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.
With the hurricane, what's going on in Russia, and what's going on (apparently) at LAX, I think coverage of this might be a bit subdued.
I thought they were trying to smear Bush....withcraft, co-habitation with someone "special", male hookers, sexual activity with minors...isn't this the Democratic party base?
The question is not if, but how much time 60 mintes will give her?
What--no Trilateralist Commission?
The difference between Kitty Kelley and the old biddy neighbourhood gossip is that Kitty Kelley gets paid hefty publishers' advances to peddle her trash.
Yawn
Good grief are these folks blind. Mrs Reagan will go down in history as the woman who genuinely loved and unstintingly supported the greatest President of our age. Of course Dowd, Kelley and the rest of this self-loathing nihilistic crowd wouldn't know love and support if it hit them across the face with a dead fish.
Kitty Kelly is a whack job
Allegations in "other Web source" are so scuzzy, they'll only interest the Jerry Springer crowd, every single one of whom is a Kerry voter. If they believe the Bush's are child abusers and witches, they may vote Repub.
But Kitty Kelley does make quite a spash with her books, lots of publicity, interviews, all that stuff. It could be damaging. But we have PLENTY of dirt to throw at Kerry, above and beyond his Vietnam lies. I happen to KNOW JK went after underage girls in Boston and DC. I'm sure ahout the underage thing, but come to think of it, it may be boys too. His predatory sexual tendencies are necessarily common knowledge on the Beltway. Release of Kelley's book slamming Bush could shiver the timbers of the Kerry campaign, as they'd fear much more damning retaliatory revelations.
There is what I call bash Bush fatigue. Just another Michael Moore scandal sheet filled with inuendo.
I expect a back lash against this hate Bush stuff.
Oh! I hope that this book gets released ASAP. This will create just the backlash we need against the Democrats and the MSM to ensure smooth-sailing into November.
Kitty Kelly's reputation proceeds her :)
What is the other web source?
From Newsmax last May:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/5/19/114949.shtml
Wednesday, May 19, 2004 11:45 a.m. EDT
Kitty Kelley Penning 'Coup de Grace' for Bush Dynasty?
Richard Clarke, Bob Woodward and indefatigable privacy maven Joe Wilson have had their shot at torpedoing President Bush's re-election. Now it's Kitty Kelley's turn, with her book "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty" due out just after Labor Day.
Described by one media fan as "a fastidious fact-checker with an unrivaled knack for zingers such as stories of coathanger abortions," Kelley is said to have "Karl Rove's head swimming" with her latest screed.
Her last political hit piece, a 1991 bio of Nancy Reagan, purported to reveal a so-called affair with Frank Sinatra.
After the New York Times front-paged the improbable tale, Timeswoman Maureen Dowd defended her coverage thusly:
"Of course, the book is tawdry. Of course the book is, in some spots, loosely sourced and over the top. ... Of course, there are mistakes in it. ... The point, however, is that Kelley's portrait is not essentially untrue."
I have to give credit to Larry King for refusing to have her on. Kelley is just a female Larry Flynt/Michael Moore. May they all sink in their own muck.
120 minutes, 180 minutes, 240 minutes... whatever it takes :-)
Im going to need a second source from any author named 'Kitty..'
HERE....KITTY,KITTY,KITTY!
His arse.
Didn't I mention that the Dems would try to smear Bush as a closet queen? As a matter of fact, I did that this morning.
I am nothing if not clairvoyant.
Kelly's role in all this is simple: sell books.
Barbara Bush as a practicing witch? That's actually stranger than the Gay charge.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
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