President Bush’s Celebrity Fragrance

President George W. Bush has a celebrity fragrance in the works.

No, I’m not kidding.  Apparently, he’s having some trouble raising funds for a memorial library, so he’s jumping on the Paris/Gwen/Diddy bandwagon, hoping to make his fortune in fragrance.  The President in the perfume industry?  Why not? It seems that everybody has their own scent-, clothing-, liquor line these days. 

DALLAS, Tex. (CAP) - While ex-presidents in eras past have all faced the daunting challenge of trying to raise large amounts of cash to fund their presidential libraries, the current and soon-to-be-ex Commander-in-Chief has been finding it particularly difficult to do so.

Part of this has been his approval ratings, part of it the economy, both of which have been in the toilet the past few months. Short of an executive library bailout, what’s a W to do to raise cash in these troubled times?

“It’s like the smell of a brush-clearing cowboy, in the rain,” President Bush quipped at the $1000-a-plate dinner thrown to launch his signature scent, W. “Kind of a steely determinatory thing, with a smoky undercurrent.

“Long after I leave Washington, you’ll still be smelling me, that’s for sure,” Bush told the gathered dignitaries before whistling for the chili course to be served.

While W signals the first time that a president has launched his own fragrance line, it is not the first time that unconventional fundraising has been used to raise money for post-office memorials such as libraries and foundations.

…Profits from W, which goes on sale later this month, are expected to raise nearly half of the $1.2 million that Bush’s Southern Methodist University library will cost. Advance orders for W can be placed through the Southern Methodist University website at http://www.smu.edu.