September 14, 2004
Family Man
I don’t have a lot of time to read the blockbuster books of the day, but I do enjoy looking at their indexes, so today I went out of my way to get my hands on the index of Kitty Kelley’s expose of the Bushes, The Family.
And listen: as far as indexes go, this one is a beautiful and terrifying poem.
Here are some highlights from the section on George W. Bush:
Family money to back ventures, 187;
Insider trading charges, 552-54;
Jobs through his father, 300-301;
Law school turn-down and idleness, 300-301;
Trust fund, 301;
Academic mediocrity and lack of intellect, 253-54, 256, 266-67, 271, 294, 309-10, 540 571, 589, 571, 589, 616;
Adolescent-like behavior, 143, 304;
Alcohol and drug use, xxvi, 25, 259-60, 266, 284, 297, 302-3, 304, 350, 445-46, 550, 575-76, 578-84;
Arrogance and lack of compassion, 308-9, 585-87, 618-19, 635;
Born again evangelism, 25, 271, 446, 546-47, 584, 631;
Credibility and integrity, problems, 223-25, 582-83, 595, 598, 604, 629;
DUI arrests, 350, 582-83;
Fatalism, 143;
Mean streak, 555;
Narcotics arrest, rumor, 579-80;
Privilege, power, sense of entitlement, 187-88, 219, 248-49, 304, 310, 572, 601;
Sobriety, 445-46, 547;
Texas good ol’ boy persona, 305, 310;
Verbal abusiveness, 25, 575-76;
Girlfriend and abortion rumors, 599-600;
Alcohol-induced behavioral and marital troubles, 575;
As “The Chosen One,” 567, 569;
Infidelity rumors, 575;
Rainbo Club, whites only, 581;
Anti-eastern intellectual stance; 224, 268;
Executions, 585-87;
Jewish vote and Anti-Semitism, 547-48;
Appointments (for favors done) xxii, 303, 419, 553, 583
South Carolina racist commercial, 299, 305;
Coffin incident, 224-25;
Lack of promise, 261, 266-67;
Skull and Bones, 264, 267;
Christ – you could clone him based on that. Somewhere out there there’s an OEB enabled robot with Skeletor’s face doing lines of coke and getting ready to destroy what’s left of civilization.
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James Wolcott just won me over with his posts on the Kitty Kelley book:
"The hypocrisy of the cable newsers reeks to low hell. For years they've been hyping and peddling every variety of fishy speculation and brazen assertion about the Clintons, Vince Foster, Monica, Gary Condit-Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, this rape case, that abduction case; they've rolled out the ratty carpet for every Swift Boat slob; and now, now, they decide to get loftily anal.
and
"The Times never gets that indignant about a simple piece of pop trash; it's only when the ruling class is given the tabloid treatment that the paper becomes institutionally huffy. "
And I challenge you to watch Kitty take on balding establishment bootlick Matt Lauer on the Today show without falling in love with her - the video is at the bottom of the page here.
