SMU Faculty Members Oppose Bush Library

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Fri Jan 12, 2007 at 06:53:35 PM EST
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How embarrassing for the President.

Negotiations to build George W. Bush's presidential library at Southern Methodist University have divided the campus, pitting the administration and some alumni against liberal-leaning faculty members who say the project would be an embarrassment to the school.

Some professors have complained that the combined library, museum and think tank would celebrate a presidency that unnecessarily took the country into a war.

This is quite a slap at the Bushes:

First lady Laura Bush is a graduate and is on the board of trustees. Vice President Dick Cheney previously served on the board. Presidential adviser Karen Hughes and former White House counsel Harriet Miers are both graduates.

However the school expects the library to go through claiming the protesting profs are in the minority.

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SMU Faculty Members Oppose Bush Library | 30 comments (30 topical)

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Didn't Bush go to Yale? (5.00 / 1) (#15)
by Repack Rider on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 05:32:05 PM EST

And grow up in Connecticut?

Why isn't his "library" THERE instead of at his WIFE's alma mater?

SMU a logical choice (4.00 / 1) (#16)
by rwb on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 07:32:48 PM EST

Look, a Bush Library is going to be built somewhere, and no matter where, some people are going to be angered by it. The plan for Bush's library is pharaonic and grandiose, hilariously out of proportion with the actual achievements of his administration. In order to build it, SMU (a private university in a densely packed part of Dallas) is the local government to use eminent domain to acquire some condos from owners who have no desire to sell and move. Anyone who opposed Kelo should be outraged. There is a LOT of opposition to the library, and not just from professors.

That said, SMU seems perfect for it. It is a school with a reputation for educating the less-than-brilliant offspring of the Republican elite in Texas, it is perhaps the preppiest school in the state, and it is best known for being the only school ever to receive the "death penalty" from the NCAA--their football program was suspended for the 1987 season after years of cheating. SOunds like Bush country to me.

Library (1.00 / 2) (#1)
by Fredo on Fri Jan 12, 2007 at 09:11:32 PM EST

It isn't really "embarrassing" for Mr. Bush at all. In the modern era one can always count on university professors to be extreme leftist in their political orientation, utterly graceless and downright rude personally, and doomed to drive around in jerkwater towns in their VW bugs. No one pays much attention to them.

I agree! (5.00 / 2) (#5)
by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 12:50:44 AM EST

We need to get far, far away from those commie dupe professors. Since when are they getting paid to think, anyway?

So please join me Fredo, in suggesting that the Bush "libary" be built in Guantanamo, Cuba where the permitted dissent from our royal uber-leader is not so rife (and the construction shall be another no-bid Halliburton job, of course).


Sounds (none / 0) (#7)
by Wile ECoyote on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 06:12:14 AM EST

good to me. When castro croaks, it could be thrown open to the citizens and then they would have access to actual non-gov't approved books! They could even think for themselves!


I was thinking.... (5.00 / 1) (#9)
by kdog on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 09:01:15 AM EST

Bush should put his library smack dab in the middle of greatest achievement....downtown Baghdad.


: I thought (5.00 / 1) (#18)
by Edger on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 07:36:24 PM EST

Gunatanamo Bay might be appropriate.

Citizens of what? (none / 0) (#20)
by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 12:45:37 AM EST

FYI...Citizens of the U.S. aren't even allowed to visit Cuba, under threat of imprisonment.


A Bush Library is an oxymoron (none / 0) (#2)
by LimaBN on Fri Jan 12, 2007 at 09:13:00 PM EST

We are talking about an arrogant dimwit who does not - and cannot - read.

His "library" will be like the one Franklin Graham is building in North Carolina as a future profit center and commercialized gravesite for his (still living) parents: one with no books.

His father was turned into a cheerleader for WW2
when it turned out he did not have the courage required to give his crewmembers a chance to get out of the plane he was piloting. After that, no one would fly with him. Since the Navy had already made him a hero for being the youngest naval aviator, they did not want the negative public relations fiasco involved in declaring him a coward - so they gave him a medal so he could be a cheerleader for the war bond rallies needed to finance the war.

Junior couldn't take the heat when people started giving him the same kind of dirty and painful play he was dishing out in rugby at Yale - so he became into a cheerleader, too. Turned out he was pretty good at it.

But then Karl Rove gave him the keys and the clipboard, and made him the coach.

Not a great period in our nation's history.

Clinton's Library (none / 0) (#3)
by LibraryLady on Fri Jan 12, 2007 at 09:34:46 PM EST

I hate to disappoint you but I work for the State of Arkansas and there were NUMEROUS objections to Bill Clinton's library. So many that a Counter Clinton library was opened.

I think there are admirers and detractors of most public figures; it comes with the territory.

: Good point (none / 0) (#28)
by Slado on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 09:32:04 AM EST

I visited the library and enjoyed myself one year ago. As I walked in there was a small gathering of men protesting the library and the Clinton legacy.
This was 6 years after he was president. I was also amused to learn that the library is dubbed "The big double wide" because if you've been there it does look like one.
Point being that no president from now on is going to have a library built without some sort of political protest from extremes on either side and to single out the Bush library as some sort of example shows that the partisanship shows no sign of stopping.

