satsq: rove is a lying sack of shit.

It's almost as if Rove's description is some kind of wild exaggeration. That couldn't be, could it?

Obviously it's somewhat of an exaggeration, but it doesn't mean he doesn't believe it.

My impression of Bush has always been that his brain is just fine -- he's simply very lazy, incurious and non-committal when it comes to "boring" stuff like the everyday duties of a president or business executive. He is not alone in that behavior. I've seen plenty of corporate higher ups who spend plenty of time on their own brain farts or specific hobbies while ignoring the basic nuts and bolts work they should be engaged in.

Bush is clearly capable of focus and commitment when it comes to stuff he enjoys, like working out or killing people. I don't think it would be incongruous for him to be an avid reader of books that he enjoyed while totally ignoring boring administrivia like the PDB. He probably believes that "real" leaders don't need details, they just need vision.

rove is a lying sack of shit.

If Rove says it, the the opposite is the truth.

This has been proven time and time again. What baffles me is why people still keep straight faces when he talks.

I bet he's read The Davinci Code.

I bet his copy of the Davinci Code was an audio book.

Wasn't President Bush reading a book when the planes hit the World Trade Center?

Do graphic novels count?

Reading books you choose yourself...

You might think, however, that a person who runs for President would be vaguely interested in current events. But Bush reading philosophy? or Shakespeare? Who's kidding whom?

"...and for 35 years, George W. Bush has 'always had a book nearby.'"

Yes, but does the Gideon Bible really count?

Dwight Eisenhower loved to read penny Westerns with formulaic plots. I'm guessing Bush's favorite reads are at about that level. They may involve misunderstood sons kicking some ass to the amazed gratitude of the families that cruelly underestimated these boys.

Not a "Big" reader? Well, he did read the War part of War and Peace.

Clarke's perspective of Condi's perspective. Steve Benen's perspective of Rove's perspective. One could make any conclusion one wished. Maybe Clarke didn't know how to make an executive summary. Maybe Condi didn't like to read and blamed the president.

What Do You Mean 'We', White Man?
I fail to see any humor in this racist crap. Is that what liberals are all about? Anti-white racism?

Wrong thread Luther. Try again White Man!

"...and for 35 years, George W. Bush has 'always had a book nearby.'"

Curious George Learns to Count from 1 to 100
Curious George is a good little monkey, and always very curious. Now George is curious about numbers. Counting from 1 to 10 is easy, but can he count all the way to 100?...

He's a big reader of FICTION. Memos don't qualify.

That's why he insisted plenty of fiction be included in most of his press releases.

Quite thoughtful of him, really.

Luther, we don't mind that you love to mistakenly think of yourself as a brave iconoclast pushing back against the crushing oppression of liberal orthodoxy. We just wish you were a cleverer one.

Bush was quoted early in his first term that he didn't read. I don't know why no one seems to remember this. Rove is trying to re-write history. The only book W ever read was 'My Pet Goat' and if you remember it took him a long time to get through that one.

"he's curious,"

as in "he's a curious thing" as opposed to being interested in the world around him.

has "always had a book nearby."

great place to set your near beer and pretzels.

I was disturbed because he seemed to be trying to impress us, the people who were briefing him.

Little George has a problem with people who have achieved stature in life on their own merits. Remember all his comments about how he, a C student, was President while his advisors have PhD's? Can you say "insecure"? Deep down, he realizes that if his last name weren't "Bush," he'd never have gotten anywhere near the office of POTUS. I've always pictured him as a used-car salesman, with a roll of breath mints in the pocket of his cheap sports jacket.

It's easy: Rove is "a big liar."

A "big reader" would be anyone over 6'4" who can read. Bush isn't that big.

Bush was quoted early in his first term that he didn't read. I don't know why no one seems to remember this. Rove is trying to re-write history. The only book W ever read was 'My Pet Goat' and if you remember it took him a long time to get through that one.Posted by: gridlock on December 30, 2008 at 10:54 AM

You're right gridlock. As I recall, even Laura made jokes about herself a librarian, being married to a non-reader (make that an anti-reader), George.

I guess the Rove bullshit is just another piece in the effort to rehabilitate Bush's reputation so that when historians look back at the contemporary writing and comment on Bush he looks better on paper than he actually was.

Sadly all of the blog commentary will evaporate into the ether - so books and articles rebutting this crap need to be written PDQ.

"...and for 35 years, George W. Bush has 'always had a book nearby.'"

It's that damn wobbly table leg, time and again ...

Karl Rove is a serial exaggerator.

Please, more of these stories. The assbags who voted for and continue to defend this tool need daily reminders of their own culpability.

Do graphic novels count?

My money is on MadLibs.

I can't believe you misunderstood this; Condi obviously meant that the president is not a very big guy when she said, "He's not a big reader", just as she might have said he was not a big golfer or gardener or chess player. He IS kind of runty, don't you think? I mean, probably average for a guy or maybe a little less, but in that photo shoot of "The Three Amigos", Stephen Harper and Vicente Fox towered over him.

Yes, I was being sarcastic, and there's no reason to believe Karl Rove is not a reflexive liar.

I remember when saying, "He's not much of a reader, is he?" was a nice, euphemistic way of saying somebody was stupid. We need those days back again.

I will concede it is possible that Bush read all those books, but I doubt he absorbed anything from them. I've read that Bush plows through a round of golf as quickly as possible, like it's something to be gotten done rather than something to enjoy. I can see him reading books in the same way.

When I was a kid, I visited Phoenix, where my dad grew up. While we were there, we visited the Grand Canyon. I was 5, and it made an impression on me so strong that 35 years later, it seems like just yesterday.

Besides being beautiful, its awesome size just demands its use as a metaphor - as in, how vast is space? How much trouble will I be in when my parents find out I got drunk and wrecked the family car? Just how big is Bill O'Reilly's ego? And just how completely full of shit is Karl Rove?

Responding to a question about this supposed reading contest, I once saw Bush nonchalantly mention he'd recently read "a couple of Shakespeares".

Really?

Not plays by name, but "a couple of Shakespeares"?

Color me dubious.

Camus wrote "A long time ago, I summed up The Outsider in a sentence which I realise is extremely paradoxical. 'In our society, any man who doesn't cry at his mother's funeral is liable to be condemned to death.' I simply meant that the hero of the book is condemned because he doesn't play the game ... He refuses to lie. Lying is not only saying what isn't true. It is also, in fact especially, saying more than is true and, in the case of the human heart, saying more than one feels. We all do it, every day, to make life simpler. But Meursault, contrary to appearances, doesn't want to make life simpler. He says what he is, he refuses to hide his feelings and society immediately feels threatened. For example, he is asked to say that he regrets his crime, in time-honoured fashion. He replies that he feels more annoyance about it than true regret. And it is this nuance that condemns him."

...and what about "The Hungry Hungry Caterpiller" that he said was his favorite book as a kid, but had not been published until he was an adult?

"It's almost as if Rove's description is some kind of wild exaggeration."

I believe the word you are looking for is "lie"

Rove is reprising his 'W ain't a moran' 2000 campaign, when he claimed W-orst was too a reader and provided a list of books without pictures in them the then harmless Texas Gov. supposedly read in the past year.

Old Karl was really good at his job when he lied about things that couldn't be proven.