t's looking like this will be Clinton-Gore week at the old "Thots" Command Centre. Just a few months left to scream, yell, and be frustrated by Bubba and his shenanigans. Soon, he'll be gone and we can forget that he ever ran this nation.

Yeah, right.

In the meantime, everyone's wondering who will replace the Shameless One. Based on some overlooked information, it's actually looking pretty good for the Texas governor right now. Yep, in fact, one could say that George W. Bush is the book-maker's favorite to be the next President of the United States. Or to rephrase it slightly: George W. Bush has to be the book-writer's favorite to be the next President of the United States. Conversely, the way things are going Al Gore looks like he's headed to the bookstore remainder bin — immediately bypassing the best-seller list along the way.

Why would we think that? Well, the joke goes that Bill Clinton has produced a lot of jobs over the last eight years, but most of them are independent prosecutors. There's a bit of truth to that, but the not-so-great secret about Clinton is that, odd as it may be, his level of mendacity is so broad (no pun intended) that, he, personally, has contributed to the economy. Clinton — while still in office — may have caused more books to be written than just about any other President with the possible exception of Richard Milhous Nixon.

Everything from "objective" biographies such as First In His Class by David Maraniss to "dark" studies such as Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's The Secret Life of Bill Clinton. There are jeremiads from the right (Boy Clinton by R. Emmett Tyrrell) and the left (No One Left To Lie To by Christopher Hitchens). There's Sleeping with the President: My Intimate Years With Bill Clinton, Gennifer Flowers's "he done did her wrong" tome cataloging Bill Clinton's years of tom-catting around and his efforts to cover them up. There's The Starr Report, Ken Starr's "he done did her wrong" tome cataloguing Bill Clinton's years of tom-catting around and...well, you get the idea. Remarkably, quite a few of the hundreds of "Clinton" books have hit the best-seller lists. The point is, Bill Clinton is more than just a politician: He is a cultural figure and cottage industry in and of himself. In a sense, he has produced a mini-economy all by himself.

And this economic ripple has extended to Hillary as well. The Case Against Hillary Clinton by Peggy Noonan has rapidly followed Barbara Olson's Hell To Pay onto the New York Times best-seller list. Add in Gail Sheehy's more psycho-sociological treatment, Hillary's Choice. The First Lady herself has gone Bill one better by actually producing a best-seller of her own — the infamous It Takes A Village. Bill's 1996 effort, Between Hope And History, was so forgettable, you would be excused if you forgot he even wrote it (which, of course, he didn't). Hillary and Bill are such polarizing figures — individuals whom many Americans believe have been given a free pass by the mainstream over the years — that they are natural targets for would-be truth-seekers. Ironically, this need to "set the record straight" is so intense that even the Left has gotten into the act. Clinton apologists such as Joe Conason and Gene Lyons feel the need to "expose" the obsessions of the right-wing "loose cabal" in The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign To Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton. This doesn't count the more "mainstream" Clinton defenders such as Jeffrey Toobin, etc.

Now, George W. Bush has been on the national scene for barely a year now. But, interestingly, already published are liberal Texas writer Molly Ivins's Shrub: The Short, Happy Life of George W. Bush, Elizabeth Mitchell's W: Revenge of the Bush Dynasty and even a scandalous "conspiracy" book by J. H. Hatfield, Fortunate Son. Hatfield's work, asserts, among other things, that a young W had a drug "situation" taken care of by a judge friendly to Bush, Sr. The book was quickly discredited and pulled by its publisher when it was determined that Hatfield had a small problem of his own: He had served jail time for attempted contract murder. Oops!

But, it's interesting that Bush is already attracting "what makes him tick" books — even though he confesses to not being a big reader. This suggests that Bush is someone for whom there might be a real market, i.e. it's perceived that the public will be interested in buying a book about George W. Bush.

But, when you look around for books about Al Gore — geez!! Slim pickin’s!! A former colleague from Gore's journalism days, Bill Turque, has written a book, Inventing Al Gore. Its big revelation is that Gore was something of a "midnight toker" during his collegiate days. Well, there's the grist for a best-seller in the making!! Meanwhile, Gore's Earth In The Balance, a best-seller once, is, to the delight of Republicans everywhere, being re-released (in time for Gore's campaign — or the 30th anniversary of Earth Day?). But Al Gore is neither interesting enough nor felonious enough to energize people into even writing books about Al Gore — let alone want to read them! Say what you will about Bill Clinton's criminal behavior — at least he made things interesting. As Saturday Night Live's Darrell Hammond (playing Clinton) uttered in a recent "Weekend Update" segment: "Admit it, you miss me already."

Gore, sadly, does not seem to be somebody who promises a page-turner. Perhaps that's why he "stretches" the truth so much — but in an embarrassing, inartful manner. The vice president's lies are of such a basic, easily proven, variety that they are, like the man himself, numbingly banal. Dubya, on the other hand, has that Texas-Connecticut businessman/sports-fan mystique going for him; he doesn't appear to need to pathologically enhance himself. Instead, surprise! Who would believe it? George W. Bush might still actually produce the better "storyline" and come out on top of the only best-seller list that really counts come November.

Make book on it.