When it comes to reporting on politics, nobody does it smarter or
funnier than bestselling author Molly Ivins. In Shrub, Ivins focuses her
Texas-size smarts on the biggest politician in her home state: George
Walker Bush, or "Shrub," as Ivins has nicknamed Bush the Younger.
A candidate of vague speeches and an ambiguous platform, Bush leads the
pack of GOP 2000 presidential hopefuls; "Dubya" could very well be our
next president. What voters need now is an original, smart, and
accessible analysis of Bush--one that leaves the "youthful
indiscretions" to the tabloids and gets to the heart of his policies and
motivations. Ivins is the perfect woman for the job.
With her trademark wit and down-home wisdom, Molly Ivins shares three
pieces of advice on judging a politician: "The first is to look at the
record. The second is to look at the record. And third, look at the
record." In this book, Ivins takes a good, hard look at the record of
the man who could be the leader of the free world. Beginning with his
post-college military career, Ivins tracks Dubya's winding, sometimes
unlikely path from a failed congressional bid to a two-term
governorship. Bush has made plenty of friends and supporters along the
way, including Texas oil barons, evangelist Billy Graham, and
co-investors in the Texas Rangers baseball team. "You would have to work
at it to dislike the man," she writes. But for all of Bush's
likeability, Ivins points to a disconcerting lack of political passion
from this ascending presidential candidate. In her words, "If you think
his daddy had trouble with 'the vision thing, ' wait till you meet this
one."
Witty, trenchant, and on target, Ivins gives a singularly perceptive and
entertaining analysis of George W. Bush. To head to the voting booth
without it would be downright un-American.
From Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush
" The past is prologue in politics. If a politician is left, right,
weak, strong, given to the waffle or the flip-flop, or, as sometimes
happens, an able soul who performs well under pressure, all that will be
in the record."
, Bush's welfare record: "Texas pols like to 'git tuff' on crime,
welfare, commies, and other bad stuff. Bush proposed to git tuff on
welfare recipients by ending the allowance for each additional
child--which in Texas is $38 a month."
, Bush and the Christian right: "Bush has learned to dance with the
Christian right. It has been interesting and amusing to watch the
process. Interesting because it's sometimes hard to tell who's leading
and who's following; amusing because when a scion of Old Yankee money
gets together with a televangelist with too much Elvis, the result is
swell entertainment."
, Bush's environmental record: Since Governor Bush's election, Texas
air quality has been rated the worst in the nation, leading all fifty
states in overall toxic releases, recognized carcinogens in the air,
cancer risk, and ten other categories of pollutants.
, Bush's military career: "Bush was promoted as the Texas Air
National Guard's anti-drug poster boy, one of life's little ironies
given the difficulty he has had answering cocaine questions all these
years later. 'George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation
who doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed, ' reads a Guard
press release of 1970. 'Oh, he gets high, all right, but not from
narcotics.'"
