Slate reporter Timothy Noah opines that "the note may have been sent out in response to a very specific threat to Bones' presidential candidate [Bush].... The movie is obviously a takedown of Skull & Bones.... For the Bush camp, the fact that Hollywood is making an establishment-conspiracy movie about Skull & Bones (many of whose members, Bush père included, have ended up working for one of Hollywood's favorite whipping boys, the CIA) is bad enough. But check out the trailer, which includes a scene in which initiates get branded." Although Skull and Bones' members are sworn to absolute secrecy, there have never been rumors of branding within that hallowed institution.

However, Bush watchers "have heard about branding in connection with George W.'s youthful exploits in another Yale organization, the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Deke's branding rituals were attacked by the Yale Daily News ("a degrading, sadistic and obscene process") and then became the subject of a story in the New York Times that quoted Yale senior and past Deke president George W. Bush as likening the branding to "a cigarette burn." [We recall that Bush told the reporter that in tuff Texas fraternity initiates are treated to electric cattle prods.] Surely this conflation of Bones rituals and Deke rituals constitutes a deliberate attack on George W."

Noah is amused that the movie takes a Bush fraternity misadventure and brands it as part "of the Bones conspiracy, because, as Nicholas Lemann, who profiled George W. recently in The New Yorker, points out, George W. is "much more of a Deke than a Bonesman." Indeed, in First Son, Bill Minutaglio's biography of George W., the author suggests that George W.'s membership in Skull & Bones was yet another case of the hapless and reluctant son doing daddy's bidding."

That being the case, Junior and Poppy will be absolutely livid if they get around to reading the plot synopsis at the film's web site, which includes the following: "In addition, each initiate is assigned a "soulmate." For Luke it's Caleb Mandrake [That would be Bush. A mandrake is a plant. Get it? Plant, Bush?] a handsome and charismatic fifth generation Skull. Caleb and Luke become fast friends, each finding admirable qualities in the other. For Caleb, Luke possesses everything he lacks-self-reliance, ambition and drive. And in Caleb, Luke has a clear view of everything he aspires to-wealth, sophistication and prestige. Caleb's father Litten Mandrake (Craig T. Nelson) is a prominent judge, and one of the highest members on The Skulls council. As a Skull initiate, Luke is invited to be a part of the Mandrake family's holiday gatherings, creating a stronger bond between him and his soulmate. But behind the Mandrake family facade there is unease. In private, Judge Mandrake treats his son harshly, disappointed in his lack of ambition and pride in his lineage. Caleb finds his father's disapproval unbearable, though he does his best to conceal it." --Politex, 2/24/00

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