This just published on Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON – Former first lady Laura Bush says she's pleased that President Barack Obama nominated a woman for the Supreme Court.

"I think she sounds like a very interesting and good nominee," Bush said of Sonia Sotomayor, the federal appeals judge Obama picked.

Mrs. Bush said in an interview broadcast Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America" that "as a woman, I'm proud that there might be another woman on the court. I wish her well." She was interviewed in Dallas, where the Bushes moved after their White House tenure.

On another subject, Mrs. Bush said her husband will have no comment on any Obama decisions. He feels that as a former president, "he owes President Obama his silence on issues and there's no reason to second-guess any decisions he makes," Mrs. Bush said.

Now, I don't know why I'm so tickled by this news but I am.  I had long thought that this dowdy, frumpy former librarian was a wallflower who was in total accord with all that transpired over the 8 years of her husband's presidency. Perhaps I was wrong.  Afterall, this is a well-educated, smart, professional woman from the generation of women who were encountering and learning how to break the glass ceiling and paving the way for the generations of women to follow.

 Maybe, Mrs. Bush's casual endorsement will get some of the firebrand Republicans (the "wise white men"?) to back off a bit and take a look at this nominee. And, maybe it's a message by "proxy" for people like Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan and Dick Cheney to back off. Here we have an avowed staunch Republican looking beyond partisan politics to who can be a good justice.  Hmmmm, maybe "W" could have learned something from Laura about "governance". 

 I hope you find this as curiously interesting as I did.