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The award-winning Daily Beast columnist on the surprising revelations in the latest guilty pleasure kiss-and-tell.
Where was I? Oh yes, trying to make Joe Scarborough into the GOP ‘It’ Guy. To be continued. Meanwhile…
… in a recent column Maureen Dowd quoted something Bill Bennett said to Wolf Blitzer, about a young man named Matt Latimer, author of a new book called Speech-less, an account of his adventures as a speechwriter for Don Rumsfeld and George W. Bush:
“The guy is a worm … He needs to read his Dante. He probably hasn’t read ‘The Inferno.’ The lowest circles of hell are for people who are disloyal in the way this guy is disloyal, and at the very lowest point Satan chews on their bodies.”
You can huff and puff (along with Bill Bennett) and be shocked—shocked—that people write these books; but like them or not, they are the records of eyewitnesses to power.
As Bertie Wooster might say, a bit much to spring on a lad with a morning head.
I hadn’t read Mr. Latimer’s book, but I immediately rushed out to buy it. Bill Bennett is arguably—no, make that inarguably—the most pompous, self-righteous ass in Christendom, so when he invokes Dante and casts a thirty-something kid speechwriter into the bowels of hell to have his flesh chewed along with Brutus, Cassius and Judas—honestly—well I flew to the nearest bookstore and said, ‘I wish to buy all your copies of Speech-less.’ Thank heavens they had only one left. But I’m going to go on Amazon and send it to everyone I know for Christmas.
I confess a(nother) bias here (you already know where I stand on Mr. Bennett): I’m a sucker for White House memoirs. I worked there for a time and once wrote a novel-length parody of the genre. They must, to be sure, be approached with caution, but a discriminating ear will easily detect the sound of knives being ground, and proceed accordingly.
• Lloyd Grove interviews Matt Latimer This is an old genre: What the Butler Saw. You can huff and puff (along with Bill Bennett) and be shocked—shocked—that people write these books; but like them or not, they are the records of eyewitnesses to power. The laws have become so straight-jacketing that presidents and their aides dare not keep journals or diaries, lest they be subpoenaed by avid special prosecutors. The late Cap Weinberger nearly went to jail for having kept a journal. Bill Clinton and his friend Taylor Branch hit on a rather brilliant solution, witness Branch’s fascinating new book, The Clinton Tapes. So in the absence of White House secret tape recordings—oh, for the good old days—and diaries and such, these memoirs by the butlers are valuable—to say nothing of high entertainment.
Mr. Latimer comes across as an honest, if perhaps an occasionally naïve and dewy-eyed observer. He’s a deft writer, and has a good eye and a nice turn of phrase. You may find yourself surprised by what he has to report. I was. (Though as one Republican president used to say: Let me make one thing perfectly clear: I am not endorsing Mr. Latimer’s observations, merely remarking on them.)
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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Duff McDonald is a contributing editor at New York magazine and a former contributing editor at Condé Nast Portfolio. His book, Last Man Standing, about Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, was published by Simon & Schuster in October.
Lessons from Another War
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
It's Time for Us to Go
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
A Prize Too Far
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
Ah, welcome back, Mr. Buckley. Your voice has been missed all summer.
The White House memoir is, indeed, a rather unique genre, and it is extremely useful to the reader to know just how the author relates to, or related to, their former boss, and under what circumstances they left that employment.
For example, if one were to pick up Jack Valenti's "A Very Human President" today without knowing just how Valenti related to LBJ, it would be difficult for the reader to interpret what Valenti wrote. Obviously, Valenti's lens or pane of glass was VERY rosily tinted where LBJ was concerned, and his loyalty to LBJ was legendary, to the point of caricature ("I sleep each night a little better, a little more confidently, because Lyndon Johnson is my president.") But the Valenti memoir lacked an axe to grind, as some more recent WH memoirs have had.
