Bubblehead

I keep waiting for some sign that amateur comic and professional ankle-biter Richard Dice Cohen understands that pretty much everything Karl Rove has ever said aloud or written for public consumption, especially anything meant to enhance or rehabilitate the reputation of his lifetime mancrush, is suspicious by its very existence.

It is awfully late in the day for Rove -- and, presumably, Bush -- to assert the president's intellectual bona fides. Now feeling the hot breath of history, they are dropping the good ol' boy persona and picking up the ol' bifocals one. But the books themselves reveal -- actually, confirm -- something about Bush that maybe Rove did not intend. They are not the reading of a widely read man, but instead the books of a man who seeks -- and sees -- vindication in every page. Bush has always been the captive of fixed ideas. His books just support that.

Dude, the man carried the same biography of George Washington for about six months. This is not a man who knocks out a biography per week; obvious jokes about cereal boxes and coloring books aside, Bush's sleepy-time schedule alone would preclude such a rigorous pace. Then again, Bush's record vacation time would permit at least some reading, but why the need to give Turdblossom the benefit of the doubt?

The Diceman is correct that even if Bush does read, it's only to affirm himself, and he's learned absolutely nothing, in which case he might as well have not read at all. Eisenhower by his own admission did not read much deeper than Zane Grey, but at least he had accomplished great things long before becoming President, and he actually understood something about how the world worked.

I doubt Bush could adequately give a coherent synopsis of any book he's read recently, certainly not The Stranger. I have no idea what Rove's motivation is in writing tendentious defenses of Mister Man's misunderestimated intemellectual prowess, especially when there's a decade of comedy hijinks to reminisce with. More importantly, it doesn't really matter what Rove's reasons are -- he's a reptile.

I'm just trying to figure out what the upside is for Cohen in even meeting these people halfway on their weird white lie.