For a guy who doesn’t read, Bush wants quite a library

November 27, 2006

We’ve had some fun this year taking note of the president’s alleged reading habits, his alleged book-reading contest with Karl Rove, and his demonstrably ridiculous summer reading list, which included some French existentialism. George W. Bush is many things, but “bookworm” isn’t on the list.

That won’t stop him and his supporters, however, from creating an imposing presidential library.

He may be a certified lame duck now, but President Bush and his truest believers are about to launch their final campaign — an eye-popping, half-billion-dollar drive for the Bush presidential library.

Eager to begin refurbishing his tattered legacy, the President hopes to raise $500 million to build his library and a think tank at Southern Methodist University in Dallas… Bush sources with direct knowledge of library plans told the Daily News that SMU and Bush fund-raisers hope to get half of the half billion from what they call “megadonations” of $10 million to $20 million a pop.

Bush loyalists have already identified wealthy heiresses, Arab nations and captains of industry as potential “mega” donors and are pressing for a formal site announcement – now expected early in the new year.

Presidential libraries are rarely riveting, but there are a few interesting angles to this.

First, there’s some irony in Bush creating a half-billion dollar library. The man who falsely claims to value fiscal restraint and modesty needs a library which will cost more than most recent presidential libraries combined?

Second, relying on multi-million dollar “megadonations” is inviting abuse. Bush allies will reach out to “wealthy heiresses, Arab nations and captains of industry,” each of whom will be asked for massive contributions that will be completely unregulated. (Unlike campaign contributions, there are no disclosure requirements for donations to presidential libraries.) Those hoping to curry favor with the White House will have a whole new way to skirt finance laws.

And, third, much of this seems to be about rehabilitating Bush’s “legacy.” A source familiar with the library plans said the Bush gang is interested in just how much “influence [on history] you can exert.”

…Bush partisans are determined to have a massive pile of endowment cash to spread the gospel of a presidency that for now gets poor marks from many scholars and a majority of Americans.

The legacy-polishing centerpiece is an institute, which several Bush insiders called the Institute for Democracy. Patterned after Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Bush’s institute will hire conservative scholars and “give them money to write papers and books favorable to the President’s policies,” one Bush insider said.

How very sad. The Bush gang is no doubt aware of their role in history, and I can’t say I blame them for being worried. But no matter how many “megadonations” from wealthy heiresses, Arab nations, and captains of industry they receive, no amount of money can save this presidency from the historical trash heap.

“Bush loyalists have already identified wealthy heiresses, Arab nations and captains of industry as potential “mega” donors ”

Arab Nations? That says about everything there is to say. I suppose in a way getting the money from them is only fair. After all it’s Boy George II’s policies that have been jacking up the profits for both the Texas Oil Mafia and the Oil Sheiks. They should be willing to give a little back to BG2.

And of course, the more he takes from the Oil Sheiks the less they have to give to Osama bin Laden. He’s fighting the Global War on Terror (God, how I hate that title) by drying up the funds for the fundie Islamics 😉

  • It’s not a library as we know it…it’s another corporate (big Oil) think tank in the works. They want to keep the money & power and haven’t yet realized that they are killing the goose so to speak.

  • Great, wingnut welfare will live on. We’ll have a whole new generation of goombas trying to rewrite history right before our eyes.

  • The largest public exhibit will be the Hall of Signing Statements. The most costly will be the classified wing. Loyalty oaths must be signed and notarized to gain admittance, while patrons not officially registered as repubs will be detained under the Patriot Act at the interactive Abu Ghraib exhibit.
    If there were any justice in the world, this boondoggle would be paid for by an excise tax on repubs only, and built, no-bid, by Halliburton.

  • UNFAIR!!!!

    Bush was reading about the goat, 9-11. He almost had it too. With just a little help from the kindergarteners he would have made it through the whole book. But then he got interrupted.

  • But no matter how many “megadonations” from wealthy heiresses, Arab nations, and captains of industry they receive, no amount of money can save this presidency from the historical trash heap.

