Dana Perino: Lattimer's Palin claims are "rubbish"

Matt Latimer, a minor former speech writer for George W. Bush, is out with a diss-and-tell book, and Byron York's previews in the Examiner are causing quite a stir in political circles both left and right.

It seems there's something for everyone in Lattimer's Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor. Conservatives who never felt like Dubya was one of their own will point to certain segments and say, "See, I told you so." A prime example is when Latimer supposedly got tasked with preparing a speech for Bush's appearance before the 2008 CPAC conference:

"What is this movement you keep talking about in the speech?" the president asked Latimer.

Latimer explained that he meant the conservative movement -- the movement that gave rise to groups like CPAC.

Bush seemed perplexed. Latimer elaborated a bit more. Then Bush leaned forward, with a point to make.

"Let me tell you something," the president said. "I whupped Gary Bauer's ass in 2000. So take out all this movement stuff. There is no movement."

The impression is that not only is GWB no conservative, he didn't even know what conservatism is.

Liberals, always on the lookout for any stone to cast at Sarah Palin, have seized upon the following passage from Latimer's book, allegedly when the former president was informed that John McCain had selected Palin to be his running mate:

"I'm trying to remember if I've met her before. I'm sure I must have." His eyes twinkled, then he asked, "What is she, the governor of Guam?"

Everyone in the room seemed to look at him in horror, their mouths agape. When Ed told him that conservatives were greeting the choice enthusiastically, he replied, "Look, I'm a team player, I'm on board." He thought about it for a minute. "She's interesting," he said again. "You know, just wait a few days until the bloom is off the rose." Then he made a very smart assessment.

"This woman is being put into a position she is not even remotely prepared for," he said. "She hasn't spent one day on the national level. Neither has her family. Let's wait and see how she looks five days out."

But let's give the horses a rest and have a reality check, shall we? 

Two other former Bush aides, both of whom had more frequent access to the 43rd president than Latimer, dispute the account. One of those former aides worked closely with both Bush and Palin:

Jason Recher, who served as special assistant to President Bush and as a traveling aide to Palin during the campaign, said the former President was well aware of Palin — especially since the two met in person in Alaska just three weeks before Palin was added to the Republican ticket.

During a stopover in Fairbanks on the way to the Beijing Olympics last August, Recher said Bush met with Palin and even made a knowing reference to her rising reputation in the Republican Party.

"The president was fully aware of who Sarah Palin was," Recher told CNN. "Even so much that when he greeted the governor and Todd in Fairbanks during a re-fueling stop on the way to the Beijing Olympics, he threw open his arms and said "Madam Vice President!'"

"He was very aware of her rising-star status and who she was and everything about her, even down to the fact that she recently had given birth to Trig," Recher said.

After Palin became the vice presidential nominee, Recher said the White House loaned out both he and Laura Bush's photographer Shealah Craighead to the McCain campaign to help staff Palin and her family.

Recher says Latimer didn't exactly have a lofty perch on the White House totem pole:

"Nobody knows who he is. When people heard he was writing a book the most common reaction has been, 'Who?'"

Dana Perino, who was the White House Press Secretary for Bush43 from September of 2007 until January of 2009, also doubts Latimer's credibility, telling Reuters:

"He wasn't around the president much."

[...]

"I was there outside the Oval when Sarah Palin was announced as the VP candidate and the president said to me, 'so, the Governor of Alaska was the pick? I just saw her a few weeks ago when we were on our way to China'."

Perino also posted on NRO's The Corner blog:

"Seems that every administration goes through this — yes, even the Obamas will have someone take advantage of the career opportunity of a lifetime to try to feather their own nest at someone else's expense — no matter how far-fetched their story may be."

"For example, he writes that President Bush didn't know who Sarah Palin was. That's rubbish."

[...]

So much of what Latimer claims the president said doesn't ring true to me. I was with the president for whole days at a time, through thick and thin, and I never heard him say things like that about others."

[...]

"I'm pretty sure that almost everyone who worked in the White House could not pick Matt out of a lineup, and I doubt that'll change much after this book. Speechless should have been called 'Shameless.'"

Looks like Matt Latimer was a fairly insignificant lower-level staffer, and he's been busted by people who spent a lot of time with Bush and actually mattered in his White House.

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Jamie Jeffords:

"So do progressives, who are certain Bush is an idiot even though many also think he masterminded 9/11 as a power grab, have to either consider him prescient for predicting the 2008 election or go on thinking he is an idiot for agreeing with them. They cannot have it both ways."

But Jamie, they can and do get to have it both ways. That is the problem. Their drooling, lapdog media guarantees that they will continue to have it both ways. That is why Sarah Palin is taking the fight right to the Democrat-Media Complex. That's why Rush suggested that the next round of citizen demonstrations take place on the front steps of each and every state-controlled media outlet. The Fourth Estate became a fifth column long ago. We can't afford to wait for it to self-destruct. We have to finish it off ourselves.

- JP