Way back in mid-August of 2006, President Bush was dealing with two ground wars; crises in Israel and Lebanon; a midterm election; a housing market on the verge of collapse; the forthcoming hurricane season (Katrina was just a year earlier); a laundry list of scandals; and the day-to-day struggle to basically run the free world (or pretend to run the free world, depending on who you ask). Earlier in 2006, he struggled with numerous other critical events at home and abroad including rising gas prices, immigration reform, the Dubai ports deal, the Plame-Gate investigation and his vice president shooting a lawyer in the face.
Yet he somehow found time to read not one, not five, not 20, but 60 books that year so far. Sixty! That’s around seven books per month, from January up to mid-August. According to US News & World Report, he was engaged in a competition with Karl Rove to see who could read more books over the course of the year. At the time of the article, Rove is trailing by 10 books, until November when Diebold put him up by three. Rimshot.
By the way, in May of that year, Bush was being interviewed by a German reporter in the Oval Office. Bush pointed to a painting of George Washington and said, “That’s George Washington, the first president, of course. The interesting thing about him is that I read three — three or four books about him last year. Isn’t that interesting?”
Yeah, the only “interesting thing” about George Washington that Bush could recall after having read four books about the first president was that he’s read four books about the first president. Oh, Bushie, you magnificent doofus.
Of course, I don’t begrudge anyone who chooses to read that much literature (sixty books!) — especially if that someone is a student or an author or a shut-in or a prison inmate or simply a person who is fortunate enough to have a lot of free time. But the president, any president, shouldn’t have more free time than me.
But there weren’t any Democratic members of Congress or cable news pundits who questioned whether Bush was telling the truth about this amazing intellectual feat (given his other responsibilities). Because that’s what Republicans do. They’re excellent at turning everything President Obama says into a serious question of his veracity or an outright conspiracy theory.
Yes, there appears to be a Skeet Shooting Truther, or “Skeeter,” movement picking up steam on the far-right. [continue reading here]
