WP: Laura Bush on "steamy" books and "wild man" Rhett Butler

[DeepModem Mom]

The First Lady's Steamy Book Report
By Tamara Jones
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 27, 2006; Page C01

Discussing dirty books with Laura Bush is surprisingly easy....

***

"I will admit to reading books like 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' in high school, where you had a fake cover on the outside of the book and read it during math," she says, adding that it seemed "risque at the time."

Was the once-banned classic the steamiest novel she ever read?

"Probably not," she replies breezily. "I've probably read some steamier since."

Smile.

Silence.

Steamier? Like what?

Smile.

She turns to the librarian of Congress for rescue.

"It's hard even having to name ones that are steamy, don't you think, Dr. Billington?"...

***

Speaking of excitement, which fictional man would Laura Bush most like to marry?

"I guess Rhett, the one every woman wants to marry," comes the reply, maybe wistful, or maybe just exasperated. "His manliness, you know, sort of a wild man."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092601609.html

[acmavm]

1. Rhett's manliness as opposed to blivet's chimpyness.

[WinkyDink]

2. Um, "GWTW" is nowhere NEAR "LC'sL"! And I studied the latter,

so I know whereof I speak!

[maxsolomon]

3. tropic of cancer?

delta of venus?

cmon laura, make us :puke:

[onethatcares]

11. perhaps, "Candy"

the only book I know that begins and ends with the same words.

[maxsolomon]

4. duplicate

[Sinti]

5. Why?

Why this :puffpiece: in the WaPo? Where is a punching bag smiley icon when you need one. Maybe this will work

[partylessinOhio]

6. Put a sock in it, Miss Stepford!

[Missy Vixen]

7. She doesn't want to admit to reading romance novels

After all, it's impossible to read Russian literature and "steamy books" at the same time, isn't it? :mad:

I'm sure she thinks * is a Bad Boy, just like Rhett Butler. She seems to forget that even a fictional character has redeeming personality traits.

Julie

[DeepModem Mom]

8. You know, you're right. I thought of GW as a contrast to Rhett --

but when Laura married him, he was, indeed, a "wild man," of sorts.

[Missy Vixen]

9. Only a very deluded woman

>a "wild man," of sorts<

would stay with a guy like him. I wonder if he was exciting to her because of his unpredictability, but I wonder more if she thought she could "reform" him.

EWwwwww. I write romance, and women like this drive me nuts. The alpha male isn't going to be sweet and sensitive once you get him home in real life. The "bad boy" who's drinking himself into a stupor every night is not going to sweep you off your feet, a la Rhett Butler.

IMHO, YMMV.
Julie

[Lisa]

14. yes -- Bush's own friends called him a "reclamation case"

I like your observations, JulieRB -- it does sound like one of the ickier romance fantasies (the kind that give the genre a bad name). Wave a magic wand and the ugly beast turns into a well-mannered prince, indeed. Oh -- and all the woman has to do, to bring about this fabulous transformation, is cater to him and flatter him and let herself be humiliated repeatedly. That's all (!).

Bush having a contrasting personality (much more reckless and irresponsible), as well being a mix of the exotic (wealthy family, went to Ivy League schools) and familiar (apparently they had actually been at the same elementary school as kids), might have provided some excitement. Although I wonder how things might have turned out, if he'd had to compete with any other suitor who had half a brain, and who respected Laura and shared many of the same interests.

Re: the urge to teach or "reform" him, I guess that would have been another factor as well. I would have hoped that by the time she got together with him (I think she was in her 30s), she would have been wise enough to know that the odds are against being able to "reform" someone who is that set in his ways. About as much a chance of that, as getting him to love school and enjoy literature! Most people who are so inclined find out pretty soon (firsthand or by observation) what it's really like (and indeed, I faced something like this when I was in my teens and twenties) -- and if they're lucky, they don't end up stuck with the guy.

But someone I know, in her 40s with a pretty practical view of life, recently decided that she was going to try to "improve" a new boyfriend, so it's quite possible that Laura also got carried away with enthusiasm. Certainly the incident when she challenged him over his drinking (and he just stood there smirking at her, and pouring himself another drink) would have thrown cold water over that particular fantasy.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bush072999.htm
"Bush hadn't been ready to settle down – but neither was he considered any kind of ladies' man. In fact, his friends saw him as a bit of a reclamation case, a tad eccentric and a slob. The wives of his friends took pity on him and did his laundry.

"I didn't think he was really shopping around," said Joe O'Neill. "He was at the age where it was getting awkward to be a bachelor, but I don't think he thought about it." Bush, he recalled with a laugh, "wasn't exactly presidential timber yet. It took some coaching for us to get the girls to go out with him."

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. A drunk mean "wild" man, just like he is now. What a wonderful example

Pickles sets as "first lady". :puke:

[KittyWampus]

12. She secretly reads Lynn Cheney's Lesbian Frontier Romances

I bet.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

13. She sounds like the classic enabler every alcoholic needs to keep

on drinking.

Meanwhile, the most powerful wacko in the world keeps getting crazier and crazier, talking about how God chose him to lead a "crusade", abrogating the Geneva Convention, a third religious "Reawakening" (see http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-09-13T180341Z_01_N13197671_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-RELIGION.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C1-topNews-8 ), etc. etc.