# Bushco - What does it mean and where it come from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 13, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushco-what-does-it-mean-and-where-it-come-from/268918 "2004-10-13T01:11:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kel_Varnsen_Latex_Division)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushco-what-does-it-mean-and-where-it-come-from/268918/1 "2004-10-13T01:11:06Z")
I have seen the term “Buchco” used here and on the net. What does “Bushco” mean? I know it is for the President, but what is the “co” for? Where does this term come from? ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushco-what-does-it-mean-and-where-it-come-from/268918/2 "2004-10-13T01:31:58Z")
It’s shorthand for “the adminstration” – it means Bush + all his appointees: Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, etc. I don’t think its too much of a stretch to believe it is simply a contraction of Bush & Co. (Bush and Company) that points a slightly wagging finger at Bushco’s close ties to various corporate interests. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushco-what-does-it-mean-and-where-it-come-from/268918/3 "2004-10-13T01:50:37Z")
[AllTheWeb](http://www.alltheweb.com/advanced) lets you limit searches to web pages published between set dates. The feature is far from perfect. However, a search for ‘Bushco’ in documents prior to Oct 12, 2001 turns up only refs to a company named “the Bush Company”; nothing about the president. Searching for ‘Bushco’ in documents updated prior to Oct 12, 2002 returns [this](http://bloggablag.blogspot.com/2002_02_24_bloggablag_archive.html) page referring to the prez and his companions as Bushco. So the word likely first appeared in 2002. The bottom of that page also refers to ‘ENRONBUSHco’. The Enron blowup, and Bush’s ties to Ken Lay could have given rise to the term. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushco-what-does-it-mean-and-where-it-come-from/268918/4 "2004-10-13T06:55:03Z")
Wasn’t one of the memes from the 2000 Presidential Campaign that George W. Bush would be America’s first “CEO President”? That he’d run the country like a company? (_Which_ company, he didn’t specify. If only we had thought to ask… 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushco-what-does-it-mean-and-where-it-come-from/268918/5 "2004-10-13T12:35:52Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t think its too much of a stretch to believe it is simply a contraction of Bush & Co. (Bush and Company) that points a slightly wagging finger at Bushco’s close ties to various corporate interests. I think “Bushco” is a little more pointed than “Bush & Co.” The latter can just mean “Bush and his cronies”, while the former sounds more like a corrupt corporation like Enron. “Bushista” brings visions of the rulers of a South American Banana Republic. I’m still waiting to hear someone say something about “the Bush junta”. (It wouldn’t be strictly accurate, but it gets the point across. 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushco-what-does-it-mean-and-where-it-come-from/268918/6 "2004-10-13T17:24:50Z")
“Bushco” and “Shrubco” were and are terms used extensively by Mark Morford, a columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle. [Here](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/10/13/notes101304.DTL) is his most recent column. As you can see, he is virulently anti-Bush, pro-gay, pro- abortion, etc. Whether he coined them himself or not would be a question you would have to ask him via email.