Alex Massie Alex Massie

For Gerson is an honourable man, yes?

I must say I haven’t enjoyed a hatchet job as much as this one in, well, far too long. It is deliciously, extravagantly spiteful. I have no idea  – and frankly care not – if Matthew Scully’s hilarious assault on the reputation, person and character of Bush speechwriter Mike Gerson is at all accurate. It doesn’t matter a jot. The piece, published by The Atlantic (who seem to be on a roll right now), is so unexpectedly and refreshingly vindictive that I’m almost surprised it was published.

A taster:

Without fear of contradiction—because it’s all in the presidential records—I can report here that Michael Gerson never wrote a single speech by himself for President Bush. From beginning to end, every notable speech, and a huge proportion of the rest, was written by a team of speechwriters, working in the same office and on the same computer.

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