Is Mike Gerson a Glory Hog?
Or is his former colleague, Matthew Scully, just unhinged?
By Timothy Noah
Slate.com
Memo to self: Be nice to Matthew Scully. I've never met the former Bush speechwriter and author of Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call To Mercy, but on the off chance that I've ever done anything to offend him let me say right now how sorry I am. I don't know what I was thinking. It won't happen again. And may I add, Matt, you're looking awfully fit these days. Have you been working out?
The occasion for this genuflection is an article in the September Atlantic (blandly titled, "Present at the Creation"; subscription required) in which Scully does to Bush's former chief speechwriter, Michael Gerson, what Scully wants the Inuit to stop doing to baby seals. The essence of Scully's indictment of his former boss is that he's a glory hog.
In a more innocent time, Scully would have chided Gerson for allowing the American public to notice that President Bush was not the author of his own speeches. Former political consultant Robert Shrum commits a minor version of this sin in his memoir No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner when he debunks the Gore campaign's strenuous claim in 2000 that Gore wrote his own convention speech. Actually, Shrum explains, he wrote it, with help from Gore, Eli Attie, Tad Devine, Carter Eskew, Stan Greenberg, and—unbeknownst to Gore—President Bill Clinton, with whom the vice president was barely on speaking terms. Two years later, the conservative writer Danielle Crittenden sent out an e-mail to various friends making the indiscreet boast that "my husband [Bush speechwriter David Frum] is responsible for the 'Axis of Evil' segment of [the] State of the Union address." The e-mail leaked to this column, and when the dust had cleared we learned that Frum had actually coined the phrase, "axis of hate," subsequently amended by others to "axis of evil."
(Continued here.)
By Timothy Noah
Slate.com
Memo to self: Be nice to Matthew Scully. I've never met the former Bush speechwriter and author of Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call To Mercy, but on the off chance that I've ever done anything to offend him let me say right now how sorry I am. I don't know what I was thinking. It won't happen again. And may I add, Matt, you're looking awfully fit these days. Have you been working out?
The occasion for this genuflection is an article in the September Atlantic (blandly titled, "Present at the Creation"; subscription required) in which Scully does to Bush's former chief speechwriter, Michael Gerson, what Scully wants the Inuit to stop doing to baby seals. The essence of Scully's indictment of his former boss is that he's a glory hog.
In a more innocent time, Scully would have chided Gerson for allowing the American public to notice that President Bush was not the author of his own speeches. Former political consultant Robert Shrum commits a minor version of this sin in his memoir No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner when he debunks the Gore campaign's strenuous claim in 2000 that Gore wrote his own convention speech. Actually, Shrum explains, he wrote it, with help from Gore, Eli Attie, Tad Devine, Carter Eskew, Stan Greenberg, and—unbeknownst to Gore—President Bill Clinton, with whom the vice president was barely on speaking terms. Two years later, the conservative writer Danielle Crittenden sent out an e-mail to various friends making the indiscreet boast that "my husband [Bush speechwriter David Frum] is responsible for the 'Axis of Evil' segment of [the] State of the Union address." The e-mail leaked to this column, and when the dust had cleared we learned that Frum had actually coined the phrase, "axis of hate," subsequently amended by others to "axis of evil."
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
Matthew Scully is one to talk. A tidbit for you. There was a dog catcher in Arizona who wasn't doing too well. He met Scully who offered to make him a NoKill star. Scully is a paid hack. He asks people for money to write positive misleading "editorial" articles about them then he gets them in big newspapers and magazines.
"This is how Boks gets journalists to write positive articles about him. He pays for it, or more specifically, he asks people like me for the money to pay for it. I said I wouldn't pay for it but I'd write it myself. Then I suggested he just do an oped piece himself for the Times, which he did. Is it normal to pay journalists to write positive articles about you as editorials?
In a message dated 6/3/2006 6:48:14 PM Pacific Daylight Time, edboks@hotmail.com writes:
The New Yorker is asking about doing a story on me but they said it could take weeks or even months.
Matthew Scully said he'd do an article but that he needs to get his regular fee as a Washington columnist. $5K. Bit out of the question I think. Maybe I'll approach him again.
In a message dated 6/4/2006 9:25:14 AM Pacific Daylight Time, edboks@hotmail.com writes:
My concern is "who" the article comes from. Someone like a Matthew Scully can easily get 1500 words in the LA Times. I'm scheduled to talk to him on Monday. If he is willing to edit and submit it under his name
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