The family began what they like to call “a news blackout.” They say they stopped watching most TV news and only read newspapers selectively. During No. 43’s campaign, Barbara Bush wouldn’t even watch her son’s first debate because it made her too nervous. When Laura Bush would get hot reading critical articles about her husband, George W. Bush would call out: “Bushie! You’re violating the news blackout!”

In truth though, the biggest violator of the news blackout in the family is 41 himself. During his son’s campaign, he watched so much TV news that Barbara Bush insisted he wear headphones so she wouldn’t have to listen to it. He’s not quite as obsessed these days, but he’s still a cable-news junkie.

And he occasionally takes things personally. No. 41 is still angry about a NEWSWEEK cover story about him back in 1987 that was headlined: “Bush Battles the Wimp Factor.” In fact, he brought it up again just last week at a forum he mediated on the press and the White House at Texas A&M University.

No reporter has been forgiven for more perceived slights in Bushland than New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

No reporter has been forgiven for more perceived slights in Bushland than New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. She earned her Pulitzer writing memorable barbs about Clinton. They have been just as sharp about George W. During his campaign, she described him defending “Texas against Oklahoma” while in the Air National Guard. She’s dubbed Bush’s early administration the “PB&J Presidency,” for his penchant for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

In the past few years, Dowd has fired off so many zingers that one aide to No. 43 calls her “the Cobra.” But George W. usually gets the joke, even when it’s on him. W and Dowd have met several times and have always been friendly, even warm toward each other.

So it’s not a surprise that Dowd was one of the two reporters Bush Sr. personally invited to the media panel he hosted at his Leadership Forum at Texas A&M last Thursday. The event, normally open to the press, was off limits to the fourth estate. But Dowd was reportedly charming and funny; she threw no grenades.

Until Sunday, when she wrote a column entitled “The Asbestos President.” In it she knocked the current president for a joke he made about arsenic levels in water during a dinner last week in Washington. The joke was: “As you know, we’re studying safe levels for arsenic in drinking water. To base our decision on sound science, the scientists told us we needed to test the water glasses of about 3,000 people. Thank you for participating.”

In response, Dowd wrote, “Being witty about poisoned drinking water isn’t easy. It requires a certain obtuse savoir-faire.”

This time, it wasn’t just No. 41 who was reading closely. Top Bush aide Karen Hughes, who wrote the arsenic joke for Bush’s speech at the Radio-Television Correspondents Association dinner, felt the Cobra’s bite. Bush had been teasing Hughes that she wasn’t funny anymore, that she hadn’t written a funny line in ages. Hughes was proud of the quip and thought it had been a hit until she read Dowd’s column. “Maureen Dowd didn’t like it!” Hughes half joked yesterday at an event in Wilmington, Del. “I don’t think she has much of a sense of humor.” Maybe, maybe not. But she has the Bushies’ ears.