<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/29/arts/29KAKU.html?pagewanted=print&position=>
BOOKS OF THE TIMES | 'THE BUSHES'
The Bush Family: Father, Son, Freud and Oedipus By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
THE BUSHES Portrait of a Dynasty By Peter Schweizer and Rochelle Schweizer Illustrated. 574 pages. Doubleday. $27.95.
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In their fascinating new book, "The Bushes," Peter and Rochelle Schweizer depict former President George H. W. Bush as being proud but somewhat baffled by his son George W.'s rise to power. "You remember when your kid came home with two A's - and you thought she was going to fail," they quote him saying. "That's exactly what it's like."
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In writing this book, Peter Schweizer, a fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of a hagiographic book about Ronald Reagan and the cold war, and his wife, Rochelle Schweizer, a writer and media consultant, talked with members of three generations of the Bush family, including former President Bush and Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, as well as many family friends.
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Members of the usually media-wary Bush family seem surprisingly unguarded in talking to the authors, and some of their remarks could well disconcert a White House in campaign mode or ratify opponents' worst fears. For instance the Schweizers quote one unnamed relative as saying that George W. Bush sees the war on terrorism "as a religious war": "He doesn't have a p.c. view of this war. His view of this is that they are trying to kill the Christians. And we the Christians will strike back with more force and more ferocity than they will ever know."
The Schweizers write that with the war on terrorism, family members saw "the Walker genes literally coming out in him," referring to the Walker side of his family - "aggressive risk-takers who wanted to win at all costs." They describe what they call George W.'s "addictive personality," which "required him to fix in on something and maintain a hold on it." And they quote a relative who says: "With terrorism, he's like a dog with a bone. He won't give up on it."
For that matter, the authors argue that the post-9/11 demands of office were a perfect match with George W.'s personality: "Because of his addictive personality, it was the sort of presidency that suited him well. Unencumbered by domestic issues, with their detail and ambiguity, he was now free to speak naturally in a way that reflected the way he viewed the world: black and white, good and evil. Life had been for him a struggle to conquer those things that had a bad hold on him; the struggle between good and evil was something that he had experienced in his own life."
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