Former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have taken different paths after leaving the White House but neither can escape the wrath of their critics.
Chris Mathews on his MSNBC show “Hardball” Monday was both harsh and catty on news that Bush’s memoirs will be published Nov. 9. Matthews, author of several books with paltry sales, sniped that Bush’s book obviously must be ghost-written.
David Corn, the man from Mother Jones, opined on Politics Daily, that the “Dark Lord,” as he calls Cheney, will crawl out of his bunker during the campaign for midterm elections and offer his services to any Republican candidate who will have him.
Corn’s objectivity of Cheney is akin to Alec Baldwin writing nice about Kim Bassinger.
These (Corn and Mathews) are the same guys who criticize Fox News for wailing unfairly over President Obama.
I don’t pretend to be the last civil person in the country still standing. While in office for eight years, I was convinced Bush was the dumbest president of all time and the worst since Millard Fillmore. I figured Cheney for what he was — a sinister, evil manipulator whose thirst for power was thwarted and spent the second term sulking.
But, hey!. They’re gone, out of power, but not out of mind since we’re still cleaning up the mess they created. I say let bygones be bygones.
No, I will not buy Bush’s book “Decision Points” by Crown Publishers selling for $35 nor the autographed copy for $350. According to the flack promoting the book it is “gripping, never-before-heard detail” on such historic events as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the 2000 presidential election along with Bush’s decision to quit drinking, his relationship with his family and other personal details.
I am curious, honestly, what he writes about George H.W. Bush, his father, who was portrayed in the movie “W” as a snobbish Ivy League patrician who heaped praise on his son as often as he could throw a manhole cover 90 feet, the distance between first base and second.
“Since leaving the Oval Office, President Bush has given virtually no interviews or public speeches about his presidency,” Crown said in a statement. “Instead, he has spent almost every day writing ‘Decision Points,’ a strikingly personal and candid account revealing how and why he made the defining decisions in his consequential presidency and personal life.”
Here’s how Corn describes Cheney, who suffered his fifth heat attack in February:
During the previous months, he had emerged regularly to accuse President Barack Obama of undermining the national security of the United States. Repeatedly, he had claimed that Obama — who expanded the war in Afghanistan and who has stepped up the use of drones to kill Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives — was soft on the terrorists.
Okay, David. We get the picture.
Corn suggests Cheney is turning to political endorsements which may or may not be a kiss of death on candidates. With his popularity soaring from 19% when he left office to 38% today, who knows?
Cheney has endorsed Tea Party fav Marco Rubio for U.S. Senate in Florida and Trey Grayson over the libertarian Republican Rand Paul for Senator in Kentucky. His endorsement for Kay Bailey Hutchinson in the Texas governor’s race didn’t turn out to well as she lost by 20 points, Corn is happy to remind us.
The gleeful Corn was flabbergasted that Cheney considered telling Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy to commit a physically impossible act upon himself while sitting as Presiding Officer of the Senate as “sort of the best thing I ever did.”
My my, gentlemen. Can’t we just get along?
Cross posted on
Posted comments are welcome and automatically go to my email address at [email protected] in which I will reply when appropriate.
Jerry Remmers worked 26 years in the newspaper business. His last 23 years was with the Evening Tribune in San Diego where assignments included reporter, assistant city editor, county and politics editor.