"Speaking of George Herbert Walker Bush, he seems to be enoying an ex-presidents freedom to just speak his mind. Bush, addressing a celebration Monday of the 10th anniversary of passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), got to alking about all the demonstrations against free trade and such that he encountered.

'At the risk of offending only a handful of you,' he began, 'I'll tell you my favorite demonstration story,' which came during a trip to San Francisco.

'I was driving in a big presidential limo with the flags flying,' Bush said, 'so we were coming around a corner in San Francisco and I see the signs out from the [anti-] NAFTA people and there was a rather, frankly, unattractive woman [some laughter] ... I think ugly was a good word [more laughter] and she stood there with her sign. She comes charging up near the car. 'Stay out of my womb,' says the sign.'

'I looked over and I said: 'No problem, just none at all.'' " (Al Kamen, In the Loop, The Washington Post, December 11, 2002).