may find it difficult rewriting the narrative of his tenure. But other former presidents Richard M. Nixon Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton for example have managed to burnish their reputations after leaving office.
Not coming to next weeks session is former Vice President Dick Cheney who in the final days of the administration argued with Mr. Bush about his refusal to pardon Mr. Cheneys former chief of staff I. Lewis Libby Jr. who was convicted of perjury for his role in the leak of Valerie Wilsons employment with the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Cheney later went on television to air his grievances with Mr. Bush while also accusing Mr. Obama of endangering the country.
That is an approach Mr. Bush has rejected. He thinks President Obama deserves his silence" said Mr. Bartlett who was White House counselor. Hes not going to be out there opining second-guessing or flyspecking Obamas decisions."
Besides he added Mr. Bush is moving on. Hes kind of getting a new cadence to his life" Mr. Bartlett said. He can hang out with a neighbor go out for an evening and go down to Crawford if he wants."
After about a month at their ranch near Crawford Tex. Mr. Bush and his wife Laura moved into their new 8500-square-foot house in Dallas. He stopped by a nearby elementary school and talked to a class at Southern Methodist University where his library will be built. He paid a surprise visit to a hardware store whose owner had offered him a job in a tongue-in-cheek newspaper advertisement. And he has been using e-mail for the first time in eight years.
So far he has delivered a paid speech in Calgary Alberta and has others scheduled soon in Michigan and China though his office will not disclose his fees. (The Washington Speakers Bureau which represents Mr. Bush says on its Web site that he shares candid insights on his eight years in the White House his experiences with other world leaders the nature of public leadership and decision making and a wide variety of domestic and international issues.")
As for his legacy Mr. Bush plans to tackle the most controversial moments of his presidency head on both in his memoirs and in his library aides said. At the library instead of a chronological format he plans to present his presidency through 20 consequential decisions most notably his decision to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein. And instead of a full biography his book will focus on a dozen key moments in his life from quitting drinking to picking Mr. Cheney as his vice president.
The idea aides said is to put the reader or visitor in Mr. Bushs shoes.
People may conclude that they would have made a different decision or maybe theyll conclude they would have made the same decision" said Mark Langdale a longtime friend and president of the George W. Bush Foundation. Were trying to take the tradition of presidential libraries and come up with a new twist on how they can be relevant."
The foundation has chosen an architect and is raising the first of $300 million it needs to build the library and museum on 25 acres provided by S.M.U. The groundbreaking is scheduled for November 2010 with hopes of opening in early 2013. Mr. Langdale declined to disclose how much has been raised saying fund-raising is going well" but has been constrained by the economy.
Mr. Bush does not plan to wait to open his policy institute which is set to begin sponsoring activities and host its first fellows this fall. The meeting next week was called to brainstorm on ideas for the institute. About 20 people close to the former president will dine with Mr. and Mrs. Bush at their home on Monday night and then spend Tuesday discussing the institute.
Its an opportunity to further the issues that he cared about expanding opportunity across the world" said Ms. Hughes one of Mr. Bushs closest advisers since his days as governor of Texas. Hes mentioned to me the idea of bringing staff from new democracies to the institute people maybe from Africa whove worked on the AIDS initiative there. I think it will be a very vibrant and exciting place."
In addition to Ms. Hughes and Mr. Bartlett those expected to attend include Ms. Rice the former secretary of state; Mr. Gerson the former chief speechwriter; Dr. Mark R. Dybul the former director of Mr. Bushs international AIDS program; and Yuval Levin a former domestic policy aide.
Mr. Bush started working on his memoir two days after leaving the White House aides said and gets up every morning around 5 or 5:30 to write for a few hours before heading to temporary offices in Dallas. He has written about 45000 words so far with the help of Christopher Michel 27 a former White House speechwriter aides said; the book tentatively titled Decision Points" is set for publication by Crown next year.
While unpopular in other parts of the country Mr. Bush has been welcomed home warmly by Texas. He received a standing ovation at the Rangers game this week and in posts online people he encounters on the Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association trails have gushed about meeting him.
And he is beginning to get out of Texas as well. After the gathering with aides next week he will fly to Boao China where he will address the Boao Forum for Asia a Chinese version of the World Economic Forum at Davos Switzerland.
Hes doing great" Mr. Langdale said. Hes very happy."
