The prudes in the press

This is just pathetic. That twit Elisabeth Bumiller is trying to make something about the fact that President Bush is reading Tom Wolfe’s latest book, I am Charlotte Simmons.

Gasp! It’s full of sex and booze! Bumiller can’t decide if President Bush is reading it because:

A) It reminds him of his “hard partying frat days.”

B) It speaks to him, somehow, maybe perversely, about his own daughters college experiences.

C) He’s a dirty old man who wants to read about a girl losing her virginity.

D) He’s read every other Tom Wolfe novel, LIKES Tom Wolfe’s writing and will probably read the NEXT Tom Wolfe book.

Sigh. Sometimes people like Bumiller really try my patience. “His press secretary is not mentioning that the president is reading the book,” she cavils breathlessly! “They’re hiding the fact that he is reading this book! Why are they hiding it?”

Oh…wait…I forgot about option E which is implied rather than stated…

E) Why he must be a big fat hypocrite because he says he reads the bible, but he is also reading this dirty, dirty book!

And they call redstaters the moralizing prudes, eh?

This is actually, with all of the snippy little implications it contains, one of the ugliest and smarmiest things I have yet seen the press put out. I don’t know how the president manages to be civil to these people. I wouldn’t have the grace.

UPDATE: Btw, since I read about this on Drudge yesterday, I have put I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS into my bookshelf, just to be contrary. If anyone orders it through here, of course, the hospice that helped my brother will benefit. :-)