As you are probably aware, after President Barack Obama‘s inauguration, George and Laura Bush were flown by Marine helicopter to Andrews Air Force Base, from where they flew to Midland, Texas.

What you probably didn’t know was that they took a few friends and family and loyal supporters with them on the flight.

The Washington Times (no doubt on the principle that the less we know, the better off we all are) discreetly reported this as:

The Bushes were accompanied on the flight by daughters Barbara and Jenna and a few longtime confidants, including former White House adviser Karl Rove.

The list actually included:

…the former president’s mother and father and daughters Jenna and Barbara, Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, Dan Bartlett, Josh Bolten, Joel Kaplan, Jared Weinstein, Mike Meece, Andy Card, Don and Susie Evans, Blake Gottesman, Clay and Ann Johnson, Ed Gillespie, Barry Jackson, Joe Hagin, Israel Hernandez, Jeanne Johnson Phillips, Margaret Spellings, Alberto Gonzales, Brad Freeman, Jim and Debbie Francis, and Roland and Lois Betts.

That’s 29 people, and it’s just a partial list. Mark McKinnon, who blogged an account of the flight, was there too. And although his post does not make it clear, it sounds like the guest list may well have run to a hundred people.

A hundred people. At our expense. At a time when the economy is reeling from everything that Bush did to it for the last eight years. That’s in very poor taste, to say the least.