Tina Brown: Bush Library To Be "Halloween Shop Of Horrors," Presidency "A Chapter Of Hideous Accidents"

The Daily Beast founder and editor-in-chief Tina Brown appeared on "The Rachel Maddow Show" (guest-hosted by Alison Stewart, wife of executive producer Bill Wolff) Tuesday night. Brown's segment was focused on the 62 days remaining in the Bush presidency, and she did not mince words in dissecting the lame duck.

"One of the things that I'm told at the moment is that Bush is entirely focused right now on his legacy, on his library," she said. "That's all he really wants to talk about is his library. Because he's trying to build a legacy. But quite honestly, one can only think that that library is a Halloween House of Horrors. From the Guantanamo room to the Abu Ghraib room to the Hurricane Katrina room, this is going to be a very interesting library when it is built."

Brown also said that Bush's presidency has had "so many disasters" that, unlike previous lame duck Presidents, he is not "looking back in a mellow fashion on his Presidency, or even feeling that he has busy things to do so much as a President who is kind of punch-drunk with a series of debacles which even he — in his great denial and refusal to accept his own failures — has to accept at this point has been a chapter of hideous accidents, if you want to be charitable about it."

Watch:

Before Tina went up to 30 Rock, she celebrated the launch of The Daily Beast at New York's Pop Burger (she ducked out at 8:41 PM, says the New York Observer's John Koblin). Read his party report here.

Comments

[FirstShirt]

Have your fun at Bush's expense. I guess it would be like the Franklin Roosevelt library with a section of the stalag used to imprison innocent japanese american citizens without due process of law.

Or, the Truman library having big pictures of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki...the innocent women and children.

Or, the Kennedy library picture of the Bay of Pigs and scenic views of Viet Nam. And on and on.

Have your fun.

[Purobi]

Bed time.

[Puzes]

Sure there have been other presidents with problems but, come on! He created his legacy by being asleep at the wheel and clueless most of the time. How he ever got elected to a second term is beyond my comprehension - oh! wait! that's right ... he wasn't elected to the first term! Jeez.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

You make a good point, but at least they took responsibility for there actions. FDR was trying to win a world war, at the time of Pearl Harbor the Germans and Japanese had the best, most modern militaries in the world. Detaining the Japanese was wrong, but I don't recall any of them being tortured. I know German prisoners of war weren't tortured or abused either, my oldest friends father was a German prison of war, held in CA for 2 years.

Should Truman have drop the bomb, no because he didn't have to, B29s flew over Japan with impunity, the Japanese were trying to surrender through the Soviets, except they didn't tell us, because Stalin was planning a land grab in Japan. My father would have disagreed with me because he division was packing up to go to the Pacific and after 3 years he was pretty sick of war.

As for the Bay of Pigs and Vietnam, JFK inherited both from IKE, he apologized to the Cuban people for the Bay of Pigs. As for Vietnam, 5 presidents can take responsibility for that mess.
By the way neo-liberals came up with the rational for the "Domino Theory", now know as neo-conservatives, same crap new raper.

[rwt1138]

The difference is, all those presidents you name actually have worthwhile accomplishments as well that they can list. What is it you think Bush has to be proud of? Seriously, I'm asking: what are the highlights? Merkel's neck rub? Catching bin Laden? Stabilizing the Middle East?

[shanefish]

Who said any of this is fun? It is downright disgraceful!

[marshwood]

Bush library - Isn't that an oxymoron?

[FortuneTeller]

LOL...you betcha

[syQodem]

Imagine the card catalogue: "My Pet Goat (English version)", "My Pet Goat (Italian version), "My Pet Goat (Farsi version)"...

