Obliviously On He Sails: The Bush Administration in RhymeBONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Calvin Trillin's Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin. Does the Bush Administration sound any better in rhyme? In this biting array of verse, it at least sounds funnier. Calvin Trillin employs everything from a Gilbert and Sullivan style, for describing George Bush’s rescue in the South Carolina primary by the Christian Right (“I am, when all is said and done, a Robertson Republican”), to a bilingual approach, when commenting on the President’s casual acknowledgment, after months of trying to persuade the nation otherwise, that there was never any evidence of Iraqi involvement in 9/11: “The Web may say, or maybe Lexis-Nexis / If chutzpa is a word they use in Texas.” Trillin deals not only with George W. Bush but with the people around him—Supreme Commander Karl Rove and Condoleezza (Mushroom Cloud) Rice and Nanny Dick Cheney (“One mystery I’ve tried to disentangle: / Why Cheney’s head is always at an angle . . .”) The armchair warriors Trillin refers to as the Sissy Hawk Brigade are celebrated in such poems as “Richard Perle: Whose Fault Is He?” and “A Sissy Hawk Cheer” (“All-out war is still our druthers— / Fiercely fought, and fought by others.”). Trillin may never be poet laureate—certainly not while George W. Bush is in office—but his wit and his political insight produce what has been called “doggerel for the ages.” |
Contents
Jesus and Mammon Team Up to See George W Bush Through the Primaries | 9 |
The JesusMammon Team Triumphs Thanks to a LastMinute FivePointer by the Supreme Court | 23 |
The Supporting Cast Enters from Stage Right | 29 |
Big Shots on Crime Spree Billions Looted Few Arrests Made | 41 |
Lobbyists Heiresses and Others in Need of Compassion | 49 |
Just Invade Something | 59 |
Assorted Irrelevant Countries | 67 |
The Charge of the Sissy Hawk Brigade | 77 |
The Crooked Path to War | 85 |
Where Have All the Weapons Gone? | 97 |
Republican Nation Building | 107 |
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Common terms and phrases
abortion Al Gore American APRIL baby killing blame in hordes bomb BUSH ADMINISTRATION Bush is dumb Bush says Bush thinks Putin Bush's college CALVIN TRILLIN campaign Cheney's Colin Powell corporate counting my heart DECEMBER Demon in Chief DICK CHENEY everybody's fault Falwell folks Forbes fox who guarded French are right gathering threat George H. W. George H. W. Bush George W glub Gore guarded the henhouse Harvey Pitt heave invade Iraq Iraqi Jesus John Ashcroft John McCain KARL ROVE Kenneth Lay Kenny Boy kids Kim Jong lads last remaining superpower lobbyists MARCH MASS DESTRUCTION NOVEMBER OCTOBER oh ti-ay okay onetime lapdog's Osama bin Laden Perle's President Putin thinks Reed Richard Perle Robertson Republican Rocco Guntermann Saddam Hussein safe from Saddam Saudis Sissy HAWK BRIGADE sort Sung There's clanging thinks that Bush tra-la Vietnam WEAPONS OF MASS White House who'd who's Yippee i oh