Karl Rove overseeing George W. Bush Library project

Bush crony Stephen Payne was caught on tape offering access to Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice in exchange for donations to the George W. Bush Presidential Library.

True to the president's legacy, the Bush Library will be a $500 million partisan institute housed by Southern Methodist University and administered with tax dollars, but accountable only to the library foundation.

The library is to be the Mother of All Think Tanks. It will reward the truly loyal Bushies with cushy jobs burnishing the legacy of George W. Bush.

Readers will not be shocked to learn that the project is being spearheaded by none other than Karl Rove.

Comments

[Labrys]

Gee, does this mean the library will be somewhere OUT of the country? Because, damn, I am so hoping that Rove will be afraid of arrest and never set foot on American soil again. Yeah, I need to quit dreaming...

[Bruce]

I had no expectation of anything less; to make an actual library - one with, you know, an inventory of meaningful books and archives - named for this hackitudinous illiterate would be offensive to 4,500 years of human book publishing and scribal arts.

[cognitive dissident]

I'm shocked--shocked, I tell you!--to discover that corruption follows Dubya everywhere he goes. Like the ever-present stench of sulfur, Rove seems inextricable from Bush's legacy of miserable failure.

Will the library's gift shop stock copies of "The Pet Goat"?

[Citizen92]

A FEW POINTS

1.
The SMU football scandal under Rove client Governor Clements' watch (no football in Texas, can you IMAGINE?) was due to a booster "slush fund" paying the football players. Clements approved it.

Now, forgive me, but when I think "slush fund," I think Karl Rove. I betcha Karl was involved in SMU's moment of shame back in the 90's. Maybe this is his way of repaying them?

2.
"Rogue" fundraiser Stephen Payne is a "Senior Advance Representative" for Bush and Cheney. Karl Rove oversaw the Advance Office during his time at the White House - a time when "overzealous volunteers" were repeatedly running amock - - but never getting dealt with.

3.
A recent book recounted that Rove was apparently "fired" in church by Bush because he was getting too hot scandal-wise. Well, the fact that Rove is running the library effort, and that he told Swedish TV on July 8 (when he was avoiding a Congressional subpoena) that he and Bush talk every few days and meet every two weeks, well that indicates otherwise. (Swedish video at www.youtube.com/ikbenbangde).