Barely two weeks after it was announced, sources are saying Random House imprint Crown is reneging on its deal to publish a book by former president George W. Bush. (See the earlier MobyLives report.) The deal was worth a reputed $7 million, which was seen as shocking in the industry, both because Crown had reccently been forced to downsize due to the economic crisis, and because most industry insiders see little public interest in a book by the man most polls rate as the least popular president in American history. (See the earlier MobyLives report.)

Crown president and publisher Jenny Frost admitted she had “come to her senses” after being “virtually shunned” by “just about everybody in Random House.”

“I have to admit, I was charged about publishing a president, even this one,” she said. “Some friends cornered me one day and said, ‘This guy had to steal two elections to get air time, and you’re paying him millions to stay in the limelight?’ But I didn’t listen. I was just thinking about taking him to Michael’s for lunch.”

So what changed Frost’s mind? “Well, I was walking down the hall in Random House one day, and no one would make eye contact with me, and then I ran into my boss Markus Dohle, and he said, ‘Look, I like to make money as much as the next guy, but you know, the entire world’ — he has that cute accent, it came out ‘the entire vorld‘ — ‘the entire world thinks of this guy as a murderer. After all, he is responsible for the deaths of not only thousands of soldiers, but hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.’ And I thought, well, jeez, he’s right.”