In Depth with Bill Gertz (VIDEO)

The subtitle of Gertz's recently published book is "How Unelected Bureaucrats, Liberal Democrats and Big Government Republicans Are Undermining America's Security and Leading Us to War." The book is replete with insider information about the personalities and policies that have put America on a potentially disastrous course. Here are a couple of quotes from the book: "Bush's presidency was hijacked - not by neoconservatives, as is often alleged, but by a combination of liberal Democrats left over from the Clinton administration and liberal Big Government Republicans who came to Washington intent on supporting big spending programs and boosting trade and business with little or no regard for the consequences to U.S. national security. Bush picked the wrong people for the government's most important policy positions. From that signal failure, everything would eventually unravel." Gertz supports this by giving numerous examples, such as: "First there was Condoleeza Rice, a classic RINO. Her tenure was marred by the fact that she brought to the White House some of most misguided anticonservative liberals - both Republican and Democrat. She and the president failed to understand the strategic principle of government that picking the wrong people results in the wrong policies." This book should be on the required reading list of all conservatives (and those few liberals with open minds).

Definitely. I think he’s one of that diminishing breed of reporters who really does his homework - well researched and well documented material rather than just spouting a party line agenda and selectively choosing “facts” to support a predetermined conclusion. He’s tough on everybody regardless of political affiliation.

I learned one thing from dealing with a local political situation. The bureaucrats are entrenched ...Politicians come and go. The guy who has been there for 20 or more years wields the real power and the politician has to bend to them ...not the other way around.

Absolutely. I think one of Gertz’s best insights is just what you said about bureaucracy. In the U.S. bureaucracies in such critically important organizations as the CIA, State Department (”foggy bottom”), and the NSA are paralyzing and flaunting the will of a president or Congress. The tail is wagging the dog - much to our national peril.

I’m a longtime fan of Gertz, too. His book “Breakdown” helped me understand how our intelligence failures and PC foreign policy contributed to 9/11 better than all the politicized and finger-pointing babble that followed that terrible event. Regards,

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