Second Memoir in a Week Rocks White House

A new tell-all book by President George W. Bush’s most faithful companion and confidante during his White House years reveals a picture of the president potentially even more damaging than the one in former Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s new memoir, What Happened.
According to a pre-release copy of “Down Boy: Inside the Bush Culture of Deception and Arrogance” obtained by this blogger, the author paints a picture of a president so distracted by the war in Iraq that he “ignores the needs of even his best friend,” and a Bush administration staff that “employs deceit and trickery to get what they want.”
“Shortly after the invasion, I began suspecting that my public appearances were just part of the Bush administration’s stagecraft,” according to the president’s longtime friend, known only as Barney, who describes himself as a “Black Scottish-American.”
“I had unwittingly become part of the propaganda campaign, even as the presidency veered off course,” Barney wrote. “Although I looked perpetually happy in front of the cameras, or while walking with the president on the White House grounds, inside I was wracked with doubt.”
The author claims that top White House staffers would pretend to take him in their confidence and even express admiration for the way he conducted his business.
“Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney — they would all pat my head and say ‘Good Boy, Barney. Heckuva job, Barney’,” he writes, “Then the next thing you know, I was in the dog house — shut off from the inner circle where they made their nefarious plans.”
“One time, Rove and Libby stepped into a room I was in to dodge Scott McClellan and to whisper about Valerie Plame,” he wrote, “They tried to buy my silence with special favors and incentives, which the Secret Service referred to in code as ‘biscuits’. At the time, I just hugged Scooter’s lower leg and feigned appreciation. But in my heart, I knew it was wrong.”
White House spokesman Dana Perino, asked to respond to the allegations in the two books, today said the president was “surprised and saddened, but he recognizes that he didn’t always see eye to eye with either author.”
“Once they leave the house,” Mr. Bush reportedly said, “you can’t control what they’re out there spreading around.”