    You say, but $200-300 million buys alot of propaganda. It also provides an infinite supply of research grants to historians willing to push that propaganda. A generation of intensive lobbying and the history profession will be just like the he-said she-said media, presenting “facts” that can’t possibly co-exist and letting readers decide the truth based on their pre-existing ideology. It is ludicrous to think this would work, but the last 6 years have severely damaged my faith in the people of this country.

  • Why can’t Bush fund the library himself.

    After 2009, think of all the speaking fees he can rake in. Who wouldn’t want to pay to hear his insights on the intricate issues of the day. Don’t even mention the royalties that’ll flow in once he “writes” his autobiography. Combine these big $ opportunities with his business acumen and he should be awash in cash.

  • So, sounds like we need more finance reforms… I mean, at these amounts, isn’t this solicitation of bribes?

  • From Jan. 2006 Face the Nation:

    CBS: “Have you had time to think about what you’re going to do after you’re president?”
    BUSH: “I’m beginning to think it through a little bit. I’d like to leave behind a legacy — or a think tank, a place for people to talk about freedom and liberty and the DeTocqueville model of what DeTocqueville saw in America. ”

    First of all, does anyone believe he knows what he’s talking about? Second of all why is it that when I google mild despotism I’m thinking of Bush, but I hit webpages about DeTocqueville ??

  • Wouldn’t President Bush be better served by a Presidential Bicycle Rack rather than a library? If the goal is to preserve the President’s most important intellectual contributions to the nation, at least.

  • James Baker (aka the Bush Family Tom Hagen) alleged said that GW was all about God and Exercise.

    Would it make more sense to open up the GW Bush gym/megachurch? Books are so wrong.

    If the moron has to have library, I suggest they name it “Air Assault”

  • #11 ROFL! Or maybe a museum with all of his bicycles, his brush clearing equipment, cowboy “stuff” but no horses, and several copies of My Pet Goat.

    For a GWB library, we could make a list of the books he WON’T include:
    For starters:
    The Lies of George W. Bush by David Corn
    House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger
    Bushwhacked by Molly Ivins
    The Politics of Truth by Joe Wilson

    and we could go on and on…

  • This is way too easy for jokes, but a joke is all that can be said about it. Since when do sitting presidents actually start building monuments after themselves.

    If this isn’t like Rome back in the day; maybe we will have a new denomination of currency and george can put his smirking mug on. It would have to be a big bill to really capture his presidency, the new million/billion dollar bill, to truly capture his legacy.

    Instead of water marks, we can use blood and/or oil marks to make it truly counterfeit proof. Scratch that, we will need something his cronies can counterfeit, and then maybe with any luck, they can really bankrupt this country while his ‘library’ stands as the legacy that broke this countries back. Just like the great library in Rome

    The Roman Emperor and Bush Legacies are so parallel it is truly scary.

  • The George W. Bush Presidential Library will house the largest collection of pop-up books ever assembled in history. It will also feature his personal collection of pop-up briefings, executive orders and other documents he used to formulate policy. The library will also be the site of his pop-up autobiography without any text whatsoever – the first of its kind among presidents.

  • I love the idea of a Bush Memorial gym. They could train and fund athletes for the Olympics. THAT would help his reputation much more than a library. But it would be an act of generosity to others and this president doesn’t believe in charity or sharing hope.

  • I wonder if the new “library” will have an exhibit wing, where pictures of Abu Ghraib will be displayed, or perhaps a wall with the names of all the soldiers who died in Iraq.

  • Ironic that the (so-called) president who actually reads less, and has done more to make government papers (his own father’s included) “off limits” to reporters and historians, is even thinking about a library. What could go in it? other than his TeeVee, his pillie, and the riding toys he keeps falling off? His collection of needles and liquor bottles and bibles?

  • The George Walker Bush Center for kids who can’t read good / smoothie bar?

    I realize that it is a great honor for a university to host a presidential library but SMU should really reconcider.

  • Pardon my confusion, but isn’t the country in the struggle of civilizations or the defining conflict of the 21st century or some shit like that? And since the Democratic party won the Congress, it’s a victory for the enemy, right? Shouldn’t a president be dealing with some of this stuff rather than a library where half of all legitimate documents will be 99 percent redacted and the other half sealed? Oh, you mean the Bush Library of Propaganda and Revisionism?

