There must be a great story behind that one

October 12, 2005

Yesterday, we all recoiled at the disturbingly sycophantic correspondence between Harriet Miers and then-Gov. Bush in Texas. There was one little tidbit, however, that was overlooked.

“I appreciate your friendship and candor. Never hold back your sage advice,” [Bush] wrote. “P.S. No more public scatology.” Whether Bush was referring to Miers’ rough-and-tumble time as chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission or something else isn’t clear. Scatology refers to “the study of or preoccupation with excrement or obscenity,” according to Webster’s dictionary.

Now, it’s hardly a stretch to believe that Bush has no idea what “scatology” means. For all he knows, if refers to a style of jazz signing.

But let’s say Bush does understand the word. One has to wonder exactly what the circumstances are that led him to write Miers this note.

After all, the Dallas Morning News recently quoted a longtime friend of Miers saying, “Not only did Harriet never tell a joke, she never laughed. She might smile so she didn’t look stern. But she would never say anything snide. In the 22 years I’ve known her, I’ve never heard her use a curse word. Not even ‘hell’ or ‘damn.'”

With this in mind, what do you suppose would prompt Bush to write this? For that matter, as Michael Crowley noted, what will conservative opponents of Miers’ nomination think about a woman with a public preoccupation with excrement or obscenity?

It might be a bad (i.e., Bush) spelling of eschatology. Which would be truly terrifying.

  • My reading of it is that she advised Bush not to use foul language in public. After all, there is that video of him flipping his middle finger at a camera just before a public address…

  • “I appreciate your friendship and candor. Never hold back your sage advice,” [Bush] wrote. “P.S. No more public scatology.”

    I think Shoreline is right about the quote. In this reading, “candor” and “sage advice” are oblique references to Miers’ advice to Bush to grow-up and stop acting like a teen in public. Bush added the postscript because, as a rather dense person himself, he was uncertain that she would fully understand the unstated significance of the previous two sentences.

    This reading raises two questions. First, what exactly did Bush say or do to elicit the “sage advice”? Second, was she his lawyer or surrogate mother?

  • I agree with Shoreline and Rege, but I think the key word is “public”.

    Bush is warning her to avoid “giving him sage advice” about his foul mouth (and finger gestures) IN PUBLIC.

    What a twit.

    And she says he’s the smartest guy she ever met, or some such drivel.

    God help us.

  • I’d have to agree with Racerx but add that Bush was probably trying to use a big word to make himself seem smart when the word he really wanted to use was “bullshit”.

  • Or, maybe he was trying to make a funny in the same way that I could warn my mother to stop taking heroin*. I would find a joke like that to be funny.

    Given that I’ve never found Bush to be funny, maybe it’s a silly theory.

    *For the record, as far as I know, my mother has never used heroin.

  • My guess is Bush is referring to “scat” singing — maybe he and Miers were at some function where Miers got up and did Karaoke of Ethel Waters or somesuch. In which case, it is nothing more than a private joke and means zilch.

    But I love it when bush misuses a word like that. It confirms what many of us already believe: he sent a body double to Yale who took notes for him while he went partying.

  • I think that she, a straight-arrow, prim, uptight, prudish type, tsk-tsk’ed him for his on-tape finger-flipping incident, or some other such thing (maybe at a public function where no cameras were rolling or the tape hasn’t gotten circulated yet).

    Seems most logical given his personality, and what we know of hers. He’s a frat boy, she’s a schoolmarm. I could see her scolding him for such “undignified” actions.

    • Comments are closed.