SHRUB: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush.

• Author: MacPherson, Myra
• Position: Review

SHRUB: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush

By Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose Random House, $19.95

The record is slim

EVERY NIGHT GEORGE W. BUSH SHOULD get down on his knees and thank the Lord that his father was born before he was. That is the inevitable conclusion of Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose. Before big business and Bush found each other, the governor himself admitted that he was "all name and no money."

All his adult life, Bush has been an influence peddler--trading on his father's name. In quid pro quo fashion, Bush the younger found rich family friends or those seeking political access who were eager to find him a berth in that lily-white bastion for Vietnam draft avoiders, the National Guard, subsidize his baseball team, bail out his failing oil businesses, and drop fat checks into his political coffers.

Recounting Bush's flops and bail outs--most of the oil money was raised during the time his father was running for president or was vice president--Ivins writes, "As predictably as the hero would pull the damsel off the railroad tracks in The Perils of Pauline, another investor showed up to save Dubya's ass." As one hapless investor said, "He knew everybody in the United States who was worth knowing."

Since Shrub was written by Molly Ivins, the wise and witty political columnist, it is often very funny but she and her co-author Lou Dubose have backed up the barbs with research and citations to investigative articles by other members of the media.

Writes Ivins about George W: "He owes his political life to big corporate money: He's a CEO's wet dream. He carries their water ... George W. Bush is a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America...." You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to figure out that most of his time as governor was spent greasing the way for big business, or "bidness," Ivins' phrase that gets her in trouble with eastern establishment critics. But her ear is always correct: Texans do say "bidness" and they also pronounce Bush the Younger's middle initial as "Dubya," her frequent sobriquet.

An Oily Past

Shrub is a prescient primer for followers of his presidential campaign. This goes not only for interested voters but for the establishment media, many of whom mindlessly fawned over him. The book demonstrates that Bush paid scant attention to the nuts and bolts process of governing, never was averse to bragging and taking the reward for the achievements of others, and never was a stranger to below-the-belt distortions in...