The irony in Bush's dandy new library

By Jim Hightower - Wed., 5/1/13

Gosh, it seems like only yesterday that we saw George W on TV reading The Pet Goat to some second graders – but now he's all grown up and has an entire, super-duper, king-sized library filled with big books and other neat stuff – all dedicated to him.

Bush's pharonic "Presidential Center" is now open, allowing us commoners to dig deep into the shallowness of his achievements. The enormous building itself sets the tone: sharp edges, high brick walls, and the welcoming feel of a fortress. Yet the ex-prez insists that it's a place for public contemplation of his legacy, "a place to lay out facts."

How ironic is that? After all, the Bush-Cheney regime was infamous for its disregard of facts, as well as its constant hiding, twisting, and wholesale manufacturing of facts to fool the people. On everything the regime pushed – from going to war over Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction to its plan to gut and privatize Social Security – "facts" were whatever Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Rove, and Condi imperiously declared them to be.

More ironic (and even insulting) is the centerpiece of the library's attempt to whitewash George's eight awful years: An interactive exhibit called "Decision Points Theater." And theater it is, portraying George heroically as "The Decider" on such Big Moments as Hurricane Katrina and the Wall Street collapse. Visitors to this rigged exhibit can use touch screens to see Bush getting contradictory advice, then taking a bold stand. The whole show is meant to make you feel sympathy for him, then you're asked to "vote" on whether he did the right thing. Again, irony: We the People got no vote on these issues back when it would've mattered.

The only honesty in George's library is that it's as big a fraud as his presidency was.

"Rewinding History, Bush Museum Lets You decide," The New York Times, April 21, 2013.

"Set for center opening, Bush says, "There's no need to defend myself," USA Today, April 22, 2013.
"GWB," Parade Magazine, April 21, 2013.

"Will Visitors to George W. Bush's New Presidential "Lie Bury" Fall for the Gimmicky Game That Helps Him Evade Accountability?" www.alternet.org, April 22, 2013.

"Bush's Legacy of Atrocities Is Nowhere to Be Seen at His New Library -- and the Local Paper Won't Even Run One Ad That Tells the Truth," www.alternet.org, April 23,, 2013.

"George W. Bush says library 'a place to lay out facts,'" www.usatoday, April 21, 2013.