Certainly, the memoir with the axe to grind is more sensational, possibly even lurid, because everyone expects a hagiography. Any sort of major break with the loyalty to or vision of their boss is more marketable for a publisher. After all, who wants to read "dog bites man"? We all want to read "man bites dog."
Hey Mr. Buckley! You know me, ... remember? So according to your article ... can I get my copy for Christmas now? Or make it two ... after all "deine Freunde" is German for "your Friends" (plural). Welcome back. As always a pleasure.
I totally concur with Mr. Buckley's assessment of Mr. Bennett. Mr. Bennett recently stated that he hoped Rio won the Olympics as Chicago was full of fat women. That comment of course invites an obviously tempting rejoinder. But making it would bring us down to Mr. Bennett's level.
Well, I will also have to run out and get it on your good word..
Cheney and his contempt for the press...contempt for the people, public office (why he was VP is curious in itself) and everything that he doesn't like. The guys doesn't like a lot and he doesn't mind letting everyone know it. He reminds me of a chucklehead.
Write On! Welcome back, CB.
Chris Buckley never disappoints. And Bill Bennett? "Pompous ass" will do just fine, thank you very much.
Nice to have you back, Buckley fils.
Your assessment of Mr. Bennett is one I and many others share and one wonders how he's kept his pundit chair.
In our hyperpartisan culture it's no surprise that when someone "comes clean" the party or ideology beings "dissed' is furious. It's a diversion tactic. Don't deal with the facts, yell fire and get everyone scrambling to rush out the door.
As for Mr. Reagan, I was not a fan. However, I understood his charm to many though it sadden me that he acted the president for two terms. Wit and charm have substitute for substance far too often in our culture. Though I believe history will show his tactics laid the foundation for totals economic crisis, he was not mean spirited and would never have tolerated the nastiness that is his party's defining feature in the 21st century.
As for the King George the First, history weeps.
How do you feel about supporting Obama now? George Patton
Please make sense and stay on topic. And didn't you die just after WWII?
Pennsykid2000--Yep, old Geo. bought it right after the second great war...and that would explain his current inability to keep up with the topic du jour.
Dr. Mengle got hold of some of my DNA and absconded with it to Argentina and cloned me. I'm feisty as ever! George Patton
I'm amazed
An old fart like you
Can still bang out a message
On your keyboard-
Good for you George.
what article are you reading GP??
too much plaque in the brain I guess. darn alzheimers.
Please, please, PLEASE, do not wait so long to write another column. You are one of the few people in today's media who can articulately navigate the political malestorm we seem to have been in since at least 1992. I am a moderate and there are very few moderate voices out there. I actually want shades of grey in my reporting.
Bill Bennett isn't just a pompous ass, he's an irredeemable, hypocritical pompous ass. But aside from this confirmation of what everyone knows in the Buckley piece, I thought it ironic that Bushboy would be commenting on Hillary or Obama's ability to do the job he had so thoroughly and miserably failed.
But then Bushboy failed at everything all his life, and his denials were always consistent with a complete detachment from reality mixed with the stench of megalomania .
As many of the other folks have said, thank God you are back! Mr Buckley, you are the main reason I started reading the Daily Beast, and you still remain my favorite of the writers on this site (as well as any other).
Ditto! Welcome back!
Welcome back. It was your initial column in support of Obama that drew me here. You are one of the few that isn't foolish enough to think they can bamboozle us regarding policy as some of the neo-cons on here frequently do.
wasnt it al franken that said bennett was no author, merely a 'compiler' when he did the best selling childrens book. now, bennett can laugh because of his millions, and that does proviode some credibility, but not the kind that creates a self made cultural platform on which you can continuously stand upon, elevated by your own land fill of self inflated arrogant opinion.
walrus the compiler.
I enjoy Buckley.
Your column was worth the wait. Since you & your publisher have good reasons for the delay, I'll leave jumping to conclusions to others. Other sites & those who leave comments on these sites & manage to have their comments posted are going to have a field day speculating on the reasons for the delay in writing & posting your blog. I doubt if the speculations will be interesting or close to being truth.
