From Clusterstock:
Dallas News: A Washington veteran with experience in media, politics and diplomacy will take over the most controversial arm of George W. Bush’s presidential library – the policy institute that some SMU faculty members and Methodist leaders did not want.
Over lunch this week in Dallas, Bush offered former White House official James K. Glassman the opportunity to run the think tank that the former president has described as a place to foster debate on democracy, education and other global concerns.
Glassman co-authored Dow 36,000.
aimai
Shouldn’t this be retitled “Tower of Babble?”
otherwise, I’ve indeed got no comment.
aimai
Ed Drone
I think the Bush Library should be underground, with the entry disguised as a rabbit hole. Alternately, make it a regular building, but all the entry doors are looking glasses. That’s the only way the casual visitor can be properly told the nature of what he/she is getting into.
Ed
Warren Terra
I liked Krugman’s line on “Dow 36000”: the prediction might still turn out to be good if there was a printing error that inserted a digit – and we’d better hope the extra was the 3, not the 6 or a 0.
Comrade Misfit
“George Bush” and “think tank” go together about as well as “French cooking” and “Burger King”.
dmsilev
That’s going to go over well. The George W. Bush Center for Democracy and Education will have roughly as much credibility as the Richard B. Cheney Center for Human Rights.
-dms
jwb
@Ed Drone: Yes, I definitely think some group on the left should sponsor a conceptual architectural contest for the Bush library.
TenguPhule
Its good to see the seeds of destruction sown into Bush’s library, with any luck it will be bankrupt in 6 months.
TenguPhule
The Leaning Tower of Pissants.
r€nato
I believe a while back somebody here linked to this Bush library design contest. I think “Hole In The Ground” won.
r€nato
It’s good to see that Bush has not lost his touch in hiring just the right people for the job.
willf
Ugh, Glassman is yet another good reason to despise “even the liberal” New Republic.
The Grand Panjandrum
A necon version of the Creation Museum. Awesome …
linda
yeah, the nyt had that online a couple of days ago. funny how the writer in noting the tres awesome accomplishments of mr glassman, failed to note he authored ‘dow 36000’. you’d think peter baker would be aware of that little detail.
JSDreyer
Kind of says it all, doesn’t it?
Ambergris
Maybe it’s some kind of art… The Bush library will represent the whole amount of hubris of this presidency.
You’ll see exhibits about the Laffer curve, the domino theory, Colin Powell’s speech before the UN, a statue of Michael Brown, etc…
The Grand Panjandrum
OT: With the President getting ready to indoctrinate our children I’m just wondering when the teabaggers and wingnuts are going to hit the fainting couch over this one:
This couldn’t possibly have been a problem when Bush was president, could it?
geg6
The Grand Panjandrum: I remember when that provision was made public back in ’02 or ’03. Parents were up in arms about it. We had to assure them that we didn’t do the same thing at the college level. I recall quite a hue and cry about it. I am surprised that it is being characterized as “a little known regulation.”. Maybe it’s just that I run too much in education circles, but we knew about it and so did the parents at the time. Maybe they forgot.
The Grand Panjandrum
@geg6: “little known” should probably be replaced with “forgotten” because I do vaguely recall it but that was a hectic time for us. We had two toddlers at the time.
MattF
Bush, I’m coming to think, is just a chump. Glassman is your basic con man– his survival strategy depends on the greed and vanity of everybody else. Since greed and vanity aren’t going to disappear any time soon, neither will Glassman.
arguingwithsignposts
Well, I guess we should acknowledge the fact that he didn’t hire “Brownie” instead.
aimai
Thanks grand panjandrum, I knew about the provision but I didn’t realize we owed it to Vitter. Yes, the time to squawk about massive governmental intrusions into family and school were eight “watch what you say” years ago.
aimai
bellatrys
but aimai, you forgot the critical difference –
IOKIYAR! Because everyone knows that the Republicans are absolutely virtuous, self-controlled, models of public order and would never, EVER do anything contrary to the public good.
Democrats, on the other hand…shudder! tremble in fear at what the godless liberal hippiecrats might do, given the slightest opportunity to indulge in their libertine, civilization-destroying impulses!
Demo Woman
After the last week with schools opting out of the President Obama’s speech about making goals and studying hard being interpreted as Marxist, this post made me laugh out loud.
Thank you Doug.
SiubhanDuinne
I have a trustworthy friend who is in a position to know and is privy to a fair amount of inside information; that person says that GWB is having huge problems attracting donors for his “library.”
So it’s possible that all the talk about architects and directors and exhibits and content is, shall we say, premature.
Ash Can
Think tank, my ass. Empty coffee can is more like it.
Jason
I guess Glassman will be blogging for The Atlantic soon, then.
Leelee for Obama
How big would this Library need to be? All it needs is enough room for the collected works of Friedman, M., Friedman, T., Coulter, A., any dipshit named Kagan, and The Pet Goat. Hell, a couple shelves in Poppy’s edifice would suffice.
Leelee for Obama
Rats. I forgot Max Boot!
Sloth
…and room for the bibles…
AhabTRuler
@Leelee for Obama: Well they do need to include a display of empty server racks, where the emails would have been kept.
Leelee for Obama
@AhabTRuler: OK. couple extras feet of shelves, tops.
Ash Can
@Leelee for Obama:
More like it.
Calouste
@arguingwithsignposts:
Fix’t
Monty
Over lunch this week in Dallas, Bush offered former White House official James K. Glassman the opportunity to run the think tank that the former president has described as a place to foster debate on democracy, education and other global concerns.
Interesting. I.F. Stone’s ‘The Trial of Socrates’ describes history’s first public debate on democracy.
Athenian democracy won, but it was a flawed victory: Socrates was executed for political dissidence and paganism (cheerleading monarchy and invoking intuition as his personal muse) but never defended himself by invoking democratic principles, such as the right to free speech…because doing so would beg basic tenets of democracy, which Socrates himself despised. Apparently he viewed expedient hypocrisy as untenable. How very 400 BC.
When Republicans challenge egalitarianism, they are fundamentally begging Socratric (Platonic) philosophy…the only real difference is that they choose biblical scripture and Limbaugh’s emotional illogic over Socrates’ rhetoric. Slightly less classy and refined, but there you have it.
linda
…an entire display cabinet to sow off his war booty … er … saddam’s pistol.
actually, glassman’s perfect for the job — a shameless huckster eager to sell the lies and propaganda of his benefactors.
c u n d gulag
There would have been a contest for blind children , using magnetic refigerator letter’s, to best summarize President Bush’s foriegn and domestic policies – except Cheney ate all of the vowel’s.
Nw t’s nns bst gss s 2 wht th fck Bsh ws tlkng bt. chn 2…
The CIA would have used this code, but it came after he left office.
Walker
I used to work at one of the other universities bidding for that library. They dodged a bullet losing to SMU.
Leelee for Obama
RSA
“In a press conference today, Glassman predicted that while in the current blueprints, the library occupies about 10,000 square feet, it will expand over a short period of time to 36,000.”
srv
In other news, the entire editorial staff of The Onion has committed suicide today by jumping into a shark tank.
I predict Fredo will get the endowed chair for Justice.
Donald G
@Leelee for Obama:
With a lot of room left over for The Collective Works of Alfred E. Neuman.
“What, me worry?”
MelodyMaker
@SiubhanDuinne:
Given Dubya’s record of great hires, maybe they’ll end up sub-contracting the play-by-play history in action to this site
ET
I used to work for Glassman at Roll Call (though for only about a year) and don’t remember him being to hacktakular.
SqueakyRat
SMU is a joke school anyway. I wish them joy of their “library.”