In the Shadow of the King

When it gets built, I'll live less than a mile away from this thing: the George W. Bush Presidential Library. It has been apparent for months from reports in The Dallas Morning News that Southern Methodist University was the frontrunner for the Bush legacy archive (Laura Bush, a graduate, is on the university's board). But the New York Daily News finally reveals what SMU is eagerly getting itself into: President Bush and his supporters plan to raise a record-breaking half a billion dollars for the building.

In comparison, the President Clinton library in Arkansas cost $165 million, one-third the Bush price tag. Insert a whole week's worth of late-night comedians' jokes here about President Bush's reading habits.

But all that money isn't for buying up every existing copy of The Pet Goat (the children's book President Bush read to a Florida classroom after being told of the World Trade Center attack). According to the Daily News, SMU will be getting, in addition to the library, a sizable conservative institute set up purposely just to redeem the Bush administration's historical reputation.

They're gonna need the money.