Bush’s Rainstorm Gesture of Chivalry Costs Agent a Coat

PARIS — Remember the raincoat that President Bush so generously took off and gave to an elderly woman in a rainstorm in Budapest, Hungary? Well, it wasn’t his.

Barbara Bush said today that the raincoat belonged to a Secret Service agent who was accompanying the President to an arrival ceremony in a downtown square Tuesday.

After making an abbreviated speech, Bush spotted the woman in the crowd, drenched to the bone after a heavy downpour. He took off the raincoat and gave it to her--a seemingly selfless gesture that attracted a lot of publicity.

Promising to replace the agent’s coat, Barbara Bush said she and the President know the exact brand they have to get.