Demagogue

Last year, conservative author David Aikman wrote:

"President Bush makes no secret of his Christian convictions ... He reads the Bible daily ..."

Apparently, the Bible isn't the only book that our president has been reading in recent weeks. Other than severe indigestion, what is the Religious Right's reaction to this news from the New York Times?

If you ask the White House what President Bush is reading these days, the press office will call back with the official list: "His Excellency: George Washington" by Joseph J. Ellis, "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow and, not least, the Bible.

What the official list omits is Tom Wolfe's racy new beer- and sex-soaked novel, "I Am Charlotte Simmons." The president, a fan of Mr. Wolfe, has not only read the book but also is enthusiastically recommending it to friends.

It is unclear exactly what Mr. Bush liked so much about the book, which is told from the point of view of Charlotte Simmons, a young woman from the God-fearing backwoods of North Carolina who is the first in her family to go to college. Charlotte, who is at first shocked by the booze and debauchery she encounters at Mr. Wolfe's Dupont University ... eventually succumbs in a chapter-long deflowering scene at the hands of a drunken fraternity rat. Then she sinks into depression.

Mr. Bush, who was the hard-drinking, hard-partying president of Delta Kappa Epsilon, the jock fraternity at Yale, is also the father of two partying daughters, Jenna and Barbara.

... Does Mr. Bush like the book because it is a journey back to his keg nights at Deke, or because it offers a glimpse into the world of his daughters' generation? Or does he like the writing? Or is it all of the above? The White House won't say.

Now let me make sure I understand this. It appears that soon before President Bush uttered these words in his SOTU speech:

So many of my generation, after a long journey, have come home to family and faith, and are determined to bring up responsible, moral children.

.... he was enjoying a Tom Wolfe book with these risqué words:

... you could once again hear (male) students drunk on youth and beer being funny or at least loud as they stood before the urinals ... One exclaimed to the other, "Whattya mean, a slut? She told me she's been re-virginated!" They both broke up over that.