Checked Out

Now both Bush libraries may face the voter’s wrath.

The George W. Bush Presidential Library coming to Southern Methodist University remains under attack by Methodist church members. They hope to force a vote at a July church conference, overturning the church-linked school’s decision to accept the Library.

Everything Appeared In Order

Now a candidate has emerged to challenge the Texas Westbank Community Library District’s naming of a new branch for First Librarian Laura Bush.

Weak Branch?

The Austin Chronicle reports that disgruntled local veteran Alan Roddy has filed for the board’s May election, forcing their first vote since 2001. Roddy is lowering expectations in advance of the contest, while threatening to become a permanent part of the Bush Legacy:

“I’ll make them have an election every year. … That’s my victory.”

ABC Digs Deep

“Hillary Was in White House on ‘Stained Blue Dress’ Day

Schedules Reviewed by ABC Show Hillary May Have Been in the White House When the Fateful Act Was Committed”

Team Coverage!

The Hilary Clinton papers are loosed upon an expectant world, and Brian Ross and the ABC Investigative Team have done democracy’s work, cross checking the First Lady’s schedules with the Ken Starr oral sex tick-tock ,with explosive results.

Jeepers, Peeper

Meanwhile, a desperate plea for the silent legions of citizen journalists to paw through the papers for the august New York Times [“Like many others, we are poring over the pages today to see what’s in there. We invite you to take a look, too, and let us know what you find”].

The Times did come up with some of what we don’t learn from the document dump:

“The documents offer no support for her claims, made during the presidential campaign, that she helped to negotiate the Irish peace accords or facilitated the flow of refugees in the Balkans. Neither is there evidence in them to back up her claim that she helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act, the first legislation Mr. Clinton signed as president. The legislation, sponsored by Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, sailed through Congress and landed on Mr. Clinton’s desk 10 days after he was inaugurated. Indeed, on the day Mr. Clinton signed the bill into law, Feb. 5, 1993, there is no indication on that day’s calendar that she attended…The documents offer no insight into her role in appointments to key administration posts or in courting donors for her or her husband’s political campaigns…And they do not add to an understanding of how she coped with revelations in 1998 of her husband’s sexual betrayal with a young White House worker, or provide a paper trail of the discussions that led to her declaring her candidacy for the Senate in 1999.”

The Dallas Morning News‘ answer: Go Local!

“Cutting to the chase, the quest for interesting, Texas-related nuggets would be incredibly tedious and time-consuming. So, maybe there are some readers with a lot of patience for squinting who would care to take a peak and share their findings.”

Make of It What You Will!

The long awaited, eagerly anticipated, epic event of our time has arrived.

Some of the endlessly gassed about Hillary Clinton papers will be unveiled at last before the eyes of an eager and expectant world, yielding up such secrets as they contain.

I have no idea whats there, and neither do most of us, but i predict two lines of easy blather:

– angry huffing that this is not enough [I’m looking at you, Judicial Watch]

– content free “analysis” seizing upon the odd fact to demonstrate ready-made theories [see above]

The Dallas Morning News reports that George Bush has found the Imagineers for his Presidential Library.

Dan Murphy and the PRD Group have been qquietly burrowing away since 2007, and they promise much.

Murphy says the Bush exhibits will cover the presidency [Make Way for the Unitary Executive!], and both America and the American Experience!

Who are these tour guides of History’s Path?

The PRDists have already served America, developing such stirring exhibits as the Smithsonian’s “First Ladies: Political Role and Public Image.”

Who’s Had Some Work Done?

We can look forward to hard-hitting analysis of little known chapters such as:

“From the exuberant Dolley Madison and troubled Mary Todd Lincoln, to the humanitarian Eleanor Roosevelt and the intriguing wives of our recent presidents, the exhibition celebrates the remarkable individuals who have occupied this demanding post.”

The introduction peaks with a quote from the Everfeisty Betty Ford:

“I do not believe that being First Lady should prevent me from expressing my views . . . Being ladylike does not require silence.” — Betty Ford

….not mentioning that her saucy spark in this period was stoked by her copious use of prescription drugs.

Where will PRD’s Vision Quest take us? The Dallas Morning News offers clues.

“Work on the design of the Bush library and museum has only just begun, but the selection panel initially asked SMU and other applicants to consider many possible features for the complex, including:

•An IMAX or film theater

•Permanent exhibit space

•Traveling exhibit space

•Gift shop and cafe

•Video classrooms

•Performing arts space

•An apartment or residence facilities for George W. Bush and his wife, Laura”

Pat Answers?

Perhaps America’s only Pat Nixon poem, an excerpt:

“Dropping eggs
Fertilizing
Hearing smelling
Biting and eating life still living as it
Thrashes and squirms in pain as it is
Savored in the mouth of other life . . . ?”