CNN

Former President George H.W. Bush notified Ted Kennedy's family that he will not attend Saturday's funeral service.

(CNN) – Former President George H.W. Bush will not attend Ted Kennedy's private funeral mass in Boston on Saturday, his spokesman Jim McGrath told CNN.

McGrath said the 41st president spoke to Kennedy's wife Vicki and his niece Caroline to let them know. Earlier reports had said that all four living presidents would attend the service.

Former presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are still scheduled to attend.

Earlier: All four ex-presidents to attend Kennedy funeral

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Richard Nixon believed one way to shore up the GOP in 1973 was by recruiting "attractive" women, but not because he was "for women," according to audio tapes released Tuesday.

In February of 1973, President Nixon called future president and then-Republican National Committee chairman George H.W. Bush, and recounted a recent visit to the South Carolina state legislature.

"I noticed a couple of very attractive women, both of them Republicans, in the legislature," Nixon told Bush. "I want you to be sure to emphasize to our people, God, let's look for some... Understand, I don't do it because I'm for women, but I'm doing it because I think maybe a woman might win someplace where a man might not... So have you got that in mind?"

Bush replies, "I'll certainly keep it in mind."

The tape was among the approximately 154 hours of White House tape recordings and approximately 30,000 pages of documents released Tuesday by the Nixon Presidential Library, which is run by the National Archives.

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (CNN) - Former President George H.W. Bush celebrated his 85th birthday Friday by doing what has become his tradition - making a parachute jump - and commenting on national affairs.

"This is great," the elder Bush said after landing near a church in Kennebunkport, Maine, the Bushes' summer home. "I'm glad to be alive and glad my family's all with me."

Bush made the tandem jump from 10,500 feet harnessed to a member of the U.S. Army parachute team. Jumping with him was Robin Meade, an anchor on CNN sister network HLN, also harnessed to a more experienced jumper.

Back on the ground, Bush was flanked by two of his sons - former president George W. Bush, who left office in January, and Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida.

The elder Bush said he intends to do another jump on his 90th birthday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Watch Clinton and Bush 41 name their regrets as president.

(CNN) - Two former presidents reflected on their greatest regrets in office Monday, each looking back to issues that continue to plague the nation years later.

Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton appeared together at a question-and-answer forum before the National Automobile Dealers Association in New Orleans.

Asked his biggest regret after leaving office, Bush said he now wonders whether he should have tried to get Saddam Hussein to leave office at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991. He told the gathering, "I've thought a lot about it, but at the end of Desert Storm the question was should we have kind of kept going on that road to death and all this slaughter until Saddam Hussein showed up and laid his sword on the table, surrendered. And the common wisdom was he wouldn't do that."

Read the rest of this entry »

Bill Clinton said former president George H.W. Bush will help fix damage done to America's reputation by his son, George W. Bush.

ORANGEBURG, South Carolina (CNN) – Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that the first thing his wife Hillary will do when she reaches the White House is dispatch him and his predecessor, President George H.W. Bush, on an around-the-world mission to repair the damage done to America's reputation by the current president - Bush's son, George W. Bush.

"Well, the first thing she intends to do, because you can do this without passing a bill, the first thing she intends to do is to send me and former President Bush and a number of other people around the world to tell them that America is open for business and cooperation again," Clinton said in response to a question from a supporter about what his wife's "number one priority" would be as president.

A spokesman for the George H. W. Bush said Tuesday afternoon the former president supports his son's foreign policy and has "never discussed an ‘around-the-world-mission’ with either former President Bill Clinton or Sen. Clinton." (Click here for the full statement)

Clinton and the elder Bush, rivals in the 1992 presidential election, have grown chummy in recent years, often traveling and appearing at public events together. In 2005, they started a charity to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

UPDATE: The Republican National Committee issued this statement in response to Clinton's comments:

"In 2009, a Republican president will be working with our friends and allies abroad to continue to keep our nation safe," said RNC spokesman Danny Diaz. "The American people expect our leaders - both current and former - to present serious solutions to the very real challenges confronting our nation."

– CNN South Carolina Producer Peter Hamby

Clinton still has not clinched the Democratic nomination according to former President Bush.

(CNN)–Although some are ready to predict that Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, will be the 2008 Democratic nominee, former president George H.W. Bush says not so fast.

"I had thought a few weeks ago that she was almost a gimme, as we say in golf, for the nomination. I'm not sure I feel that way now." Bush made the comments in an interview with Chris Wallace aired on 'Fox News Sunday.'

"There seems to be more kind of internal, in her own party–seems to be more willingness to take her on and argue about stuff," he said.

When Wallace asked Bush whether his friendship with former president Bill Clinton, would make it more likely for him to be less critical of Clinton's wife, Bush disagreed. "I do have a good relationship with Bill Clinton, and I've enjoyed working with him on charitable causes, Katrina and tsunami and all fo this. And I might say I even enjoying playing golf with the guy," he said. "But just as he's not going to tiptoe about his differences with [President George W. Bush], I wouldn't tiptoe with my differences with him."

Former Presidents Clinton and Bush both traveled together extensively in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Asia, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, to raise money and awareness for recovery efforts.

Bush, the father of President George W. Bush, and former Florida governor Jeb Bush, taped the interview at his presidential library on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Click here to see CNN's new political portal: CNNPolitics.com

– CNN Political Desk Editor Jamie Crawford

Biden will take a break from his Iowa efforts to campaign in South Carolina on Monday.

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) – Sen. Joe Biden will use Monday's campaign swing through South Carolina to pick up two state legislative endorsements, his campaign tells CNN.

Biden will announce at a news conference at the State House in Columbia that he has picked up the endorsements of Democratic Reps. Jim Battle and Vida Miller. Both have served in the state legislature since 1997.

Biden now has six legislative endorsements in South Carolina.

– CNN South Carolina Producer Peter Hamby

Watch George H. W. Bush tee off Wednesday.

WASHINGT0N (CNN) - Former President George Bush teed it up with golf great Tiger Woods Wednesday to kick of the AT&T Earl Woods Memorial Pro-Am.

The tournament, organized by Tiger Woods and held at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, begins Thursday.

"There's a no laughing rule in effect - If anyone laughs when I hit it they are dead," Bush joked before he teed off. "We got the Secret Service here to look after me."