In the sequel to his 2004 bestseller, “Obliviously On He Sails,” Calvin Trillin continues to take on the Bush administration in “Heckuva Job: More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme.” The best-selling writer became the deadline poet for the weekly journal, The Nation, in 1990 and has also written verse on the events of the day for the New Yorker, the New York Times and National Public Radio. He has said that he believes in an inclusive political system that prohibits from public office only those whose names have awkward meter or are difficult to rhyme. Trillin was invited on “Today” to talk about his latest collection of verse. Read an excerpt:

“Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job!”
From the moment President George W. Bush uttered that phrase — to Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency — we knew that it would be attached to his presidency forever...


A qualified guy, I wish I had added.
Your resume's super, even if padded.
We wanted the best to lead FEMA's forces,
And who would know more than a man who knows horses?
You saw that the storm was more than some showers,
And sent off a memo in four or five hours.
You found out that life in the Dome was not Super —

And only a day after Anderson Cooper.
A heckuva job! You know how to lead'em.
We hope to award you the Medal of Freedom.
— October 3. 2005

NBC VIDEO Calvin Trillin on 'A Heckuva Job' June 20: The "Today" show's Campbell Brown talks with the best-selling author about his new book of verse that comments on the Bush administration. Today Show Books

I can't appear without my nanny Dick
(George W. Bush explains the interview arrangements
he has made with the 9/11 commission)

When called upon to testify,
I said I was a busy guy
So maybe we could do it on the phone.
They really want a face-to-face.
I said, OK, if that's the case,
I'm certainly not doing it alone.

I can't appear without my Nanny Dick.
For Nanny Dick I've got a serious jones.
I can't appear without my Nanny Dick.
I love the way he cocks his head and drones.

Cartoonists show me as a dummy,*
With voice by Cheney (or by Rummy).
I am the butt of every late-night satirist.
But I just can't go solitaire.

I need the help that's due an heir.
I need a dad, and Dad's a multilateralist.
I can't appear without my Nanny Dick.
He brings along a gravitas I lack.

I can't appear without my Nanny Dick —
The one who knows why we attacked Iraq.
Yes, Condi Rice is quite precise
With foreign policy advice

On who's Afghani and who's Pakistani.
I like to have her near in case
I just can't place some foreign face,
But Condoleezza Rice is not my nanny.

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.

— April 26, 2004

The only time George W. Bush seemed reluctant to talk about 9/11 was when he was asked to appear before the 9/11 Commission. Otherwise, he mentioned it constantly, usually just before mentioning the importance of taking our fight against terrorism to Iraq. Considering his attempt to make his case by what rhetoricians might call relentless juxtaposition, George W. Bush may someday be referred to by historians as the Great Conflater.

At the 9/11 hearings, the President's team seemed like unnaturally shy actors pulled onstage for a curtain call. Orange John Ashcroft was there, denying that in the pre-9/11 period he'd told the FBI that he didn't want to be bothered with any more reports about terrorism threats. Mushroom Cloud Rice appeared, insisting that there was no "silver bullet" that might have prevented the attack. She seemed reluctant to reveal the title of the daily intelligence briefing delivered to the President at his Crawford ranch one morning in August 2001, before the full day of brush cutting and mountain biking and general summer fun began. The title was, she finally acknowledged, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack in the United States."

Excerpted from “A Heckuva Job” by Calvin Trillin Copyright © 2006 by Calvin Trillin. Excerpted by permission of Random House, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/

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