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A salute to Kitty Kelley. It is important to support someone fighting for the truth when they are under the gun. I want to raise a cheer for author Kitty Kelley. She is a real hero. Kitty Kelley was fired recently from her post at the Washingtonian by its Editor, Jack "Limpy" Limbert, jlimbert@washingtonian.com. because he did not like her truthtelling about the Bushies. I wrote him a scathing e-mail calling him the limpy sleaze he is. A topic was started here but I want to tell a little more about who she is to give her the recognition she deserves: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2807671#2810567I herald Ms. Kelley as a hero. She fought against the bastards and wrote a book that she knew could get her into trouble. Her dogged pursuit of the truth about the Bushes in the face of many obstacles is highly commendable in its own right. I want to share part of the "author's note" at the beginning of her book: "The Family: The real story of the Bush family". She has done biographies on numerous public figures: Jacqueline Onassis, Elizabeth, Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, the British monarchy, etc. : Note: Her excellent book would make a great Christmas present. Without exception, the contemporary figures I've chosen to chronicle have been reluctant and uncooperative, and in each instance I have encountered resistance as I tried to go behind the public image to the other side of the myth. As unauthorized biographies, my books have been controversial and drawn fire, even litigation on occasion, but I have never lost a a lawsuit. Before publication each book is vetted by several sets of lawyers; facts and sourcews are checked and rechecked ans sources documented. ........
With every book I have written I've encountered a certain amount of hesitancy on the part of potential sources, because they are understandably reluctant to talk about powerful people, either for fear of retribution or for fear of being socially ostracized. The amount of trepidation I encountered in this book is without precedent........I heard an endless stream of excuses and apologies, some comical, others disconcerting: "You don't know the family...If they think I've talked to you, the'll never speak to me again. " "This town is too small to rile the Bushes.""I want to live to see my grandchildren." One man said, "You can't use my name. They'll come after me. The Bushes are thugs."
Thugs? Surely you are kidding," I said. "Look what they did in Florida during the 2000 recount," he answered, and then detailed the "Brooks Brothers Riot" of Republican activists who helped stop the voting in Miami by storming the canvassing board. To prove his point, the man sent records showing that many of the rioters in pin-striped suits had been paid by the Bush recount committee.
The saddest example of the fear the Bushes instill involves a family whose Jewish son was subjected to a prank by George W. Bush when both boys attended Andover. Even forty years later the family was afraid to revisit the incident and be identified. The school did not take a disciplinary action . By then, George Herbert Walker Bush was a revered cmpus legend. The elder Bush joined the Andover board of trustees in 1963 and served until 1979, which protected his younger sons from expulsion when the both broke school rules. Jeb Bush was caught drinking and Marvin Bush was doing drugs, but unlike other students in similar situations, the Bushes were not even suspended.
In writing contemporary biography, I've become accustomed to reluctant subjects who do not want their lives depicted without being able to control the content, but the Bushes--public figures for over fifty years--have been, by far, the most reluctant. The family is obsessed with secrecy and their potential for retaliation is great. Consequently, some people were afraid of going on the record for fear of losing their jobs, getting hit with an IRS audit, or worse. And it was fear not just of the President (43) but also of his father, who did all he could to close every door opened.
On November 6, 2002, I wrote to the former President. I said I was under contract to do a historical retrospective of his family and would appreciate an interview and the opportunity to verify certain facts. Renowned for a lifetime of writing letters, George H. W. ignored mine. Instead, he directed his aid Jean Becher to call Stephen Rubin, the publisher of Doubleday. She did that on November 11, 2002: "President Bush has asked me to say that he and his family are not going to cooperate with this book because the author wrote a book about Nancy Reagan that made Mr.s Reagan unhappy."
The President's excuse was, to put it mildly, disingenous. For Bush 41 the only unhappy part of that book concerned the former First Lady's anecdote about him and his "girlfriend." Barbara Bush was so angry about Mrs. Reagan's revelation that she instructed Roger Kennedy, then director of the National Museum of American History, to remove a display featuring my books of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Nancy Reagan from the First Ladies exhibit in the Smithsonian. Mr. Kennedy genuflected to Mrs. Bush and the display was removed.
Three months after the publication of this book, George Herbert Walker Bush was President of the United States. he, too, expressed his displeasure with me in his diary, which he published in "All the Best", George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other writings." Bush's entry for July 25, 1991:
" Have you ever had one of those days when it just isn't so good...... Just one of those days when you want to say forget it. Oh, yes, the President of Paramount that owns one of the big book companies called to say that Kitty Kelley wants to write a book either about the Bushes or the Royals and he turned it down. That's nice--a book by Kitty Kelley with everything else I've got on my mind......I can't see her ever writing anything nice. "
After four years researching this book and interviewing nearly one thousand people, I now understand why the former President would not cooperate: there are many family secrets he wants to protect. From the very beginning, he threw up every possible barrier. His pre-school, Andover, refused to provide any Bush-related photographs for this book, although numerous other authors have had no difficulty in securing photo rights from the school. The fomer President put his family and friends on notice, and the George Bush Presidential Library stopped responding to the simplest reference requests.
When I wrote to the former President's cousin George Herbert ("Bert") Walker III in St. Louis, Mr. Walkdre called me immediately. "It will be such a pleasure to meet you," he said on November 4, 2002, "and to talk to you about the family. I'll show you the house where Aunt Dotty grew up and met Uncle Pres Bush......I'll be here every day of your stay, so call me as soon as you get to St. Louis. "
I made my plane reservations, but by the next day Mr. Walker had obviously been told not to cooperate. His secretary called me: "I'm so sorry, but Mr. Walker has been unexpectedly called out of town and will not be available during your visit." I flew to St. Louis anyway and spent several days doing research in that lovely city. I even stopped by Stifel, Nicolaus and Company where George H. Walker III sits as the chairman of the board. Not surprisingly, he was in town when I arrived but"in a meeting all day." A few months later President Bush--George W. --appointed Walker his second cousin , U.S. Ambassador to Hungary.
Bert's brother, Ray Walker, joked with me at the time, "Bert had to fill out all kinds of papers, including records on all his childrean and his siblings and who they've made political contributions. I was just about to donate to Ramsey Clark's Internet campaign to "Impeach the President' but .......I held back....for Bert's sake. " A trained psychiatrist. Ray Walker acknowledged the familiy's mania for secrecy . "They've got alot to hide," he said during an interview on May 28th, 2003. "Secrets they don't even know.....When I was in analysis, it took me a full year to get from my grandparents to anywhere close to myself."Kelley goes on to describe how GW Bush moved to seal the secrets of the Bush family forever. How the FBI refused to allow the info in a FOIA request to be released on James Smith Bush (1901-08) How they have "airbrushed" the family tree to remove unpleasant facts. ...... Historians simply cannot rely on the Bush Walker family records released by the George Bush Presidential Library. There are simply to manny errors and omissions, some of which appear to be intentional. The official family tree provide by the Bush archivists does not include the tow mentally retarde daughters of John M. Walker and lists only two of James Smith Bush's wives, not all four of them; one of Ray Walker's two wives is omitted, and George Herbert Walker III is listed with only two, instead of there, wives. These might seem like trivial details until you realize that int eh Bush family, divorce, particularly more than one, is considered anathema. The book would make a great Christmas present and help a fine hero in the fight to expose the truth about the Bush family. LET'S GIVE KITTY A BIG DU WELCOME! Also I encourage anyone to e-mail Limpy and give him a piece of your mind.
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