Oddly,,, (none / 0) (#4)
by jarober on Fri Jan 12, 2007 at 11:25:07 PM EST

TL hasn't commented on the resignations from the Carter Center - a bit more embarrassing, IMHO

Let's see... (5.00 / 2) (#6)
by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 01:00:43 AM EST

Carter gets chastised for not toeing the Zionist line, while Bush gets chastised for being an idiot and a war criminal. I think the latter is a bit more embarassing, IMHO.


Yes (1.00 / 1) (#11)
by roger on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 12:47:24 PM EST

it is plain to see that this story is all about the jews.

W cant read- it's the Jews! Carter loses his marbles and praises suicide bombers- it's...

The jews


I guess Jimmy Carter is a Neo-nazi (none / 0) (#21)
by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 12:46:55 AM EST

Who knew?


W (none / 0) (#22)
by roger on Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 07:24:07 AM EST

Just promised 86 million dollars in ARMS to the Palestinians. Maybe you can explain why they would do that. They promise not to use them on us, or on Israel.

As to Carter being a Nazi, that may be your theory, but Dershowitz figures that Jimmy was just bought by SA.


: Just "bidness" as usual (none / 0) (#26)
by aw on Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 11:19:29 AM EST

"Eighty-six million is the figure we're looking at with Congress, that's our starting point," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
He said the aid would be "non-lethal assistance" including communications gear, vehicles and uniforms as well as training.
...
Last month, Egypt, with Israel's consent, sent a large quantity of automatic weapons and ammunition to Abbas loyalist forces and Washington has been pressing the Jewish state to allow a Jordan-based Palestinian militia linked to Fatah deploy in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas stronghold.
PS: I'm with Jimmy. We should be talking about the misery of the Palestinian people. The constant conflict hasn't made Israel more secure.

Board Members (none / 0) (#23)
by jimakaPPJ on Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 08:56:53 AM EST

Evidently the board members in this letter.


: OFF TOPIC TROLL POST (none / 0) (#30)
by Sailor on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 11:42:52 AM EST

Bush's Library (none / 0) (#8)
by MarkAtl on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 08:31:10 AM EST

I can see it now- shelves stacked with copies of My Pet Goat.

: My pet goat (none / 0) (#12)
by roger on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 12:48:04 PM EST

And all of his coloring books too!

You can bet there'll be no mention of the... (none / 0) (#13)
by Bill Arnett on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 02:46:54 PM EST

...bush lie-berry in the college's recruitment brochures.

What a shame that a fine university will be so disgraced and subjected to ridicule and humiliation.

But that's our "Decider" for you, no intelligence, no class, no sense of history, no dignity, and one who will lie his way into/out of anything.

Maybe he'll use the Army Corp of Engineers to build it with the same proficiency and expertise they displayed in NOLA.

: They build nice (none / 0) (#14)
by Wile ECoyote on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:15:29 PM EST

Hopefully, funds would not be diverted to statue maintenance, etc.

correction (none / 0) (#17)
by rwb on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 07:34:55 PM EST

SMU is using local government...

Why at a University at all? (none / 0) (#19)
by Rich on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 11:43:54 PM EST

There's no need to have a presidential library at a university, esp. if the library is tied in with some sort of "think tank" endeavor. The Carter Center/Carter Presidential Library is a better model. It's next to a parkway that Carter rammed down the throats of intown Atlantans---I could see Bush appreciating that anti-democratic spirit. Beyond that, a university should be wary of being associated with a partisan agenda.

The JFK, Nixon, and Reagan libraries are all separate from universities. gGanted Nixon was disgraced, but JFK was a martyr---still no university connection. The Reagan library is a hoot---there's a section dedicated to Nancy's pathetic movie career and you really realize how little he accomplished, beyond cutting taxes for rich people, pursuing sleazy foreign policy, and appointing wingnut judges (and that was enough).

LBJ and Bush Sr are the only libraries tied to a university, that I know of, although there may be others. The faculty should oppose this. The best place for a Bush library would be his faux ranch; the symbolism would be rich and he could put on brush clearing demos for tourists.

Other options.. (none / 0) (#24)
by jondee on Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 09:33:14 AM EST

The logical place would be Bob Jones U. They could put Bush's Jack 'n Jills next to the collected works of Hiram Evans.

On the bright side.. (none / 0) (#25)
by jondee on Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 09:35:27 AM EST

Roger take heart; you've still got more Nobels than the Arabs and schwarzers combined.

: Jondee (none / 0) (#27)
by roger on Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 01:09:39 PM EST

You could advocate building homes and schools. You could advocate policies that help Palestinians instead of using them as cannon fodder for the interests of other countries.
Or you can throw racial slurs......

Roger (none / 0) (#29)
by jondee on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 09:54:08 AM EST

That whole thread I referenced was one big racial slur that you had no problem with.

Understandable paranoia is still paranoia.

The rest of your point is very well made and taken.

Presidential Library (none / 0) (#31)
by agjobs on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 02:50:45 PM EST

Bush 41's library at A&M was actually built on the Swine research farm. Thus ending one of the best swine nutrition programs in the country. Seems fitting in a way even though I disagreed with 41 on a lot of things I did respect him. Can't say the same for 43. SMU is not exactly a bastion of liberal thought. Let him put it there, they deserve it. Texas got rid of this guy by sending him to DC, I say it is about time to send him back.