Former President Bush hospitalized overnight

[Otto 83]

Former President George H.W. Bush is feeling good and expects to return to Houston tonight after being released from a California hospital, where he was treated for dehydration after collapsing on a golf course, his chief of staff said.

"He's great," said Jean Becker. "He's back to 100 percent."

Bush, 82, was taken to a hospital Sunday after he collapsed on a desert golf course. He was released from the hospital in good condition early today.

Becker said the former president expects to speak at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles tonight and then return to Houston and be in his office Tuesday.

Bush fainted in 94-degree heat while playing on the golf course on the Annenberg estate, Sunnylands, in Rancho Mirage, Becker said.

She said he recovered quickly and initially didn't want to go to the hospital, but agreed to go as a precaution.

Doctors at the Eisenhower Medical Center gave him fluids and kept him overnight for observation.

"It was a clear-cut case of dehydration," Becker said. "He just didn't drink enough water in that heat."

Bush and his wife, Barbara, were visiting philanthropist Lee Annenberg before his planned speech, which is part of a speakers' series, said Jim McGrath, a Bush spokesman.

He'll deliver an address about the arts, community service and relations with Mexico, McGrath said.

White House spokesman Tony Snow interrupted a visit to the Mayan ruins at Iximche to tell reporters that President George W. Bush was told of his father's brief illness toward the end of his trip to Colombia.

Bush called his father from Air Force One and "his father assured him he was OK."

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I'm glad he's OK.

[almaty 19]

chopf##k..playing golf in 94 degrees.