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.
It reveals the details of embarassing photographs of Bush and harrycarey at a sexcapade with Susan Estrich and Janet Reno.
DU Troll !!!
Where's the link to this "web source"??
Let's be honest, the Jerry Springer crowd doesn't even know who John Kerry is or President Bush for that matter. I don't even worry about those folks voting. They're too busy sleeping with their brother's cousin's Mother.
Yup. The liberals have bashed Bush so much during the last four years that they've unwittingly made him nearly immune to their attacks. Nothing sticks anymore because they've used up all their ammo and all they have left now is to rehash the same old, tired rhetoric that everyone has heard 50 times or to make up some ridiculous baloney such as the apparent allegations in this book that no one will believe.
I also believe that we are reaching the boiling point on the Bush hatefest being launched by the left. I think people are getting sick of it. Such crap usually is a big turnoff to the middle ground in US politics anyway and I think this will be no different.
Didn't she try this with Nancy Reagon during an election year as well. I guess she needs more money.
You should hear some of the comments at DU.
Remember all the libs that said Clinton's private life should be private?
Well you will not hear one comment like that from the Dems.
They smell blood on this on this.
If they are pinning all of their hopes on this book, they are going to be sadly disappointed.
Sounds entertaining I will buy it as soon as the National Enquirer goes out of business.
P.S.: Does anyone believe Karl Rove does not have a plan regarding this book?
Ugghhh!
That's almost enough to make someone go gay.
Is that what round heels means?
Drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park and THIS is what you come up with.
Does it reveal that INDYMEDIA is funded by Theresa?
Wouldn't you think that a person who was really bent on hurting Bush would try to keep it in the realm of the believable?
Geez......they're all cracking apart.
I thought Round Heels was Laura?
Does TDiDS find the timing "suspicious"?
what is INDYMEDIA ????
Floated again? Its been floating in that troll who owns hustlers book.
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.