Bush Reads Good
Donotget between Elisabeth Bumiller and her juicy White House scoops! Months after taking the WH's "unofficial" bait and enthusiastically reporting on the President's reading of the "beer- and sex-soaked novel" (Messy!), Bumiller was on "The Chris Matthews Show" yesterday, defending herself and the president on what looked to be like slow-going through the book's 688 pages:
MATTHEWS: Here is the president returning to the White House with a book in his hand, but if you take a closer look using our very own high-tech satellite imagery it turns out that the book is "I Am Charlotte Simmons." Elisabeth, you report he was reading that in February. He must really like that book.
BUMILLER: I'm still reading that book.
MATTHEWS: The doorstop?
BUMILLER: It takes a while to read and it has some ups and downs... As he said before, he gets through about 20 pages a night and he's out cold, so I think it takes a while.
Nicely spun! No wonder the WH gave her that story. The only problem? That's not the WH's line. They've been telling people -- specifically, TIME's John Dickerson -- that the reason for "Charlotte Simmons's" cameo was not Bush's "Reading Rainbow"-like pace but rather, "Bush's biking partner for the day, Mike Wood, had borrowed the book...and had returned Bush's copy that day." Who to believe? They both sound so plausible-- unlike Newsweek's story, which reported that Bush had flushed the book down the toilet, triggering protests and riots on the Upper East Side.
Speed-reading with the President [Wonkette]
"The Chris Matthews Show" [TVEyes.com]
Bush Charlotte Simmons Mystery Solved! [TIME]
White House Letter: Why is Bush reading Tom Wolfe? Don't ask [NYT]