Barbara Bush bounced back today from her embarrassing faux pas last week at the Houston Astrodome.

As you recall, during a radio interview with American Public Media, Mrs. Bush surveyed the thousands of evacuees crammed into the arena and told the reporter: “What I’m hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas!” She could not contain her amazement. “Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.”

While reporters struggled to snap close their mouths, Ma Bush steamrolled on. “So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this…”– she looked around for a moment, then added with a chilling little chuckle — “this is working very well for them.”

Stunned by the ensuing outcry and the pile-on from the liberal media which simply could not understand the largess of the Barbara Bush heart, her handlers urged the First Grandmother to make a statement to explain and clarify herself. She ignored this advice — yet a statement of sorts has appeared, if we can believe whitehouse.org, an anti-Bush spoof site. In it, Barbara extends an even bigger Texas-howdy to the orphans of the storm.

Feel the tender mercies of her compassionate conservatism. Read the opening statement of Barbara Bush’s Tour of Houston for the Underprivileged:

This is truly the perfect time of the year for the downtrodden to spend a few months vacationing in Houston while their homes are bulldozed into the Gulf. It is so hot and miserable here that most normal people will be indoors, so your loitering won’t inconvenience too many folks. Come on down and join us.