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How Bush rules

Name: How Bush rules
Author: Sidney Blumenthal
ISBN: 9780691128887

by Blumenthal, Sidney

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Overview

In a series of columns and essays that renowned journalist and former presidential adviser Sidney Blumenthal wrote in the three years following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a unifying theme began to emerge: that Bush, billed by himself and by many others as a conservative, is in fact a radical—more radical than any president in American history. In How Bush Rules, Blumenthal provides a trenchant and vivid account of the progression of Bush's radical style—from his reliance on one-party rule and his unwillingness to allow internal debate to his elevation of the power of the vice president.

Taking readers through pivotal events such as the hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the rise of the foreign-policy neoconservatives, Abu Ghraib, the war on science, the Jack Abramoff scandal, and the catastrophic mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, the book tracks a consistent policy that calls for the president to have complete authority over independent federal agencies and to remain unbound by congressional oversight or even the law.

In an incisive and powerful introduction, Blumenthal argues that these radical actions are not haphazard, but deliberately intended to fundamentally change the presidency and the government. He shows not only the historical precedents for radical governing, but also how Bush has taken his methods to unique extremes. With its penetrating account of a critical new era in American leadership, How Bush Rules is a devastating appraisal of the Bush presidency.

About the Author, Sidney Blumenthal

Sidney Blumenthal, former assistant and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, is a regular columnist for the "Guardian" of London and for "Salon", and has been a staff writer for the "New Yorker", the "Washington Post", and other major publications. His books include, most recently, "The Clinton Wars" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). He is currently a Senior Fellow at the New York University Center on Law and Security. In 1999, he gave the Willard and Margaret Thorp Lecture in American Studies at Princeton University, speaking on American presidential history.

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Editorials

TPMCafe

Sid Blumenthal [is] the rare analyst of contemporary affairs who brings to his commentary a deep knowledge of American history and political culture. . . . He was one of the people warning us all along about this administration's radicalism. But not enough of us listened or understood.
— David Greenberg

In These Times

How Bush Rules is exemplary, convincingly arguing that George W. Bush is 'the most willfully radical president of the United States,' by documenting in real-time the episodes that have made up his presidency. . . . Blumenthal's columns stand the test of time. Even the oldest pieces aren't dated. . . . Blumenthal is . . . original and illuminating. . . . How Bush Rules is a book comprised of timely interventions that is destined to stand the test of time.
— Rick Perlstein

Philadelphia City Paper

As an advisor to President Clinton, the man has an insider's perspective on how the White House works—or in Bush's case, fails—a claim few authors can make.
— Billy Kekevian

International Affairs

While lucid and elegant . . . Sidney Blumenthal is . . . savage in his verdict on George W. Bush in this collection of columns and essays from the Guardian and Salon.
— Richard Briand

Choice

A fascinating study of the presidency, of presidential decision making, and of the Bush (II) presidency, journalist Sidney Blumenthal's interesting volume theorizes that George Bush is not really a true conservative. . . . The beauty of this book is that it will stimulate countless hours of discussions, debates, and heated arguments. . . . Highly recommended.

findlaw.com

Sidney Blumenthal . . . understands the workings of the White House. His recently published book, How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime, collects his columns from November 2003 to April 2006, and they provide week-by-week freeze-frames of an array of significant events over the past three years. (They are, in fact, wonderfully insightful probes by a seasoned journalist with insider experience who knows exactly where to look.)
— John Dean

findlaw.com - John Dean

Sidney Blumenthal . . . understands the workings of the White House. His recently published book, How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime, collects his columns from November 2003 to April 2006, and they provide week-by-week freeze-frames of an array of significant events over the past three years. (They are, in fact, wonderfully insightful probes by a seasoned journalist with insider experience who knows exactly where to look.)

TPMCafe - David Greenberg

In These Times - Rick Perlstein

How Bush Rules is exemplary, convincingly arguing that George W. Bush is 'the most willfully radical president of the United States,' by documenting in real-time the episodes that have made up his presidency. . . . Blumenthal's columns stand the test of time. Even the oldest pieces aren't dated. . . . Blumenthal is . . . original and illuminating. . . . How Bush Rules is a book comprised of timely interventions that is destined to stand the test of time.

Philadelphia City Paper - Billy Kekevian

As an advisor to President Clinton, the man has an insider's perspective on how the White House works—or in Bush's case, fails—a claim few authors can make.

International Affairs - Richard Briand

While lucid and elegant . . . Sidney Blumenthal is . . . savage in his verdict on George W. Bush in this collection of columns and essays from the Guardian and Salon.

John Dean

Sidney Blumenthal...understands the workings of the White House. His recently published book, How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime, collects his columns from November 2003 to April 2006, and they provide week-by-week freeze-frames of an array of significant events over the past three years. (They are, in fact, wonderfully insightful probes by a seasoned journalist with insider experience who knows exactly where to look.)
—FindLaw.com

David Greenberg

Sid Blumenthal [is] the rare analyst of contemporary affairs who brings to his commentary a deep knowledge of American history and political culture.... He was one of the people warning us all along about this administration's radicalism. But not enough of us listened or understood.
—bookclub.tpmcafe.com

Publishers Weekly

Before joining the Clinton White House as a senior adviser, Blumenthal was a political correspondent for magazines like Vanity Fair and the New Yorker; with this collection of articles published in Salon and the British Guardian, he returns to his journalist roots. Because the majority of the columns are only two or three pages long, it's difficult for Blumenthal to create a sustained argument. The effect is more like a string of scattershot reactions to current events out of which recurring themes occasionally emerge. But even these themes-the incompetence of Bush's closest advisers, the president's voracious assumption of executive powers, the creation of American gulags-fall short of cohering into a pointed attack, despite Blumenthal's best efforts to assert "a crisis over democracy." Instead, his thoughts wander to matters like U.S./U.K. relations or the decline of the columnist Robert Novak, while explosive topics like Vice-President Cheney's unprecedented powers get lost in the shuffle. Thus, Blumenthal's most heated rhetoric, like his claim of "a revolt within the military against Bush," winds up feeling overblown. The effect is especially frustrating given his keen observations of microscopic political detail-it's too bad this collection doesn't add up to the sum of its parts. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

If the bylines of these two journalists were somehow switched, you couldn't spot the mistake from the political views expressed. Their criticisms of the Bush administration are all but interchangeable. Readers familiar with Lapham will recognize both his pen and his politics in the 29 essays reprinted in Pretensions from his "Notebook" columns in Harper's. Following the Theater of War and Gag Rule collections, this set begins in September 2004 with the renomination of President George W. Bush and concludes with "The Case for Impeachment," published to considerable attention in March 2006. The essays, as Lapham himself puts it, "describe a march of folly, establish a record of moral incompetence and criminal intent, speak to the character of a government stupefied by its worship of money and blinded by its belief in miracles." Blumenthal (columnist, the Guardian and Salon; The Clinton Wars), former senior advisor in the Clinton administration, reprints 105 of his columns from November 2003 to April 2006. An original 23-page introduction provides framework: "Bush's presidency has been uniquely radical in its elevation of absolute executive power, dismissal of the other branches of government, contempt for the law, and overtly political use of war." Although such short quotes cannot reveal it, the real distinction between these collections is that Lapham is a stylist and Blumenthal is not. Both books are optional purchases for public and academic libraries. Bob Nardini, Chichester, NH Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.