White House Smear Campaign Just Intended to Sell Books From USA Today (and occasional false testament) Anti-Bush books continue to sell NEW YORK (AP) — Newsmaking allegations, White House rebuttals and a ready audience for anti-Bush books have helped make Richard A. Clarke's Against All Enemies a big best seller, publishing officials say. Against All Enemies, released Monday, had an announced first printing of 300,000 copies and an additional 100,000 already have been ordered, according to the Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. *** Wietrak says the White House criticisms have only helped the book. Against All Enemies was ranked No. 1 on Amazon.com's list of best sellers as of Tuesday afternoon and has raised sales for other works attacking Bush, including Kevin Phillips' American Dynasty and Ron Suskind's The Price of Loyalty, a collaboration with former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. Anti-Bush books have been popular since last fall, when liberal pundits Al Franken, Joe Conason and Molly Ivins were among those with best sellers. Now the best sellers are being written by historians such as Phillips and former Bush officials such as Clarke. "You needed to have enough time go by so these more substantial books could have been written. The O'Neill and Clarke books could not have been written any sooner," says Neil Nyren, publisher and editor-in-chief of Putnam, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), which published Franken last fall and the Phillips book this winter. (ME: Hear that Spanky McSpokesman? -- could not have been written any SOONER -- now, go off and play with Buckwheat and Alfalfa and we'll see you latter) "Conservative books still sell, but liberals are in the same place where conservatives were during the Clinton administration. They're not in power and they have extremely strong feelings about Bush." Books unfavorable to Bush will continue coming out, including Worse Than Watergate, by John W. Dean, a former aide to President Nixon, and The Politics of Truth, by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who has criticized the White House's uses of intelligence before the Iraq war. This fall, a book on the Bush family is due from Kitty Kelley, known for her gossipy best sellers about Nancy Reagan and Frank Sinatra. Former President Clinton's autobiography is also expected some time this year. "For the past three years, current events and political science books have had double digit increases at our stores," Wietrak says. "People since the 2000 election, from both sides, have been preparing for this 2004 election. There hasn't been a lull." *********** I wonder what a collection of Condeleeza Rice's transcripted Non-apology and smack-down from Tom Brokaw last night would run for?