[Palemoon]

"A Chapter Of Hideous Accidents"

I realize she was being "charitable" in that assessment. But that's not just charity, that's akin to a complete rewrite of the past 10,000 years of world history. Use of the term accident implies that the acts were not deliberate or were simply unintended consequences to an action. It was all planned, it was all deliberate, it is not even charitable to say that it was "accidents". It's more a fantasy.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

It can contain big photos of dead and maimed American troops, family members left behind to morn at Arlington Cemetery, dead and maimed Iraqi men, women and children, sun burnt flood victims, who died from exposure waiting for help. I saw a photo of elderly woman who died on a fire escape, shot by a Times photographer, you would not recognize her as human being. How about photos of people being put out of there homes. How many died in this country from a lack of health care in last 8 years. Maybe a water board, or a room from GITMO. "Little shop of horrors" is about right.

[tomfl78]

maybe we can just spread the wealth around

[BPCentrisAmerican]

Thats a good idea.

[TrevorAlan]

Also, don't Presidential libraries usually preserve and act as repository for a President's papers? But the Bush administration is so secretive, they aren;t going to let anyone see any of their papers ever. What does someone who won't let you have any information while they are in office need a library for?

[SeriousBlack]

Excellent point!

[shanefish]

No doubt! He could fit all of his papers on a floppy diskette!

[BPCentrisAmerican]

He can call his library, W's "little shop of horrors"

[coco51]

Carex, "Naive?" more like generous with restraint. I for one think the past 8 years have been a "clusterf**k of a train wreck"

[BPCentrisAmerican]

That covers it.

[GOP-Hater]

Bush will go down as the greatest M-O-R-O-N in history!

[alfrede]

Hi,

Will the Bush family hire a public relations firm to write a history of the past eight years in such a way so that President Bush looks good!!

When former President Bush writes his memoirs (ghost writes) will the same be true?

When former President Bush goes on the fried chicken circuit will he then be able to repeat what the PR firm and ghost writers have written??

Will anyone be interested??

What do U think????

[Querent]

He's spent all of his time in the Oval Office concocting lies to foist off on the nation. Why should he stop now?

[old lady]

The only thing that would make him look good now is a long line of criminal prosecutions

[jonjon66]

Sexism, give us a break, run folks like Hillary Clinton with a ton of baggage and Sarah Plain with a ton of non interest in intellectual capacity do not represent women. They represent power-hungry ego's.

[carex]

Ms. Brown is naive, at best. What Bush & Co. have done are most certainly not accidents.

[NOLIESPLEASE]

Why should anyone build a library when they cant read...let alone wanting to learn to read???

[bikerdude]

If Pelosi had a hair on her butt, Georgie boy would be worried about his future freedom.
He did wrong, we caught him, and now we refuse to hold him accountable. This will be a big black mark against Pelosi and congress for not starting impeachment proceedings. No excuses.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

I agree, I did not think Nixon should have been prosecuted, because although he let us down, no one died because of Watergate and resigning was shame enough, but Bush-Cheney and there neo-con traders are responsible for the deaths and maiming of hundreds of thousand of people, a completely lawless administration, and running the country into an economic ditch that will take yeras to climb out of. They are war criminals, who used our armed services in the worst possible way, the preemptive invasion another country and torture, the Founders are spinning in there graves.

[ohjoy]

I am so angry that Bush/Cheney will be walking out of the WH free men. Its just wrong.

[Teadye]

Isn't this the hideously expensive library that includes an endowment to hire people for some period of time into the future so that they can actively rewrite the Bush legacy in favorable terms? Creepy!

[Thumperdumper]

If "W" is serious about taking an active interest in his "Lie-berry" he's going to have to take a look at all the nasty stuff that happened while he was president. And he'll have to read a lot of books. OUCH! He may even have one of those "Oh my God, what have I done" moments. He will then suffer the most severe case of Post-POTUS Depression since U. S. Grant. He can go the way of booze and pills, or apoligize to the American people and the world for what he has done. Contrition is good for the soul, George. I'll wait for it, but I don't really expect it.

[Querent]

Bush will be back on the sauce within a year of leaving office.

[unhipcat]

He was sauced at the Olympics.