Press Gone Wild

This is gonna get nasty. From a chat discussion with WaPo White House Briefing writer Dan Froomkin:

Damascus, Md.: Good afternoon!

Since the Bush Twins let themselves be featured for that a puff piece in Vogue that was reviewed in today’s Style section, will the press allow themselves to actually report on the girls’ doings and missteps now? I have heard persistent rumors about their drug use and their mistreatment of their Secret Service details, but little of that makes it into either the tabloid or the mainstream press.

Are there ‘Girls Gone Wild’ pictures out there?

Dan Froomkin: I think it’s, yeah, sort of open season now. Possibly presaged by that Sunday New York Times piece I linked to this morning. But I think we’ve already seen the Girls Gone Wild photos — remember that one of Jenna?

Now, I’ve read the Reuters story on the Vogue interview, and it seems, as the questioner says, to be a puff piece. Typical daughter(s)-of-famous-person stuff. But it also reveals that the Bush Twins aren’t going to be very political, with Jenna admitting, “I have opinions, but there’s nothing about the process that has ever interested me.” Barbara plans to go to Africa after the election to work with AIDS victims.

In other words, neither one sounds much like Kerenna Gore, who served as an advisor (and convention speaker) to her father during the 2000 race. Yet I don’t recall any “Girls Gone Wild” talk about Kerenna.

Now notice the way the questioner — and Froomkin himself — seems to be drooling over the prospect of putting the Bush girls through the wringer.

If Barbara and Jenna want to serve in some real sense in their father’s campaign, then by all means — let’s see what they’re made of. You can’t play the game without getting dirty.

But if they’re helping out Dad just to help out Dad, then let’s leave them alone.