And on a lighter note...

[whometense]

Dan Froomkin had this in yesterday's column:

Book Notes

Disregard what you may have read about Bush's highbrow reading list. (See my Aug. 16 column.)

The August 16 column says this:

Warren Vieth writes in the Los Angeles Times: "According to the White House, one of three books Bush chose to read on his five-week vacation is 'Salt: A World History' by Mark Kurlansky, who chronicled the rise and fall of what once was considered the world's most strategic commodity.

"The other two books he reportedly brought to Crawford are 'Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar' by Edvard Radzinsky and 'The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History' by John M. Barry. . . .

"Kurlansky said he was surprised to hear that Bush had taken his book to the ranch: 'My first reaction was, 'Oh, he reads books?'

"The author said he was a 'virulent Bush opponent' who had given speeches denouncing the war in Iraq.

" 'What I find fascinating, and it's probably a positive thing about the White House, is they don't seem to do any research about the writers when they pick the books,' Kurlansky said."

Froomkin:

Bumiller notes in the New York Times that Bush told a small group of reporters a week ago: "I'm reading an Elmore Leonard book right now."

Commence sniggering.

[TayTay]

1. So, he finally finished 'My Pet Goat'?

I thought for awhile he was going to wait for the PBS adaption.

Snort, chuckle, snort.

Hey, Sen. Allen probably has a reading list as well:

Committee Hearings for Dummies!
Foreign Policy for Dummies! (It's not the music and the clothes idiot!)
Science, Commerce and Transportation: More Committee Hearings for Dummies!
The Stupid Person's Guide to the Senate
Adjectives and how they work in English

(You started this. Now I have Sen. Allen stuck in my brain.)

[Island Blue]

2. Sen. Allen's reading list is also sure to include the

"Football Metaphors to Politics Translation Guide".

In regards to the original post, there is no way in hell that I'm believing that Shrub has actually read (or attempted to read) three books while on vacation. Do these people really find it necessary to lie about EVERYTHING?

[globalvillage]

3. He Cheats.

[whometense]

4. Yes.

Apparently, there is no subject so insignificant that it does not merit its own big fat lie.

[beachmom]

5. It takes him a LONG time to read one book

I think I remember from wonkette.com that in January, Bush said he was reading the new Tom Wolfe book. Then a picture was caught of him in March holding the same book. When asked, WH officials said that he doesn't have a lot of time, and just reads a few minutes a night.

[beachmom]

6. In contrast, Kerry -- "a voracious reader"

This was from an interview with Stephen Elliott, author of "Looking Forward to It: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the American Political Process" on Salon.com. The guy, who also is a fine novelist, was a Deaniac who changed his mind, and thought Kerry was the better Dem choice. You won't like the first part of his quote, but I think it is typical of people who jump to conclusions about Kerry, and then get to know him, and reconsider their first impressions:

http://www.salon.com/books/int/2004/10/27/elliott/index.html?sid=1282716

But you seemed so skeptical of Kerry, at least initially.

A politician to the core. He's such a boring person to listen to, and I was like, if he wins, I'm going to have to spend a lot more time with him, and that's going to really suck. And he ran such a dirty campaign in Iowa against Howard Dean. But then you get involved in the general election, and you see that however Kerry was fighting Dean, it's nothing compared to how dirty a fighter Bush is. To paraphrase Hunter Thompson, the worst thing that Kerry has ever done Bush does every day of his life as a matter of policy. Plus, when I had a chance to talk to Kerry on the bus one-on-one, I did like him. He'd play guitar for us on the road. And he's a voracious reader: He's always got six books going at a time.

What was he reading when you last saw him?

Actually, "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail."

Check out the whole article (although you have to read the ad to get into Salon). It's funny and this guy isn't like that "Slap the Donkey" Rolling Stone idiot who can't think a deep thought if he tried.

[ginnyinWI]

7. lovely bit of catnip

thanks--I went to salon and read the whole thing!

"six books going at a time"--that's our guy. :)

[whometense]

8. Funny you should mention that.

I'm reading "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail" too.

I was actually thinking of starting a thread about it, and still may. I am finding it totally fascinating.

Have any of you read it? This is my first time reading it, and it's a revelation. A lot of the info would be old news to you old political hands, but to me it's incredible how relevant this book is today. My copy has about 50 sticky notes marking passages, and I'm only 2/3rds of the way through.

Edited to add a question: Is it actually documented that Kerry ran a dirty campaign in Iowa? I've never heard any proof of that - only Deaniac whining.

[karynnj]

10. I read it so long ago, that I probably remember mostly the

name and style. I really should re-read it.

I've read many people (some from Iowa) who disputed the claim. I have never seen any description of how Kerry "cheated". Cheating in a caucus state seems too hard to imagine. People are in places with their neighbors and friends and they pick sides. If you tried paying people to attend, I doubt you could ask more than, say 10, before someone (honestly and correctly) would go to the press. The Boston Globe alone would have put out a special edition to discuss the charges.

One of the Iowa people said that Kerry was always stronger than he was said to be. Kerry did have a couple of really nice ads and "The Candidate" describes how Kerry's reunion with Rassman was on the news in the same cycle as Dean, red faced and angry, demanding on old man sit down! The author talked about the contrast. The national stations I saw just had Kerry - and it was fantastic, especially when he seemed kind of modest, saying anyone would have done the same. The rapport between them was so genuine.

Before the primary, Dean was in a nasty fight with Gephart that, I think Kerry and Edwards gained from by staying out of. It seemed with comments like, "I don't want to be a pin cushion" when he accused the other candidates of being mean to him, Dean just imploded. There was some ad that was run by a group that included Kerry fund raisers that questioned if Dean was strong enough to deal with Osama. This is a valid question, but I've heard it cited as Kerry playing dirty.

As many people have documented here, Dean misrepresented his past on at least three important issues, the war, health care and to some degree the environment. But it was Gephart, not Kerry, who called him on most of this. Dean intentionally misrepresented Kerry on Iraq, which hurt Kerry long term. Unless I missed it, it was also tacky that he never (even when Kerry was the candidate) commented that the only reason his family got the closure that came with the return of his brother's remains was that Kerry had worked out the agreements with the Vietnamese on this.

There was a weird agreement between Kuchinich and Edwards, with Kuchinich telling his people to band with Edwards if they were under the threshold to get a delegate. That could have been cheating - I never read why Kuchinich preferred Edwards to Kerry (more liberal) or Dean (suposedly anti-war), but it may have just been personalities.

I watched several hours of the caucus on C-SPAN which alternated between two locations and gained more respect for the process and found it fascinating. From that, about the only tactic I can think of is to make sure you impress all the smartest, most articulate people in each community so they can persuade people to change or just gain all those whose candidate didn't get over the threshhold - who then have to pick one of the others. But, wait, that's not cheating. That's what you are suppose to do.

From everything I've read Kerry's cheating consisted of winning.

[whometense]

11. Thanks.

What you wrote is exactly what I remember. I can't imagine a way to cheat at caucus. I do remember some dark hints about a Kerry phone campaign, but never saw a hint of evidence to back it up - like hearing from someone who actually received one of those alleged calls.

I spent a lot of time at the Boston Kerry HQ before and around the primaries. We were phoning, phoning, phoning - but we worked off a script, and I never saw a single negative word about Dean in any of them. I too believe that Kerry (with the aid of the amazing Michael Whouley) was just flying so far under the radar (and that the Dean campaign was in such complete disarray) that he took them by complete surprise. No dirty tricks required.

[TayTay]

12. Whouley, you know, Kerry discovered him

He was part of the Kerry campaign team (Whouley was 23) in 1982, when Kerry ran for Lt. Gov. of MA.

He was campaign field director in the 1984 Senate run. (25 years old)

Whouley was named national field director of the Clinton-Gore presidential campaign in 1992 (Age 33.)

Wow! Kerry really has an eye for political talent.

I wonder if Whouley has committed to come back for '08.

[karynnj]

13. You actually have primary source information on NH

It would seem that a phone campaign spreading negative information would backfire in a caucus unless it were true. People were all talking - if you were leaning to Dean and got a call with negative information - you could easily ask the people there who were caucusing for Dean about its truth.

