A Heckuva Job - More Of The Bush Administration In Rhyme

by Calvin Trillin

This edition contains an excerpt from Calvin Trillin's Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin .Somehow, despite everything Calvin Trillin wrote about the Bush Administration in Obliviously On He Sails, his 2004 bestseller in verse, George W. Bush is still in the White House. Taking a philosophical view, Trillin has said, “We weren’t going to know whether you could bring down a presidency with iambic pentameter until somebody tried it.”Now Trillin is trying again, back at his pithy and hilarious best to comment on the President’s decision to go to war in Iraq (“Then terrorists could count on what we’d / Attack us, we’ll strike back, though not at you”), his religiosity (“He treats his critics in the press / As if they’re yapping Pekineses. / Reporters deal in mundane facts; / This man has got the word from Jesus”), and whether he was wearing a transmitting device in the first presidential debate (“Could this explain his odd expressions? Is there proof he / Was being told, ‘If you can hear me now, look goofy’?”)Trillin deals with the people around Bush, such as Nanny Dick Cheney and Mushroom Cloud Rice and Orange John Ashcroft and Orange John’s successor, Alberto Gonzales (“The A.G.’s to be one Alberto Gonzales– / Dependable, actually loyal über alles”). He tries to predict the behavior of the famously intemperate John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations in poems with titles like “Bolton Chases French Ambassador Up Tree” and “White House Says Bolton Can Do Job Even While in Straitjacket.”Finally, in dealing with whether the entire Bush Administration, like the unfortunate Brownie, has done a heckuva job, he composes a small-government sea chantey for the ’Cause government’s the problem, lads,Americans would all do well to shun it.Yes, government’s the problem, lads.At least it is when we’re the ones who run it.

Genres: Poetry, Politics, Nonfiction, Humor, History

Hardcover

First published May 30, 2006

About the author

Calvin (Bud) Marshall Trillin is an American journalist, humorist, and novelist. He is best known for his humorous writings about food and eating, but he has also written much serious journalism, comic verse, and several books of fiction.

Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on to Yale University, where he served as chairman of the Yale Daily News and became a member of Scroll and Key before graduating in 1957; he later served as a trustee of the university. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he worked as a reporter for Time magazine before joining the staff of The New Yorker in 1963. His reporting for The New Yorker on the racial integration of the University of Georgia was published in his first book, An Education in Georgia. He wrote the magazine's "U.S. Journal" series from 1967 to 1982, covering local events both serious and quirky throughout the United States.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iraq is coming right along.
We're confident we'll win this war.
The way to honor lads we've lost
Is stick it out (and lose some more).

I thought maybe reading a book of poetry about the disastrous Bush administration might make me feel a little better about our current White House mess. I mean, we survived eight years of Dubya, our formerly stupidest president; surely we can muddle through however long it takes to get rid of Trump.

But, no. This book only served to depress me further.

I'd forgotten some of the shit that Bush did. I sort of forgot about how National Guard? Bush and Five Deferments Dick smeared the reputations of war veterans McCain and Kerry. The cronyism, the war crimes, the perjury, the "outing" of Valerie Plame, the blatant war profiteering . . . how quickly we forget. And, none of them were ever punished.

It doesn't give me much faith that anything will happen to Trump.



Back in 2006, not much escaped Trillan's critical gaze. You have to admire his ability to turn national disgrace after national embarrassment into pure poetry. He even wrote a rhyme about W.'s unwillingness to appear before the 911 commission without Cheney along to hold his hand:

I can't appear without my Nanny Dick.
I wouldn't know which facts I should convey.
I can't appear without my Nanny Dick.
It's Nanny Dick who tells me what to say.

It was a little surprising scary how some of these 10-year-old poems can be applied to our current day political climate:

For me, the news that really rocks
Confirms beliefs held by our flocks.
My mind remains quite closed, with locks.
So set the channel, please, to Fox.

And this little ditty about Republican's phony populism:

Our policies address the cares
Of heiresses and millionaires.
Our point of view reverberates
With folks who live behind high gates
And folks whose country clubs may lack
A single Jew, a single black.
We're backed by all the CEOs.
We waive the regs that bring them woes.
To comfort them is our intent.
Yes, though we always represent
The folks who sit in corporate boxes,
The gratifying paradox is ---
And this we love; it's just the neatest ---
The other party's called elitist.


Aside from an occasional New Yorker piece, Mr. Trillan seems to have retired from the rhyme business. I can't think he will stay silent for long. Just look at the rich fodder the current administration is providing.

Trump's antics in the White House
make me want to have a cow.
Where are you, Calvin Trillan?
We could really use you now.

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

OMG SO GLAD IT'S OVER. The administration, I mean, not the book.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not someone who would ordinarily pick up a book on politics, let alone political satire. But the cover is what got me. It has what had to be the goofiest caricature of George W. Bush I've ever seen so I had to read it.

I'll admit that I was laughing at a lot of the content. But not because it was funny. It was mostly out of embarrassment as the burns against the Bush Administration were BRUTAL. This author held back nothing and took shot after shot at the administration and all involved. While the man IS talented, he made no bones about the fact that he abhored the former President and anyone or anything associated with him or his Presidency.

[MsBrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was both hilarious and well written. Heck, it was also at least partially informative. Truly though, i could not stop laughing out loud. It's very hard to find clever political humor so I greatly appreciate Mr. Trillin's work.

Thank you Jon Stewart for featuring Calvin Trillin on your show!

Here's a quick excerpt on the republican administration's decision to invade Iraq right after 9/11:

"Then terrorists could count on what we’d do: / Attack us, we’ll strike back, though not at you"

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Calvin Trillin’s follow-up to “Obliviously on He Sails” is no less on target. His comments, rendered mainly in verse, about George W. Bush’s malapropisms, surly expressions, ineptitude and inability to communicate without serious backup are witty and sobering looks at our previous administration.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

If your politics are left of center, you'll find Trillin's light verse history of the Bush administration entertaining. You'll read about Five Deferments Dick, Heckuva Job Brownie and the rest of the Bush black-box comedy team. Mostly just some light reading (though it did remind me of a few scandals I had forgotten about.)

[Aloysius · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this on the tenth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, and although its been six years since this pack of poems was composed, its still as funny, sad, and convicting of the Bush administration's policies, especially the Iraq War, as it was on the day it was first published.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to my good friend, KB :)

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

811.54 More funny, derisive poems about George W. Bush.

[Michael Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ditto

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

cool idea botched by mediocre writing. maybe didn't deserve a 1, but i was pretty disappointed.

[Natalie]

Humorous rhyme that is politically relevant. Quite a small genre, but I think Calvin Trillin makes the most of it.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every rethuglican will hate this book for tearing down their president. The rest of us will laugh and count our blessings that we survived.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read. Beating up the Bush Administration in Rhyme. He is preaching to the choir. Enjoyable quick read. A good bathroom book

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF