The New York Times reports today that when President Bush opens his library at Southern Methodist University in 2013, “visitors will most likely get to see one of his most treasured items: Saddam Hussein’s pistol.”

The Times notes that when visitors came to the White House, Bush often liked to show off the gun, which was found on Saddam when he was captured by U.S. special forces in December 2003. Referring to the gun’s historical value, Bush Library Foundation President Mark Langdale presented an interesting twist on its symbolism:

Mark Langdale, the president of the George W. Bush Foundation, said the library would use items to highlight 25 of Mr. Bush’s presidential decisions. “The gun is an interesting artifact, and it tells you that the United States captured Saddam Hussein and disarmed him literally,” Mr. Langdale said. “How we fit that into the decision to go to war, we haven’t gotten to that point yet.”

“Disarmed him literally”? Saddam was already disarmed before the U.S.-led invasion. Maybe if the U.N. team that disarmed Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War had possession of the gun, then Langdale’s metaphor would make sense. Moreover, when Bush said he wanted to “disarm” Saddam, he was referring to the Iraqi dictator’s non-existent WMD — not his personal handgun.

“It represents this Texas notion of the white hats taking out the black hats and keeping the trophy,” Rice University history professor Douglas Brinkley said, referring to Saddam’s pistol. “It’s a True West magazine kind of pulp western mentality. For President Bush, this pistol represents his greatest moment of triumph, like the F.B.I. keeping Dillinger’s gun. He wants people generations from now to see the gun and say, ‘He got the bad guy.’”

Late last week, Texas district court judge Martin Hoffman ordered that President Bush be deposed in a lawsuit against Southern Methodist University (SMU). In the case, two condominium owners near SMU are claiming that “the university bullied owners into selling without disclosing plans to build a presidential library at the site.” They want the former president to “give a statement about whether SMU officials told him about plans to build on the site before the university bought the land.” The plaintiffs have already received statements from Dallas businessman Ray Hunt and former White House counsel Harriet Miers, but neither of them could remember full details of the conversations. Hoffman ruled that Bush can be deposed because he has “clearly relevant and material information about the central issues of the case.” Bush’s lawyers are now preparing an appeal “that would trigger an immediate stay.”

(ThinkProgress has been keeping a close eye on developments with the Bush library, and we will continue to do so. Read our related posts here.)

Former deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel has posted a new video of President Bush promoting his presidential library. In the five-minute video, there are a full 35 seconds of clips of 9/11 and Bush’s subsequent reaction. However, there is just one mention of Iraq in the entire piece. Additioanlly, Bush promises to use his library “policy center” to be “front and center” pushing for another attempt to privatize Social Security:

BUSH: At some point in time, the Congress is going to have to fix the Social Security system. I‘d like the center to be front and center in that debate and propose solutions. … Compassion ought to be the center of our domestic and foreign policy. … Some call it consequential, some call it controversial, either way it’ll be a well studied Presidency.

Watch it:

In January, Bush cited his failed attempt to privatize Social Security as one of his biggest domestic policy achievements. Rather than being a place for ‘studying’ the Bush era, the library foundation has already been trying to spin Bush’s disastrous response to hurricane Katrina.

It should come as no surprise that Bush is seeking to use his library for purposes other than actually documenting his presidency. As Think Progress has reported, there are no mentions of Iraq in Bush’s official biography on the library website. Rather, like the actual Bush presidency, the Bush library appears to be aiming to highlight the attacks of 9/11 while ignoring the history and the failures of the Iraq war.

(ThinkProgress has been keeping a close eye on developments with the Bush library, and we will continue to do so. Read our related posts here.)

The New York Times reports that roughly 20 Bush administration all-stars — including Condoleezza Rice, Karen Hughes, and Dan Bartlett — are getting together next week for their first Bush administration reunion. “On tap is a dinner with the former president” and a brainstorming session for the George W. Bush Policy Institute. The man who largely crafted Bush’s presidency, however, will not be at the party:

Not coming to next week’s session is former Vice President Dick Cheney, who in the final days of the administration argued with Mr. Bush about his failure to pardon Mr. Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., who was convicted of perjury and other counts for his role in the leak of Valerie Wilson’s employment with the Central Intelligence Agency.

Cheney also broke with the President on a same-sex marriage ban, firing Donald Rumsfeld, overturning Washington DC’s gun ban, and removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terror.

(ThinkProgress has been keeping a close eye on developments with the Bush library, and we will continue to do so. Read our related posts here.)

The Dallas Morning News reports that “for now,” former Vice President Dick Cheney’s records will not be going to the George W. Bush presidential library at Southern Methodist University. Cheney’s team said the former VP needs them to write his memoirs. “It made more sense and was more convenient to keep them in D.C.,” said a Cheney spokesperson. The secrecy even appears to extend to Cheney’s artifacts and gifts:

During talks last year, the National Archives suggested that Cheney’s artifacts — like a set of gold Murano glass candlesticks and bowls from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi — be sent to the Bush library. That way they could be displayed with Bush’s items, including the 9 mm pistol that Saddam Hussein held when captured by American soldiers in Iraq.

“The VP preferred to have the VP artifacts remain with the records,” said Sharon Fawcett, assistant archivist for presidential libraries.

As Vice President, Cheney ordered the Secret Service to destroy records of his visitor logs.

