Fact or fiction? Kelley's tell-all on Bush family draws attentionPage 2 of 2 -- Sharon Bush issued a statement this week, through her lawyer, saying, "I categorically deny that I ever told Kitty Kelley that George W. Bush used cocaine at Camp David or that I ever saw him use cocaine at Camp David. . . . I cannot allow this falsehood to go unchallenged." Doubleday replied with its own statement naming the time and the place of Kelley's lunch interview with Bush, citing a second interview in the presence of Kelley's editor, Peter Gethers, adding that the publisher "believes that everything [Kelley] attributes to Sharon Bush . . . is an accurate account of their discussions." A third party present at the lunch, Lou Colasuonno, told the Times that "I do not dispute" Kelley's account of the conversation. Kelley did not tape-record the conversation.
The argument over what Sharon Bush said overlooks the question of whether the allegation is true. Asked yesterday whether Sharon Bush had said she had witnessed George W. Bush snorting cocaine, Kelley said, "No. It was me who brought it up. I already had the story, but not on the record." Asked whether someone else had told her of witnessing the cocaine-snorting, she said "yes." But she would not say who. "The lawyers have the name," she said. Asked why she doesn't mention or identify the other source in the book, Kelley said: "To protect him." Of course, anonymity also protects him from other reporters. Kelley apparently regards Sharon Bush's hearsay remark -- if she made it -- as sufficient corroboration. She also seems to take the view that the Bush family is obligated to disprove her statements. "I have challenged the family to step forward and discredit the book," she said. Kelley also cites the involvement of lawyers as a kind of corroboration. "This went through four sets of lawyers," she said.
Controversy no stranger Her books are known for startling allegations, often hotly denied by the principals, such as the 1991 suggestion in "Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography" the former first lady had had an affair with singer Frank Sinatra and had abused her daughter with a hair brush. Kelley wrote that actress Elizabeth Taylor, while married, had an abortion after becoming pregnant by Sinatra. Kelley's book about the royal family said the queen mother had had her children by artificial insemination and suggested that Prince Edward, brother of Prince Charles, is gay. There have been lawsuits against Kelley, including one by Sinatra that tried to halt publication of her 1986 book about the singer, and another by Sinatra's lawyer, cited as a source in the Reagan book. None have succeeded. There was even a book that gave her the Kelley treatment, the 1991 "Poison Pen: The Unauthorized Biography of Kitty Kelley" by George Carpozi Jr. Whether denied or not, Kelley's allegations are often unconfirmed by other writers, or by mainstream journalists, perhaps because she relies so heavily on unnamed sources, isn't shy about using hearsay, and apparently doesn't always take account of reporting that undercuts her thesis. In a typical example from the Bush book, Kelley writes that Colonel Bill Burkett, a Texas National Guard officer, "is said to have been present during a speakerphone call" in 1997 between an official with then-Governor George W. Bush's office and another Texas Guard officer. "Burkett said he overheard" the official tell the officer to "make sure there were no embarrassments" in the governor's Guard record. The two officials denied the conversation, Kelley concedes, but she cites another former Guard officer who expresses belief in Burkett's veracity. She doesn't list Burkett as an interviewee. Burkett had made the charge, and others like it, over several years. However, his credibility has been challenged, and his statement about the overheard phone call was contradicted by other witnesses, including one interviewed and quoted by Globe reporter Michael Rezendes in a Feb. 13, 2004, story. Despite the timing of the book, Kelley denies any political agenda, and insists she has the highest standards of truth and accuracy. "It would be morally reprehensible not to tell the truth," she said. "I am trying to do the best, most far-reaching biography I can do. Everything I have written has stood the test of time. I follow what John F. Kennedy said, that the enemy of truth is not the lie, but the persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic myth."
David Mehegan can be reached at mehegan@globe.com. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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