Time will tell but I'll wait for HP to comment on the delay.
If it isn't posted on HP or the DB, it isn't worth knowing.
I was so pleased upon firing up my laptop this morning to see that you have returned. Welcome back, Mr. Buckley. Your unique voice has been missed.
I've googled you so often, searching for a way to communicate, that eventually the message when typing in your name was "leave me alone, I do not know where he is."
This is off the topic but I want to thank you for sharing via Losing Mum and Pup. It was wonderful. I forced myself to nibble rather than gobble, not wanting the feast to end.
Buckley calling Bennett pompous? I believe there's a saying about pots and kettles that's appropriate here.
There were two interesting points that Buckley noted without, apparently, grasping the significance of them:
One, Latimer is working with Rumsfeld in some capacity (there are differing accounts over the exact nature) on Rumsfeld's memoir. Given that Latimer has a stake in Rumsfeld, as it were, is there any wonder that Rumsfeld comes out so well in Latimer's account?
Two, Noonan's observation about Reagan has been pretty thoroughly debunked by subsequent scholarship. This is a pretty obvious illustration that memoirs such as Noonan's, and Latimer's, are rather self-serving (see point one; there's an old joke that every Washington memoir could be subtitled "If They Had Only Listened to Me") and pretty much worthless in providing actual insight. But, hey, Latimer bashes some Republicans and for Buckley, whose last scribbling for TDB was to tout a man who, among other things, spent the fall of 2004 virtually campaigning for Kerry on his TV show as the savior of the GOP, that seems to be sufficient.
The Daily Beast isn't half the site it is when Buckley's contributing articles. I was considering buying Lattimer's book. Now I probably will. By the way, I read The White House Mess. It's awesome.
You might want to re-read the first line there.
"If Johnny has 2 nickles, 3 dimes and four quarters...and a soda pop cost 20 cents per bottle, how many soda pops can Johnny buy?"
Mr. Buckley, it's been a long, long summer without having your voice here. Welcome back.
Wellcome back!!! You managed to write a nice piece even on White House memoirs. S, hopefully the next column won't come after a similarly long brake ;-) Looking forward to hear more re Joe Scarborough and the GOP.
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I'm delighted to see you back at DB, Mr. Buckley.
Your assessment of Bennett alone is enough to "spot on!" this piece, otherwise I think you're very right about the importance of these kinds of books from people like Latimer who may well be our last hope of truly intimate glimpses of what the powers that be actually think and say.
As for Noonan, she's in the same category as Bennett for me. To watch her parade on these talk shows as some sort of guru on conservatism and possessor of a gift to know leaders motivations is laughable. Why does it take her so long to circumvent her passive/aggressive narcissism? Thanks for sparing me the usual 'goo-goo, ga-ga' she usually gets from fellow lackies.
Bluntly, without patronizing you, I'm going to buy Latimer's book. I don't agree with you all that often but you have my respect as probably the most open minded, honest broker of the opinionated writers I see out there. For that, I thank you.
PS Mr. Buckley, I'd love to see you 'assess' the real 'depth' of George Will beneath all the camoflage of alliteration and verbosity he spits out.
Again, welcome back. You're book on your mum and pup won my respect for candor and tact, two things that rarely coexist in this troubled society today.
Thank you.
Hi Buckley of the Beast. Your absence this summer caused me to stop reading completely. No, not really, but the laughs were few and far between. I am going to now RACE to the library to take this book out as I am a bit uncomfortable giving money to a Republican, it seems to slip through their fingers like silk through handcuffs. Glad to have you back!!!!!
Greetings, Mr. Buckley. You are the reason I visit TDB. A pleasure to read your thoughts.
I'm asking my hubby for a bookstore birthday gift certificate now. With this one and "The Death of Conservatism" I will be set.
Have been all over the web looking for you, then it hit me, even people who do not have a 9-5 job need to get away from it all.
Thank you.
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