09-07-2004, 08:07 PM
Reference
A Kitty Surprise? (Kitty Kelly to "Out" Bush in New Book?)
Roger Simon | 9/3/04
A Kitty Surprise? ROGER SIMON COLUMN SEPTEMBER 1, 2004
NEW YORK - - Republican insiders have been huddling in small groups at the Republican Convention this week and talking about what worries them most. It is not John Kerry. It is not the unemployment numbers. It is not Iraq.
It is Kitty Kelley.
Kelley has a new book coming out in a few weeks titled "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty? and it is rumored to be explosive.
One source tells me there are ?at least five bombshells? contained in it and another source says there is allegedly new material on President Bush?s service in the Air National Guard.
Democrats have long been worried about a Republican ?October Surprise? such as the capture of Osama bin Laden. But now some Republicans are worried that Kelley?s book will be the equivalent of an October surprise and harmful to President Bush?s re-election hopes.
Why are GOP operatives taking such a book seriously? After all, some critics have dismissed Kelley?s previous books as the equivalent of tabloid journalism. But in November 2000, the Bush campaign?s internal polling showed that revelations about Bush?s 1976 arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol damaged him badly with religious conservatives and some analysts believe it cost him a popular vote victory.
So this time, Bush operatives don?t want any more big surprises, revelations, rumors or gossip to make a media splash just weeks before the election.
Which is why they are so nervous. According to the Associated Press, the Kelley opus - - it is supposed to be around 700 pages long - - is being billed as "the book the Bushes don't want you to read,? it has a first printing of 600,000 and ?a virtual guarantee to annoy, if not embarrass, Bush supporters.?
In the past, Kelley has written books about Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra and the British Royal Family among others and her books have often contained explosive material. Kelley?s facts are sometimes challenged, but her books tend to make a big splash nonetheless.
Kelley?s 1991 book on Nancy Reagan, for example, which contained scandalous accusations, was the subject of a front page story in the New York Times by Maureen Dowd.
?Ms. Kelley has developed a reputation as a giant killer for her sensational books about the rich and famous,? Dowd wrote. ?She wrote that Jacqueline Kennedy had shock treatments; that President John F. Kennedy's retarded sister, Rosemary, had a lobotomy, and that Frank Sinatra's mother was a New Jersey abortionist.?
Dowd went on: ?Ms. Kelley asserts that Mrs. Reagan will go down in history as the cold and glittering icon for a morally vacuous era. The author says the former First Lady reinvented herself with a tissue of fabrications about her background, age and family, just as her free-spirited mother did before her; that she had her nose fixed and her eyes lifted; that both the Reagans had extramarital affairs, and that Mrs. Reagan had a long-term affair with Frank Sinatra.?
The article quoted Sheila Tate, Nancy Reagan's former press secretary, as saying that "no friend of Nancy Reagan's is going to read that scummy book."
Perhaps, but plenty of other people did read it and many more read about it. And this, remember, was in an era before 24-hour cable TV and media with an insatiable appetite for news, gossip, rumor, innuendo or whatever they can get.
It may turn out, of course, that Kelley?s new book contains nothing damaging to President Bush.
But with their convention going so well, Republicans have to find something to worry about this week.
A Kitty Surprise? (Kitty Kelly to "Out" Bush in New Book?)
Roger Simon | 9/3/04
A Kitty Surprise? ROGER SIMON COLUMN SEPTEMBER 1, 2004
NEW YORK - - Republican insiders have been huddling in small groups at the Republican Convention this week and talking about what worries them most. It is not John Kerry. It is not the unemployment numbers. It is not Iraq.
It is Kitty Kelley.
Kelley has a new book coming out in a few weeks titled "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty? and it is rumored to be explosive.
One source tells me there are ?at least five bombshells? contained in it and another source says there is allegedly new material on President Bush?s service in the Air National Guard.
Democrats have long been worried about a Republican ?October Surprise? such as the capture of Osama bin Laden. But now some Republicans are worried that Kelley?s book will be the equivalent of an October surprise and harmful to President Bush?s re-election hopes.
Why are GOP operatives taking such a book seriously? After all, some critics have dismissed Kelley?s previous books as the equivalent of tabloid journalism. But in November 2000, the Bush campaign?s internal polling showed that revelations about Bush?s 1976 arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol damaged him badly with religious conservatives and some analysts believe it cost him a popular vote victory.
So this time, Bush operatives don?t want any more big surprises, revelations, rumors or gossip to make a media splash just weeks before the election.
Which is why they are so nervous. According to the Associated Press, the Kelley opus - - it is supposed to be around 700 pages long - - is being billed as "the book the Bushes don't want you to read,? it has a first printing of 600,000 and ?a virtual guarantee to annoy, if not embarrass, Bush supporters.?
In the past, Kelley has written books about Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra and the British Royal Family among others and her books have often contained explosive material. Kelley?s facts are sometimes challenged, but her books tend to make a big splash nonetheless.
Kelley?s 1991 book on Nancy Reagan, for example, which contained scandalous accusations, was the subject of a front page story in the New York Times by Maureen Dowd.
?Ms. Kelley has developed a reputation as a giant killer for her sensational books about the rich and famous,? Dowd wrote. ?She wrote that Jacqueline Kennedy had shock treatments; that President John F. Kennedy's retarded sister, Rosemary, had a lobotomy, and that Frank Sinatra's mother was a New Jersey abortionist.?
Dowd went on: ?Ms. Kelley asserts that Mrs. Reagan will go down in history as the cold and glittering icon for a morally vacuous era. The author says the former First Lady reinvented herself with a tissue of fabrications about her background, age and family, just as her free-spirited mother did before her; that she had her nose fixed and her eyes lifted; that both the Reagans had extramarital affairs, and that Mrs. Reagan had a long-term affair with Frank Sinatra.?
The article quoted Sheila Tate, Nancy Reagan's former press secretary, as saying that "no friend of Nancy Reagan's is going to read that scummy book."
Perhaps, but plenty of other people did read it and many more read about it. And this, remember, was in an era before 24-hour cable TV and media with an insatiable appetite for news, gossip, rumor, innuendo or whatever they can get.
It may turn out, of course, that Kelley?s new book contains nothing damaging to President Bush.
But with their convention going so well, Republicans have to find something to worry about this week.
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