  • Where will they put the F-16 fighter jet (unused) and the Presidential Flight Suit With Extra Bulgy Codpiece (TM)?

    And why wealthy heiresses? Do they get to bid on a Dream Date with BushBaby? Perhaps an evening in The Undisclosed Location? The mind boggles. Then it recoils.

  • On second thought, perhaps Dems should fund a Bush Reality Library, where we could highlight some of his classics, like putting food on the family and “Those weapons of mass destruction must be somewhere.” Perhaps a special Hall of Shame for the Pet Goat.

  • Here’s an idea, Bush supporters:

    Why not take all that cash and mega-donations, and actually (and completely) fund the child-in-the-wake “No Child Left Behind” act, such that the thousands of EXISTING libraries will see true benefit, and not waste them on yet another AEI clone?

  • Presidential Bookmobile? Presidential bookshelf out in the garage using bricks and old boards?

    SMU might end up with a legendary joke on its campus. A Think Tank might be okay. Tanks are what they call fishing holes in Texas.

  • I can’t wait to go there and take a giant crap in the men’s room after I see the copy of “My Pet Goat” in the glass case.

    But maybe they won’t let Democrats in, has anyone asked if visitors will have to sign a loyalty oath?

  • Perhaps Bush’s time might be better spent finding some solutions for the mess he has made of this Country, and trying to keep from being impeached, rather than trying to preserve a legacy that should be repaired not preserved.

    Right after Bush was took officeI heard his mother Barbara being interviewed. She said that she was surprised that it was George, not Jeb who became president. “George couldn’t even keep his room clean.” Notice that she said “couldn’t” not “wouldn’t.” I think she had it right. He seems incapable of cleaning up his own messes.

  • So a library dedicated to a war criminal will result in favors to the donors in exchange for the donation. A whole new avenue of corruption. Maybe Shrub can sell some pardons to get his library. I believe a library dedicated to a war criminal will be a perpetual national embarassment that will have to be undone or renamed later. Anyway, what books belonging to President IQ 81 will be in the library besides My Pet Goat?

  • In all the scoffing, don’t miss the fact that the library isn’t just about shining up Bush’s long-term image. It is also about putting documents permanently out of reach of Freedom of Information Act inquiries. Remember that Bush senior’s presidential records are still being housed in Bush junior’s governorship library to protect senior and his staff (read: Cheney) from curious investigators, and in ongoing violation of an act of Congress regarding presidential records.

  • I can see why the huge price tag: it costs a lot to lock away all the sensitve, damaging documents this administration has generated. The library should be renamed the Bush Presidential Mausoleum since that’s where all of his dirty little secrets will go to die. I’ll bet the public area will be very small and the secured area will be very big.

    A Bush think tank? Isn’t that an oxymoron? The Bush Feel Tank or the Bush Think from the Gut Tank would be more appropriate. As would the Bush Legacy Damage Control Foundation.

  • “$500 Million? That’s a lot of comic books and back issues of Mad magazine.” – elp

    You kidding? Those first issue Spidermans and Fantastic Fours are pretty expensive these days 😉

  • I’m pleasantly suprised to be the first to say, ‘How much shelf space do you need for ‘My Pet Goat’ and The Stranger?’

    alas, the ‘Bush Presidential Library’ has a wonderfully oxymoronic feel to it, similar to the ‘Clear Skies Initiative,’ ‘No Child Left Behind,’ or ‘Patriot Act.’

    I have a feeling that the People should build their own Bush Library, so that we can effectively catalogue all of the man’s malaprops, malfeasances and misdeeds for future generations to come!

  • Like cheSF said above….A library dedicated to George Bush is like a courthouse dedicated to O.J. Simpson – the definition of “oxymoron.” Emphasis on the “moron”, of course. I cringe just imagining Bush going on about how his new “liberry” will have “books and stuff” in it. Besides the blatant laughability of the whole idea, it sounds like just another shameless nest-feathering stunt to me, another hare-brained scheme for which the average American will sacrifice both our tax dollars and our national dignity while Bush and his cronies get ever richer.

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