ON DEEP BACKGROUND

✪ The countdown to former

President George H.W. Bush’s 100th birthday has begun in Texas. There will be speeches and events, of course, but a lot of fans and students of the Reagan-Bush era will be heading to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum at Texas A&M University to see its newest display, a real Marine One helicopter. It will debut at the “41@100” celebration in June. The copter will be placed in the pavilion that also houses Union Pacific 4141, the locomotive that led the funeral train from Houston to College Station in December 2018 when Bush was laid to rest on the museum grounds alongside former first lady

Barbara Bush.… ✪ C-SPAN turns 45 this month and Communications Director

Howard Mortman shared with us some of the cable’s history since it went live on March 19, 1979. For example, it was former Rep. Al Gore who announced live from the House floor that the C-SPAN era was just starting. And behind him was former House Speaker Thomas

P. O’Neill, the first of 10 speakers C-SPAN’s cameras have watched over 45 years. … ✪ There’s little love lost for former Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in Wisconsin, at least with one top Democrat. During President Joe Biden’s visit to Milwaukee this week, Democratic Party chief Ben

Wikler initially shrugged off a question about the Jets QB who is said to be in the running for independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vice president. Initially, he said “Wisconsinites love the Packers. He predicted they would win the next Super Bowl,” the press pool report said. Then he returned to refine his comment, telling the pooler, “Wisconsinites know from painful experience that Aaron Rodgers tends to choke when it matters most.” …. ★