Posted on 09/04/2004 9:33:49 AM PDT by harrycarey
A Kitty Surprise? ROGER SIMON COLUMN SEPTEMBER 1, 2004
NEW YORK - - Republican insiders have been huddling in small groups at the Republican Convention this week and talking about what worries them most. It is not John Kerry. It is not the unemployment numbers. It is not Iraq.
It is Kitty Kelley.
Kelley has a new book coming out in a few weeks titled "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty” and it is rumored to be explosive.
One source tells me there are “at least five bombshells” contained in it and another source says there is allegedly new material on President Bush’s service in the Air National Guard.
Democrats have long been worried about a Republican “October Surprise” such as the capture of Osama bin Laden. But now some Republicans are worried that Kelley’s book will be the equivalent of an October surprise and harmful to President Bush’s re-election hopes.
Why are GOP operatives taking such a book seriously? After all, some critics have dismissed Kelley’s previous books as the equivalent of tabloid journalism. But in November 2000, the Bush campaign’s internal polling showed that revelations about Bush’s 1976 arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol damaged him badly with religious conservatives and some analysts believe it cost him a popular vote victory.
So this time, Bush operatives don’t want any more big surprises, revelations, rumors or gossip to make a media splash just weeks before the election.
Which is why they are so nervous. According to the Associated Press, the Kelley opus - - it is supposed to be around 700 pages long - - is being billed as "the book the Bushes don't want you to read,” it has a first printing of 600,000 and “a virtual guarantee to annoy, if not embarrass, Bush supporters.”
In the past, Kelley has written books about Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra and the British Royal Family among others and her books have often contained explosive material. Kelley’s facts are sometimes challenged, but her books tend to make a big splash nonetheless.
Kelley’s 1991 book on Nancy Reagan, for example, which contained scandalous accusations, was the subject of a front page story in the New York Times by Maureen Dowd.
“Ms. Kelley has developed a reputation as a giant killer for her sensational books about the rich and famous,” Dowd wrote. “She wrote that Jacqueline Kennedy had shock treatments; that President John F. Kennedy's retarded sister, Rosemary, had a lobotomy, and that Frank Sinatra's mother was a New Jersey abortionist.”
Dowd went on: “Ms. Kelley asserts that Mrs. Reagan will go down in history as the cold and glittering icon for a morally vacuous era. The author says the former First Lady reinvented herself with a tissue of fabrications about her background, age and family, just as her free-spirited mother did before her; that she had her nose fixed and her eyes lifted; that both the Reagans had extramarital affairs, and that Mrs. Reagan had a long-term affair with Frank Sinatra.”
The article quoted Sheila Tate, Nancy Reagan's former press secretary, as saying that "no friend of Nancy Reagan's is going to read that scummy book."
Perhaps, but plenty of other people did read it and many more read about it. And this, remember, was in an era before 24-hour cable TV and media with an insatiable appetite for news, gossip, rumor, innuendo or whatever they can get.
It may turn out, of course, that Kelley’s new book contains nothing damaging to President Bush.
But with their convention going so well, Republicans have to find something to worry about this week.
Over at DU they're saying the book accuses Bush of being gay. A lot of Kelley's stuff came from Neil's [angry] ex-wife.
And we thought the last minute drunk driving story in 2000 was as low as they could go.
Deswperate rats do desperate things. Like Susie Ostrich's latest column ("Susie in Fantasyland"), this book is likely to be Kelly's version of Moore's film -- more lies and distortions than anything else.
Columba is Jeb's wife -- and they're still together. Neil's wife is a different chick. I don't know her name.
We agree that SNL does need new material; their Bush satire has been stale since it started, with their only score being "strategery," which has now become one of W's strongest selling points. His strategery has outsmarted the entire elitist media and they scarce know what to do, or what has happened even.
Sounds to me like Miz Kitty is trying to get the Dem votes for the President: homosexuality, abortion, male hookers, cocaine...heck throw in lying to grand juries and you have Clinton vote!
:)
It will get worse in the future.
Google Catiline Conspiracy. THERE is the not-so-distant-future face of the Demonrats.
Ill go back and try to find the Cindy Adams link, it might be useful here..
New Poll:
Bush Leads Kerry In San Francisco
Phew! I thought she was going to dish some actual dirt.
A bitter woman is not the best witness and I still believe that the more bazaare the accusations, the more foolish the book will appear. It's a little late in the game to re-make Bush's image. People have had plenty of time to get to know George W. Bush and his family.
An appropriate response to the desperate smear book - Sticks and stones will hurt our bones, but names will never hurt us.
You're right, her name is Sharon Bush..and she should get co-authorship credit!
Really...ladies? Tell that to anyone who saw the funeral coverage. Better yet, tell that to anyone who knows that Nancy Reagan stood by her husband long before that day, "...for better or for worse, in sickness and in health...". I suggest those images are closer to the truth of the matter than anything issuing from your minds or pens. That little lady has more character in her pinkie than you, Maureen, or you, Kitty, have in your entire bodies. May I have somebody who cares for me that much. May we all.
By the way, Kitty, you forgot Laura's White House trysts with George Strait. ...What? Those never happened? So? Neither did Nancy's with Frank Sinatra. Since when did that little problem stop you?
This book might start out in the bargain bin, and go downhill from there.
How could Neil's exwife be the source for this garbage?
How well could she know the President's schedule and the list of his WH visitors?
The sad part is that many of those who doubt her claims want to run with it anyway. Unbelievable!
Barbara Bush a witch, Laura Bush a hooker, GHW Bush a pedophile, male hookers in the stodgy Bush 2 White House, GW Bush gay...Yeah, that's all believable!
That woman was discredited years ago with her fiction about Jackie O, Sinatra and others. But it will be a best seller and the media will have fun with it. WHO will be listening? The Michael Moore crowd!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.