All The Presidents' Pets

Book #11 of my '06 list was Mo Rocca's All The Presidents' Pets: The Story of One Reporter Who Refused To Roll Over.

Mo Rocca is a funny man. His book on the other hand...not so much. Since we're talking politics here I'll break it down as a simple litmus test for you. If the idea of Senior White House Correspondent Helen Thomas actually being a centuries-old turkey buzzard in disguise makes you fall out of your chair laughing then get thee to the library. Still here? You may just want to pass on this one.

The basic storyline of the book mixes a little bit of fact with a whole lotta fiction to concoct a tale of how the Presidents' pets have really controlled much of our country's history (and no joke, Helen Thomas the turkey buzzard really is the central character). Rocca clearly knows an awful lot about Presedential pets, but by blending fact and fiction he makes it difficult to know when he's dropping knowledge and when he's just talking out his a%$. The book is supposed to be a bit of a spoof on The Da Vinci Code (which I haven't read), so admittedly it's entirely possible that this blending is deliberate and hilarious and I just didn't get it.

Although it didn't work well as a book for me, there were definitely some funny parts. Pretty much every scene with Condi Rice is hilarious. There are also some great one liners like Bush proclaiming “All those times I heard that voice, I thought it was Jesus talkin’ to me” when he finds out his dog Barney can speak....er, make that talk.

A longer review by the Washingtonian is available here.

# of official Barney press conferences = 1
# of official G.W. press conferences = 0