Is it possible that Kerry supporters responded to Dean attacks? - if I were an Iowan and knew what I do now, I would have pulled valid (documented) Kerry and Dean quotes on Iraq and put them on a dual time line and given copies to anyone who would talk to me. Could this be viewed as negative campaigning? It's really just correcting implicit Dean (or Trippi or Deaniac) lies about his and Kerry's positions.

[TayTay]

14. More Iowa (re: old, they need to let it go) stuff

THERE WERE RAISED EYEBROWS among Democrats after an advocacy group recently aired a TV ad attacking Dean as inexperienced on national security.

The ad was produced by a shadowy group called Americans for Jobs, Health Care and Progressive Values. The group's spokesman also happens to be Kerry's former talking head, Robert Gibbs.

Gibbs and the Kerry camp denied any connection.

Turns out the group was headed by a former fund-raiser for U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt.

The Dean camp howled, branding the ad "scurrilous," and it eventually was pulled. ----- Boston Herald 12/23/03

And this:

Group to broadcast new ad criticizing Dean
AP Online All 12-13-2003
By By LIZ SIDOTI Associated Press Writer

A new ad questioning Howard Dean's national security credentials is backed by a group that includes former supporters of rivals Dick Gephardt and John Kerry.

The ad shows a picture of Osama bin Laden and says that Dean, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, doesn't have the military or foreign policy experience needed to take on "those who wake up every morning determined to destroy Western civilization."

The Gephardt and Kerry campaigns say they had nothing to do with Americans for Jobs, Healthcare and Progressive Values or its ads.

The group, which says it is not affiliated with any candidate, includes treasurer David Jones, who has been a fund-raiser for Gephardt, and spokesman Robert Gibbs, who last month resigned as chief spokesman for Kerry's campaign.

The group announced Friday that former Ohio Rep. Edward Feighan was taking over as its president in place of Tim Raftis, who was no longer with the organization. There was no explanation issued for the departure of Raftis, a former campaign manager for Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin's unsuccessful presidential bid in 1992.

The new ad will air this weekend in New Hampshire and South Carolina, while the group's first ad questioning Dean's record on gun ownership continues to run in Iowa. The group says it has spent $400,000 to air its ads so far, a moderate amount of money for an outside interest group.

In the ad, an announcer says, "Americans want a president who can face the dangers ahead. But Howard Dean has no military or foreign policy experience. And Howard Dean just cannot compete with George Bush on foreign policy. It's time for Democrats to think about that and think about it now."

Tricia Enright, a Dean spokeswoman, said, "Governor Dean had the judgment to oppose this war and the guts to stand up to George Bush. The least this nameless, faceless group can do is have the courage to say who they are."

The group has said it would comply with campaign finance laws that say the group doesn't have to disclose its donors until February.

BTW, THE AD WAS FAIR. TOUGH, BUT FAIR

[karynnj]

15. I have a problem with the ad

only because of wording. The line "Howard Dean can not compete with George Bush on foreign policy" is stupid. It gives Bush credit when none is due. If it had said something to the effect of great foreign policy experience and DIPLOMATIC skill would be necessary to repair our relationships with the rest of the world, it would have hit Bush while emphasizing a characteristic that was a Kerry (or Gephart - who was House minority leader)strength, but a (perceived ?) Dean weakness.

Otherwise, Dean made a big deal about having executive experience, which Kerry didn't. How is this different?

[TayTay]

16. They just got mad because they got hit

They had had such a free ride up till that point in the media and among the regular Dems. They got hit with a tough ad. And they started whining and crying about it. They should have hit back and made a case for their guy, instead of reinforcing the point that was made.

[karynnj]

9. I just hope at some level it bothers him that he is a fraud

I doubt he has that much self awareness. I can't help but believe that the true story will come out at some point - it won't help the world but a mean part of me hopes that he will have a post Presidency like Nixon's - with little events, like being rejected by more than one co-op board in NYC. Later in life, it had to feel better being McGovern, than Nixon. (Although I hope Kerry gets more respect from his own party than McGovern did.)