Bookplanet: neocon novelists

From Toro:
George W. Bush has been called many things, but he's rarely described as a literary maven. Quite the reverse: The U.S. president has carefully cultivated the image of a non-intellectual everyman, someone whose untutored common sense makes him more reliable than eggheads who spend too much time in the library. Given his populist persona, Bush often seems ill at ease with simple literacy, let alone literature. Not surprisingly, when Slate magazine surveyed the political views of thirty-one leading novelists in the run-up to the last election, Bush garnered only four bookish endorsements.

Yet, despite the disdain of the literati and his own linguistic difficulties, Bush presides over an administration chock full of novelists, particularly among the neo-conservative faction surrounding vice-president Dick Cheney. Lynne Cheney, the vice-president's wife, has written three novels, as well as several children's books. Before becoming the vice-president's chief of staff, Lewis Libby made his literary debut with a historical romance set in early 20th-century Japan. And, Richard Perle, who has been a formidable advocate for an aggressive foreign policy as the erstwhile chairman of the Pentagonís Defense Policy Board (DPB), is the author of a Cold War thriller. At the DPB, Perle shares the table with Newt Gingrich, who also has a thriller to his credit, an alternative history novel set during World War II. When the Bush administration sought the Pope's blessing for the Iraq war, they sent over a special diplomatic delegation to the Vatican headed by Michael Novak, a prolific Catholic political philosopher and author of two autobiographical novels about his religious experiences.
Read on.