In his new tell-all book, Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor, former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer talks about how the former President determined who would receive a a Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civil award. According to Latimer, Bush completely politicized the revered award during his administration.
Latimer writes that administration officials objected to giving author J.K. Rowling the Presidential Medal of Freedom because her writing “encouraged witchcraft” (p. 201):
This was the same sort of narrow thinking that led people in the White House to actually object to giving the author J.K. Rowling a presidential medal because the Harry Potter books encouraged witchcraft.
The article in Think Progress goes on to tell how Bush stayed away from awarding the medal to such liberal politicians as Teddy Kennedy.
The book is published by Random House.
Medal award
I’m betting that award was always politicized.