PRESIDENT NOW CLAIMS TO BE LITERATE
By Bill Gallagher
DETROIT -- President George W. Bush and his handlers lie about all things great and small. They are addicted to deception and are always able to propagate their prevarications with the reliable assistance of the mainstream media.
From the ridiculous claim that Bush is a voracious reader to the laughable suggestion that he had never linked Iraq and Saddam Hussein to the Sept. 11 attacks, this administration treats the American people like they are dumb as rocks.
The president's book-reading binge is one of the biggest howlers the Busheviks have ever tried to foist on a demonstrably gullible public. "U.S. News & World Report" carried a piece claiming that Bush is "eager to dispel his image as an intellectual lightweight" and is striving to be known as a "man of letters." The magazine reports, "In fact, Bush has entered a book-reading contest with Karl Rove, his political adviser." Now a whopper for the ages: "White House aides say the president has read 60 books so far this year (while the brainy Rove, to Bush's competitive delight, has raked up only 50)."
That is pure crap. Anyone who believes Bush has breezed through 60 volumes of serious literature this year should be eligible for a mental health disability or a Bush Cabinet appointment. I would, however, accept the 60 number as Bush's lifetime count.
This is the man who didn't bother reading a CIA briefing paper entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside U.S." This is the commander in chief who never bothered reading his own State Department reports warning that Iraq could erupt into sectarian violence. This is the president who prides himself on just glancing at headlines but "rarely" reading newspaper articles because "a lot of times there's opinion mixed in with news." Instead, Bush relies on his crack staff to keep him informed. In truth, Bush always chooses fawning support over challenging exchanges. Better to rely on The Daily Condi than to read yourself and, God forbid, think and reflect. But we are now told a man who disdains complexity and subtlety, the most visceral president in American history, has transformed and is reading books faster than Rush Limbaugh gets his prescriptions filled.
George W. Bush's previous commitment to literature was best reflected in his determination to get through "My Pet Goat" with a second-grade class in Florida on Sept. 11, 2001. The president stuck with the reading drill for six minutes after being informed that planes had struck the World Trade Center.
Now Bush is adding "reader in chief" to his many titles. The White House has graciously provided a partial list of the books he's devouring at a clip that would make Thomas Jefferson seem like a slacker. Bush's reading list looks like he's possessed of wide-ranging intellectual curiosity. Don't let his cowpoke ways and frequent mangling of the English language fool you. We are blessed with a leader who truly is a man of letters, a born-again Renaissance man in our midst.
Bush, we are told, has read everything from Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer" to Leigh Montville's "The Big Bam: The Lives and Times of Babe Ruth" to Richard Carwardine's "Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power" to David Oshinsky's "Polio: An American Story."
I would love to have the time and discipline to read more about Oppie, the Babe, Abe and polio. So far, I've only been able to read the reviews of those books. I have never had any desire to participate in a book-reading contest. Reading books is about their intrinsic value, not some juvenile competition. I don't keep track of my reading consumption, but my best guess is that I've read 20 to 25 so far this year. I would highly recommend my most recent reads to our newly bookish Bush: Ron Suskind's "The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11" and Thomas Ricks' "Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq." The volumes share a frightening assessment of Bush's policies, isolation from reality and monumental failures. But there is no way Laura, Barbara and Condi -- Bush's nanny corps -- would ever allow him to read anything that might strain his psyche. Such worrying is better left to the entire nation.
Back in the days when Bush was governor of Texas and executing people at about the same rate he claims he's reading books, he said something most revealing: "I know there is no evidence that shows the death penalty has a deterrent effect -- but I feel in my gut it must be true."
Bush's gut told him Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and conducting a pre-emptive war there would make the world safer and democracy would blossom in the Middle East. If Bush had read anything about the British experience in the region following World War I, he might have thought otherwise. That would require actually reading and thinking -- not responding to his bowels, twitches or itches.
To sell his gut instincts, Bush had to use fiction: Iraq was somehow linked to the Sept. 11 attacks. While the big lie worked very well, Bush is now denying he employed it. In his bizarre news conference last week, Bush again deceptively conflated the war with the Sept. 11 attacks.
Reporter Ken Herman of Cox Newspapers had the guts to call Bush out on his deliberate deception. Here's the exchange.
Bush: The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East. They were ...
Herman: What did Iraq have to do with that?
Bush: What did Iraq have to do with what?
Herman: The attacks upon the World Trade Center.
Bush: Nothing. Except for it's part of -- and nobody ever suggested that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a -- Iraq -- the lesson of September the 11th is, take threats before they fully materialize, Ken. Nobody's ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq.
Amazing. The Busheviks were never so candid about Iraq's non-involvement in the attacks before the invasion. For a long time, most Americans bought the monstrous lies and supported the war based on them. And the lies live on. A Zogby poll in March showed 85 percent of the U.S. troops in Iraq believe they are there "to retaliate for Saddam's role in the 9/11 attacks." Seventy-seven percent of them believe the major reason for the war was "to stop Saddam from protecting al-Qaeda in Iraq." The troops believe those lies because that is what the Bush military is telling them.
Affairs of state forced Bush to cram his reading at this summer's truncated trek to his Texas ranch -- a mere ten days. Albert Camus' "The Stranger" was one the White House touted. Camus, a Noble laureate, was born in Algeria and wrote in French. Sacre bleu! Bush, we're told, read the English translation of the story of Meursault, an alienated, unfeeling man.
"The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart grabbed the existentialist moment: "A classic novel about a westerner that kills an Arab for no good reason and dies with no remorse. Why that should strike a nerve, I don't know."
Books unread are truths unspoken. "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" also appear on Bush's recent reading list. At first, I wondered how someone who struggles with modern English finds entertainment and relaxation in Shakespeare's Elizabethan verse.
Then again, those plays are so filled with treachery, lies, deceptions and killings, Bush must find them familiar and comforting.
The hardest thing that man ever read was "My Pet Goat".
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Bill Gallagher, a Peabody Award winner, is a former Niagara Falls city councilman who now covers Detroit for Fox2 News. His e-mail address is
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Woo hoo. You think you really have something to crow about!? What a HUGE difference in income! Now factor in your healtcare, or lack thereof. 