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The Strange Death Of Republican America
The Strange Death of Republican America
Chronicles of a Collapsing Party
This book was another disappointment for me. Like Bill Press' Train Wreck, this book was more of an 'I hate Bush' book rather than a chronicle of a collapsing party. There was nothing about the split personality of the Republican Party on such issues as immigration and climate change, which are tearing it apart.
That said, it was an interesting chronicle of how bad President Bush has been as a President. It's a lot like reading someone's blog -- albeit someone who writes very, very well -- in that the book is actually a series of journal-like entries.
Blumenthal is a Washington insider, and therefore has a bunch of inside gossip. For example, in talking about that gay pedophile Republican, Mark Foley, he tells the tale,
From the moment he arrived on the scene, many people in the press and politics knew that Foley was gay, among several gays in the Republican Party. As the Republicans demonized gays for partisan advantage, the party became the biggest walk-in closet in Washington. After the scandal broke, one gay Republican described Foley to me as incredibly indiscreet, groping young men in public places. Almost everyone on Capitol Hill knew that Foley spent an inordinate amount of time hanging out with pages.
Blumenthal also has some really good insights on Bush's actions in Iraq, as opposed to Clinton's actions in Bosnia and Kosovo,
In Bosnia and Kosovo, full sovereignty was not granted through an election -- to this day -- which would have turned over the country to one of the three contending religio-ethnic groups and fomented opposition insurgencies. Instead, the U.S. led in organizing a broad range of international partners and institutions in creating a structure of stability that is a basis for gradual democratic development. By contrast, the election Bush promoted in Iraq was political grandstanding in the name of "democracy" that incited the exclusion of Sunnis and aggravated civil warfare. Almost everything in place in Bosnia and Kosovo is absent in Iraq. The former is an example of U.S. leadership, the latter a case study in amateurish blundering. Moreover, Bush has turned "democracy" into a synonym for failure.
The book, while not living up to its name, is full of little pearls like that. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past the journal format. Another Clinton Wars it is not. But or what it is -- that is, if you're not completely bored with how Bush has screwed this country -- it's worth a read.