Bush's daughter Jenna is engaged to wed

Crawford (Texas), Aug 16: President George W Bush's daughter Jenna is engaged to marry longtime boyfriend Henry Hager, the White House announced today.

No wedding date has been set for the couple, who have been dating for several years.

The White House has tried to keep Jenna, 25, and her twin sister Barbara, out of the public spotlight since they gained a reputation as party girls during their college days when they were arrested for underage drinking.

Hager is of Republican stock. He is the son of former Virginia lieutenant governor John Hager, and served as a White House aide and worked in Bush's re-election campaign.

''President and Mrs. George W. Bush are happy to announce the engagement of their daughter, Jenna Bush, to Mr. Henry Hager, son of the Honorable and Mrs. John H. Hager of Richmond, Virginia,'' the first lady's office said in a statement released while the president was vacationing at his Crawford ranch.

''Miss Bush and Mr. Hager became engaged Wednesday, August 15, 2007,'' it said.

A Washington Post gossip item headlined ''Don't worry Daddy, he's a Republican'' quoted a Bush adviser in 2005 as saying of Hager: ''He's a nice guy, a smart guy, an ambitious guy.'' Jenna Bush graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004 with a degree in English. She was an elementary school teacher in Washington, D.C., for a year and a half before embarking on an internship with UNICEF in Panama.

She has written a nonfiction book due out in September about a teen mother in Central America with the AIDS virus. She and her mother are also collaborating on a children's book about the joys of reading.

Reuters>