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

[ginxy]

mwwaaa haa haa!

It's funny to think that Bush is all worried about his library. Who does he think will actually use his library?

His supporters? Do they really read books?

The rest of us? As if we would all suddenly suffer mass amnesia the moment we entered his library?

I don't think so.

[Puzes]

If they put in a beer bar all the folks who vote for someone they would want to have a beer with can go ... W can be the bar tender.

[mommadona]

"a chapter of hideous accidents"

Ahhh - but truth is....none of them were ACCIDENTS.....

http://cartoonzone.eyeker.com/Dubya/DubyaFollowsGroverNorquistPlan.jpg

[cminri]

The words "Bush" and "Library" are mutually exclusive. Perhaps "liberry" would be better.

[protagonia]

These tragic events were as "Accidental" as Janet Jackson's "Wardrobe Malfunction" during the Superbowl.

[Chubbster]

And Tina is pulling her punches and being kind.

[PhilipTaylor]

Agree with most of what she said, but Bush graduated from YALE University and they were not ACCIDENTS!

He did not make mistakes as they were all well calculated moves he and Cheney, also from Yale University, did to provide Massive Profits for Military, Oil, and Investment Banks! It appears to have been successful for the extremely Wealthy, but failed tragically for the rest of us!

[LeonBNJ]

I wish there were some way to not provide the funding for his lie-bary, that all contributions would be put into funds for soldiers crippled by his war in Iraq and all his government documents put into a secure warehouse in the DC area and open to scholars, government investigators and so on. He does not deserve an monunment to himself.

[friscotxmom]

One assumes that the library will be factual. Bush has made clear the intent to give decorators the right to determine exhibits and that the hand-picked board has final say on its contents. Historians hold no power to influence exhibits, unlike other presidential libraries.

On a side note, SMU ought to be ashamed of themselves for agreeing to host this shrine to Bush. Bush claims to be a Methodist, but his policies and actions are anything but. His behavior stands against everything the Methodist Church advocates and it galls me that they would voluntarily tie their name with his.

[Racetracker]

Maybe the library will hold the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing that Dubya didn't bother to read at the time.

[offonatangent]

I think we should ALL go visit, and bring a lovely "library warming" gift.

Let's all bring Shrub a copy of "My Pet Goat" to his "lieeburry". Just think, it'll be like the Vietnam Memorial, every day people will visit and leave copies of "My Pet Goat" with inscriptions inside and kid's toys, photos, mortgage papers and flags from military caskets (the ones we didn't get to see during the war) ...in remembrance of the Katrina Victims, in remembrance of the Iraq War casualties, in remembrance of the house lost to foreclosure, in remembrance of the child lost who could have been saved by stem cell research.

I can promise that if we did it, the press would cover it - and since we have no sufficient memorials for 9-11, Katrina, the Iraq War, the Financial Crisis etc it would give many victims a "proper outlet" for their grief and feelings to come to the Library of the President who was "there" for ALL of it. I'd sure love to see the front/entry of the library covered in copies of "My Pet Goat" and photos and remembrances of "victims" every day. And the visitors won't even have to go in.

[funkalicious]

Very Funny, I can imagine a hall of mirrors that Bush can never escape himself each dead end hall way another self realization of his horror show.
Thanks for a terroriffic image Ms Brown.

[tomfl78]

Pragmatus u might want to blame President Clinton for some of the econ problems, along with the American people b/c they spent more then thay brought home

[novowel4me]

Are you saying that Republicans knowing that Clinton had made errors of the economy sat around for eight years, six of them with total control of the government, and did nothing to correct them? The american people did exactly what was asked of them by their president and modeled by their government, they spent and borrowed.

[bikerdude]

Wasn't it "George the Genius" who told us we were to go out and spend, spend, spend?
As I remember he took office with a large budget surplus. No excuses. History will refer to this government as the failed bush administration.

[tomfl78]

President Bus is not a war criminal

[UpstateNY]

Really?

[Chicago48]

Let's be fair, he had a lot of bad incidents happen to him during his watch: Clinton didn't have Katrina, Clinton didn't have 9/11, (altho he did have the World Trade bomb and embassy blow-ups), Clinton did have massive hurricanes one after the other, or a bailout crisis. Clinton was blessed with a good economy, agreeable Congress and just plain old Luck.
If any President wants to step into Bush's shoes and redo the past 8 yrs they should do it, but I doubt anybody would want to skipper the helm that he had to. Just saying.

Give Bush credit for one thing: we haven't had another embassy blow-up or airplane fly into our buildings. He kept the terrorists OVER there and not here.

[LJB1977]

"some men are born great, others have greatness thrust upon them"...You are correct that Bush got a lot on his plate, but he has to take responsibility for his appointements like: Rumsfeld, Brownie-you're-doin'-aheck-of-a-job, Paul Bremmer, Wolfowitz...and for divisive comments - "Yur either with me, or against me"... and for "looking into Putin's eyes and seeing the soul of a good man"...and for religous-political appointments that filled the justice dept, the war dept etc - and he has to accept "Abu-Grum - Abu- Grabe" - and I could go on....

[LJB1977]

Also, I will point out, that no one asked Bush to run for the 2nd term - I'm just saying - if the job was beyond him...

[eilish]

????? To paraphrase Jane Austen "I am all amazement" at the ignorance of your post. Read, study and ponder Bush's performance as POTUS. You will be disagreeably surprised at the indisputable facts therein that testify of his corruption, greed and yes, war crimes starting with tortures heretofore known only to - the terrorists he 'protected' us from. There are worse things than terrorism in our world which is falling down around our ears as we speak, courtesy of GWB policies which he is at present frantically adding to - read, read investigate.

[bikerdude]

Bad incidents? Luck? Anyone on the street, with average intelligence could do a better job than bush did. He and his cabinet are a horrible example of how to represent the USA and its citizens. The real failure is that we did not impeach him and Cheney.

[bikerdude]

and I don't like girls....Lies, lies, lies....

Bush and his cabinet lied us into war and lied to keep us there. He needs to be accountable via the impeachment route.

[Pragmatus]

"Accident"? What part of the invasion of Iraq, the tax giveaways to the rich, the trashing of Wall Street oversight and the disemboweling of virtually all environmental protection and worker safeguards was ACCIDENTAL?
.

[copestir]

Library? Read? Bush? Do they all go together?