Today, President Bush is attending a private fundraiser in Jacksonville, FL, to gin up support for his $300 million presidential library. At the luncheon, Bush also planned to speak about the economy and “thank local Republicans for their support.” Local CBS affiliate WTEV-TV broadcast from outside the venue for the event today, showing a few people standing on a street corner to greet the former president. The reporter called it a “small crowd.” Watch it:

Compare Bush’s reception to that of Obama, who will be on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this evening. People hoping for tickets camped out all night — more than 10 hours — with the line stretching all the way down the block:

Even though Duval County GOP spokesperson Donna Barrow said that “Jacksonville is Bush Country,” Jacksonville’s mayor — who is a Republican — turned down Bush’s invite for today’s lunch.

(ThinkProgress has been keeping a close eye on developments with the Bush library, and we will continue to do so. Read our related posts here.)

Last week, Politico reported that President Bush’s advisers have decided to downplay the Iraq war in presentations for his presidential library:

The president’s advisers are still chewing over what topics to emphasize. Iraq is unlikely to be one of them. Advisers say they have made a specific decision to leave that verdict to history and not try to defend it at a time when Iraq could still wind up as either a democracy or a disaster.

Not only will the Iraq war be de-emphasized, it may not show up much at all. TP reader Grumpy Demo points out that Bush’s official 483-word bio on the presidential library website doesn’t have a single mention of the Iraq war. In fact, the man who once declared “I’m a war president,” has just one short paragraph devoted to national security issues — with no mention of Iraq or Afghanistan. He instead devotes a long section to his domestic accomplishments:

He signed into law tax relief that helps workers keep more of their hard-earned money, as well as the most comprehensive education reforms in a generation, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This legislation ushered in a new era of accountability, flexibility, local control, and more choices for parents, affirming our Nation’s fundamental belief in the promise of every child. President Bush also worked to improve healthcare and modernize Medicare, providing the first-ever prescription drug benefit for seniors; increase homeownership, especially among minorities; conserve our environment; and increase military strength, pay, and benefits. [...]

On the morning of September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked our Nation. President Bush took unprecedented steps to protect our homeland and create a world free from terror. He is grateful for the service and sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform and their families. The President remains confident that by helping build free and prosperous societies, our Nation and our friends and allies will succeed in making America more secure and the world more peaceful.

Also noticeably absent from Bush’s list of accomplishments is Social Security reform. In January, he cited his failed push for Social Security privatization as what he was most proud of during his time in office. (A few days later, however, he backtracked and said he regretted it.)

(ThinkProgress has been keeping a close eye on developments with the Bush library, and we will continue to do so. Read our related posts here.)

Politico reports that President Bush and his wife have been busy trying to raise $300 million for the controversial presidential library, museum, and policy institute at Southern Methodist University. For example, they have “already begun holding small private dinners to persuade wealthy friends to invest in a monument.” His advisers are now trying to figure out which topics to highlight, and have said that they will likely downplay the Iraq war:

The president’s advisers are still chewing over what topics to emphasize. Iraq is unlikely to be one of them. Advisers say they have made a specific decision to leave that verdict to history and not try to defend it at a time when Iraq could still wind up as either a democracy or a disaster.

One of the original ideas was to emphasize the president’s so-called “freedom agenda” of democracy for the Middle East, and there was even talk of calling it The Freedom Institute.

That name — never finalized –was scrapped, in part because many people immediately associated the name with the Middle East, and the institute will have a much broader focus. And lots of other organizations already use “freedom” in their titles; the Bush planners wanted to avoid being confused with them.

(ThinkProgress has been keeping a close eye on developments with the Bush library, and we will continue to do so. Read our related posts here.)

Editor & Publisher’s Greg Mitchell previews a New York Times Magazine piece set to come out this weekend that “explores the uproar over the soon-to-arrive ‘Freedom Institute’ established by former President George W. Bush at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.” The article says that some SMU professors are “half-convinced” that Bush will name Karl Rove as his foundation’s executive director yet “see Condi Rice as an acceptable alternative.” The article also provides further testimony that SMU faculty are extremely uncomfortable housing Bush’s library and “Freedom Institute” at their university:

Another historian there charges: “The Bush circle has done so much damage to every institution they’ve touched, it would be naive not to worry about the damage they could do to SMU.” [...]

[The article] points out, “the prospect” of being identified “in perpetuity” with Bush’s agenda “freezes the blood of some of the university’s leading academics. Everything about the planned institute reminds them of what they detested about the Bush administration. It will proselytize rather than explore: a letter sent to universities bidding for the Bush center stipulated that the institute would, among other things, ‘further the domestic and international goals of the Bush administration.’”

(ThinkProgress has been keeping a close eye on developments with the Bush library, and we will continue to do so. Read our related posts here.)

Last December, the Bush Library foundation paid a cybersquatter $35,000 for the rights to the web domain name www.GeorgeWBushLibrary.com. A web development company originally paid less than $10 for the rights to the site. However, since the purchase, the library’s website is having trouble getting noticed on internet search engines:

The Web site for George W. Bush’s presidential library foundation – GeorgeWBushLibrary .com – is falling behind in online search results for “Bush library.”

The guy who’s beating him: his own dad. Even pages mocking the former president rank higher.

Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of Search Engine Land, an industry blog said the site is “below average” for building web traffic and “probably failing” in efforts to raise money because of its low ranking.