That's very interesting, George, and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
I just know you've been dying to hear what George W. Bush is up to, now that he's got a Prezidenting Liberry of his own to point to. You say you don't, but really you do. Once a person has enshrined the torture of prisoners as a legitimate policy of the world's most powerful nation, plus all that other stuff,
how do they spend their days?
“First time I’ve had to pack my own bag in 14 years,” Bush said with a wry smile reflecting the altered reality all former presidents' experience -- one day leader of the free world, the next grubbing for money. […]
His lifestyle is beyond comfortable -- corporate jets and hefty six-figure speeches as often as he chooses; weekly golf rounds at Brookhollow Country Club (despite a back still healing from disc surgery); the ham and cheese souffle at Rise, an Inwood Village bistro; hunting and fishing expeditions, and ministering to wounded U.S. warriors and AIDS victims in Africa.
How sweet. Idyllic, even.
“He’s enjoying the hell out of life, “ a close friend told National Journal. “He’s his loosey-goosey self again, the way he used to be.”
And this is not at all creepy:
Bush has also told friends and political associates that his success keeping the homeland safe after the 9/11 attacks will be awarded greater weight by history. That’s why it’s no coincidence the centerpiece of the library’s exhibit hall is a 17-foot, 2-ton piece of steel from the Twin Towers.
Displayed vertically, the mangled, blistered remnant is “impact steel” -- experts have determined it was actually struck by one of the terrorist-piloted jetliners. From a distance the hallowed relic looks like a piece of modern art, but as visitors draw closer the impact of its origin has already moved some to tears.
So the Bush ode to his keeping-us-safe legacy is represented, literally, by a chunk of steel taken from the exact center of the deaths of nearly 3,000 people and propped up as conversation piece. I swear, that's so Republican I can practically hear Lee Greenwood singing.
You know what I don't understand? Why Bush paints pictures of lap dogs when he could be painting a still life of this one piece of steel his admirers have managed to acquire for him. Or maybe I do understand it.