"I think G. Gordon Liddy did the sound tonight," Woodward quipped by way of opening. Oh, Bob. Crazy Bob. There was nothing wrong with the microphones, and certainly no clicky wiretap noises. Let's just assume he opens every one of his book tour stops that way. Anyway, he continued by talking about State of Denial's main themes, and the Bush administration in general. Donald Rumsfeld bore the brunt of Woodward's abuse, although it was still kinda mild. Because if those Larry King apperances have taught us anything, it's that Bob Woodward is more concerned with the sound of his own voice than with political posturing. Although now he seems to be acknowledging that the days of getting inside access to the administration have probably ended, after three books of increasingly strong criticism. So the tone is sharpening a bit. And the man is a shrewd book salesman: he'd offer some anecdotes, but always, always point out that the book had more. He made some publicist at Simon & Schuster very happy. His points, however, were pretty interesting. For example, I didn't know that former Chief of Staff Andy Card had a "hit by a bus" list of possible replacements for various high-level positions, or that the replacement list for Rumsfeld had ten people on it--including Joe Lieberman. Lieberman? Lieberman?! Who would want to be sent into battle by a whiny senator from Connecticut? He can't even get all of Connecticut's Democrats behind him, but effectively marshalling the armed forces? No problem.
For once, the audience Q&A was the best part of the evening. The crowd, as you might have guessed, was pretty liberal. That made it all the funnier that the setting was the First Parish Church in Cambridge, with the effect that Woodward was preaching anti-Bush sentiments to godless blue heathens. Anyway, people lined up to ask questions. Here are some approximations of what was said (re-enacted for your pleasure):Audience guy: In your last few books, some say you perfected the art of the reach-around in order to get access to the Bush administration. How do you sleep at night?
Woodward: Did you read my previous books?
Audience guy: Well, no.
Woodward: You're dismissed.
Audience chick: Thank you for all of your wonderful journalism.
Woodward: Thanks. Is there a question in there?
Audience chick: Uh, yeah. Is Bush the stupidest person who ever lived, or just run-of-the-mill retarded?
[Editrix's note: about six different questions were variations on the stupidity issue.]
Audience guy: Records have shown that two years ago, Karl Rove and Jack Abramoff attended an NCAA game. Basketball, I believe. Karl had the nachos. Anyway, Abramoff was later found to be corrupt. White House transcripts....[talks for five more minutes without getting anywhere]
Woodward: There's a one-minute limit on the questions. Is there a point to this?
Audience guy: ...Abramoff...White House...Abramoff...[insert "adult talking" noise from Charlie Brown TV specials]
Woodward: I'm sorry, if you don't bring this to a question, I'm going to have to move on.
Audience guy: But Abramoff....
Woodward: You're done.
[obnoxious guy stomps down the aisle and out of the church]
But somewhere in the audience members' grandstanding, Woodward had some entertaining responses, and anecdotes about the war. I don't remember many of them specifically, but he did apologize for the media's lack of balls on the pre-war issues and the lack of follow-through that would have exposed the WMD/lying issues sooner. So, you know, there's that, even though none of us will get our three years back.
I am, however, disappointed at the overall lack of Carl Bernstein gossip. Nora Ephron totally had Woodward beat on that count.
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