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Title: Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush by John W. Dean ISBN: 0-316-00023-X Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 06 April, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89 (100 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Scathing Indictment
Comment: The various "indictments" of President Clinton, and indeed, nearly all books blaming the country's problems, or those of the whole world, on "liberals," or to make a case for the Neocon movement, all depend on innuendo, ad homienm attacks, rumors, faulty logic and/or mathematics, one-sided reporting, conspiracy theories, general viciousness, and worse. So do some of the more extreme books indicting the Bush Administration, such as those of Michael Moore.
This book, like Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them" and Joe Conason's "Big Lies," does nothing of the sort. Instead, it depends on hard facts, and on using those hard facts to shed a cold, piercing light on the shadows in which hidden far-right agendas lurk. It paints a stark picture of a thoroughly Machiavallian administration that is prepared to dig into the privacy of all who oppose it, while jealously guarding its own secrets like no other previous administration.
Moreover, in one chapter, and in opening epigrams to several chapters, Dean quotes several well-known Right-Wing leaders, including Newt Gingrich and Phyllis Schlafly, who have denounced the Bush Administration for its obsessive secrecy.
John Dean describes his book as a polemic. And a polemic it is, but not a polemic of the same species as those of Coulter on the Right, or Moore on the Left. Rather, it is a closely reasoned one that sheds light, rather than heat. And light is precisely what is so desperately needed today.
Rating: 5
Summary: Nixon didn't listen to John Dean. We should.
Comment: For those of us old enough to remember Watergate, Mr. Dean stands out as the only man in the Nixon White House with the legal smarts, the moral clarity, and the personal courage to tell Richard Nixon to his face that there was a "cancer on the presidency," and it was Watergate. Mr. Nixon didn' t listen to Mr. Dean. He should have, and we should read this book if we have any energy to spare to restore the republic to the country we thought it was.
Mr. Dean's book is well organized as a polemic, exceptionally well informed as to subject matter, and the case he makes is truly scary. Dean confirms all of our worst fears about this presidency--he documents who is actually in charge (Dick Cheney), traces the history of Cheney's theories of an Imperial America from their inception in 1992 to their fruition in March 2003, reveals the utter arrogance of the Bush White House's dealings with Congress, federal agencies, the press, and last and least, the American people. Dean also understands the Constitution and its fear of an Imperial Presidency. Did you all wonder, as I did, why the Bush administration had anything to do with the release of Clinton administration papers to the 9/11 Commission? I did. I thought that if Mr. Clinton had released them, that should be it. It isn't--Mr. Bush's administration has declared that presidential papers belong to them.
Mr. Dean uses the Bush administration's obsession with secrecy as a unifying theme to explicate an array of abuses, several of which are clearly impeachable, and all of which are frightening. Dean reveals that there is someone besides me who thinks the outing of undercover CIA agents is treasonous. George H.W. Bush thought so. The outing of Valerie Plame in the middle of a war will be especially noted by future historians, and perhaps they will contrast it with the impeachment of Bill Clinton for sinning with Monica Lewinsky.
This book is a model polemic: well organized, serious, thorough. It can be read as a fine example of its form and as an illustration of what the Starr Report should have been, and wasn't.
Rating: 5
Summary: SECRECY, LIES AND DECEPTION...?
Comment: ...what would this author know about secrecy, lies and deception...? Oh yeah - THAT John Dean...
The former counsel to President Nixon knows all too well where tactics such as these can lead. In this book - which he labels a 'polemic', so there is no mistaking his intent - he lays out a strong case detailing the abuses of power and trust that have been practiced by the Bush administration from the day he decided to run for president.
Drawing on his experience with the law as well as his knowledge of history, Dean tells how, as he began looking into the Bush presidency more and more deeply, it increasingly struck him as chillingly 'Nixonian' - the lying, the dirty tricks, the about-faces that were made when the original position turned out to be inconvenient or embarrassing, the behind-the-scenes sweetheart deals for powerful contributors. The thing that frightens Dean the most, however, is the unprecedented level of secrecy under which this administration operates - and it should frighten each and every one of us as Americans. Each chapter of the book begins with a quote - some from famous public servants, some from respected political philosophers, some from various agencies of the government itself - and each one underscores the damage that can be done to a free society when its government operates so completely out of sight. One such quote is from former US Attorney General (and later Secretary of State) William Rogers: '...the public should view excessive silence among government officials as parents view sudden quiet where youngsters are playing. It is a sign of trouble.'
Another quote, from a 1960 report by the House Committee of Government Operations, says: 'Secrecy - the first refuge of incompetents - must be at bare minimum in a democratic society, for a fully informed public is the basis of self-government.' From their actions, it's pretty obvious that those who are setting the course for the Bush administration think it's better for them to function out of sight, out of mind - the old adage 'If you're hiding your actions, you must have a reason to hid' comes to mind. Dick Cheney has made no secret of the fact that he favors a return to the 'imperial' presidency, wherein the powers that be are set free from the 'bonds' of answering to the people, for whom they supposedly work. They have elevated stonewalling to a new 'artistic level' - and if they are continued to be allowed to function in darkness, they will drag the nation into that darkness.
Dean's book is well-researched and annotated - his sources are clearly listed, and he invites the reader to dig further in order to understand the depth and breadth of the actions he's describing. He says that he didn't come up with the title - WORSE THAN WATERGATE - and that he doesn't use it lightly, but the further he investigated the methodology and mind-set of the Bush administration, the more apt he thought the title.
In an election year - especially one having the potential of this one - this book is essential reading.
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Title: Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror by Richard A. Clarke ISBN: 0743260244 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 22 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward ISBN: 074325547X Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 19 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill by Ron Suskind ISBN: 0743255453 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 13 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken ISBN: 0525947647 Publisher: E P Dutton Pub. Date: 29 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush by Kevin Phillips ISBN: 0670032646 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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