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 Bushs 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 Kelleys book will be the equivalent of an October surprise and harmful to President Bushs re-election hopes.
Why are GOP operatives taking such a book seriously? After all, some critics have dismissed Kelleys previous books as the equivalent of tabloid journalism. But in November 2000, the Bush campaigns internal polling showed that revelations about Bushs 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 dont 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. Kelleys facts are sometimes challenged, but her books tend to make a big splash nonetheless.
Kelleys 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 Kelleys 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.
Yeah. Just like they did with the Swift Boat Vets.
(/sarcasm)
YOu are right. That's why I posted the article. The press will have a field day with this. Since her Reagan and Sanatra books, this tabloid journalist has been treated as a respectable author.
Now what is the press going to do? Will they say they made a mistake for ever giving her credibility?
"If Clinton survived "Primary Colors" and "Wag the Dog" and "Boy Clinton" and three dozen other tell-all books, Bush should sail through Kelley."
Yea, but W wont't have the luxury of having his tell-all book dismissed by the MSM...
ANSWER:
Victor Ashe, who was Mayor of Knoxville for 16 years and who became Ambassador to Poland in June, was a Yale classmate of Bush.
notice when Harry became a member of FR.
I'd like to meet the analysts who think that didn't cost him the popular vote. They should be in another line of work.
wow, kitty . . . lay off the hard stuff, babe.
do you have any proof for us or is all of this the product of your twisted imagination?
If there were allegations of sexual abuse against President H.W. don't you think it would have been exposed in the 1980's when he was President and Vice-President?
The rest of these are all even more nonsense junk of fever dreams and you will be exposed, trust me.
All this will do is give Barbara Bush a chance to get prime interviews where she will be able to once again display how classy she and the Bush family is. As for Nancy and Laura... this is so beneath them that they do not even need to discuss it or give it credience.
All these crazy accusations do the exact opposite of what their author intends... and boosts the image of the people they are bashing.
The average American will not judge Bush based on anything prior to September 11, 2001... not alcohol, not drugs, not National Guard, not Florida 2000.
They try to paint President Bush as a slacker and undiciplined... here is my challenge: Have Kerry and Bush compare their daily routines... President Bush is up before the Sun working out, in his office early... works hard all day. Ok, so maybe Kerry stays up later.
I don't think the average American believes President Bush is in the Oval Office goofing off... I think they believe he is working hard for all of us.
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