NYT Best Seller/Anti-Bush book claims: Jeb's 1994 Running Mate was a Marxist (who died in 1942)

March 21, 2004 | summer

[summer]

Note from summer: This is a true story.

I was in Barnes & Nobel today, and I happened to pick up a new, non-fiction, NYT best-seller, anti-Bush book, published in January 2004, titled:

American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush
by Kevin Phillips

It is currently ranked #3 on the NYT Best Seller list for hardcover, non-fiction. Here is the cover of the book:



I was reading a few pages about FL Gov Jeb Bush, and thinking it was nothing I hadn't seen before on some Dem web site, until I got to page 221.

On that page, the author informs us that the person who ran as Gov Jeb Bush's running mate in the 1994 FL Gov Race was "Tom Mooney."

Now, I do not know everything, but I was pretty sure that was wrong. And, it only took me about 2 second to look up Gov Bush's running mate on google, and confirm I was right: The name of his running mate in 1994 was Tom Feeney.

I then looked up the name "Tom Mooney" who is alleged by the author of that book, above, to have been the running mate of Gov Jeb Bush, and found that "Tom Mooney" is a Marxist who died in 1942.

Needless to say -- I did not buy the book.

[summer]

FYI. Seeing such a simple piece of factual information be so wrong like that made me wonder how much of the rest of the book was likewise tossed together, without any regard for facts.

[sultan88]

Sadly, Kevin Phillips used to be a conservative.

[summer]

And he's got a string of impressive journalism credits a mile long. What's with these people? Do they all want to be Jayson Blair?

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Yeah - but he sure has a hard-on for the Bush family. What in the world did they do to him personally to deserve his obsession?

[PeaceBeWithYou]

A Marxist Fruedian slip perhaps?

[Cinnamon Girl]

BARNES & NOBLE! I think they have an agenda. I went in last week and on both sides of the escalators were tables set up with piles of anti-GOP anti-Bush books. You couldn't avoid it.

[Qwinn]

By Al Franken's standards, this makes the author one seriously lying liar.

Qwinn

[TimSkalaBim]

Kevin Phillips sounds like Paul Krugman and looks like Bernie Sanders.

[summer]

Re your post #7 - Yes, that thought crossed my mind as well.

[IVote2]

I used to read Kevin Phillips a long time ago and thought he was a good writer, but in the past few years, I cannot stand him. I am probably much more perceptive now than I used to be. Particularly after the bubba years, I know propaganda the minute I see it.

Jen

[summer]

I know propaganda the minute I see it.

I read some of what he wrote about FL in Election 2000, and was surprised, at first, at how much and what he chose to include - and omit. Never mind that Gov Bush recused himself from that committee overseeing the votes, and appointed a Dem in his place; no never mind. No need to mention that - because that might make it look like Gov Bush was trying to do the right thing.

[KC_Conspirator]

BARNES & NOBLE! I think they have an agenda. I went in last week and on both sides of the escalators were tables set up with piles of anti-GOP anti-Bush books.

I think they do too. I went to Barnes & Pedophile last week and the hate-Bush books were in your face right when you walked in.

[Reagan Man]

Through the years, Kevin Phillips has digressed from a reasonable conservative and loyal Republican, into a career opportunist and anti-Bush propagandist.

[summer]

And a sloppy one, at that.

[writer33]

"BARNES & NOBLE! I think they have an agenda. I went in last week and on both sides of the escalators were tables set up with piles of anti-GOP anti-Bush books. You couldn't avoid it."


The whole incestuous publishing industry has an agenda. Until recently, it has been hard for a conservative to get published because of this bias. With the exception of Crown Forum, Regnery, and now the Free Press, everything else is liberals, liberals, liberals. As far as the eyes can see.

[Bullish]

Fact checking really only applies to conservative writers. Leftists are allowed to write anything in their books as long as it slanders conservatives.

[jincarolina]

Why do the leftist always paint us as Nazis and Marxists when it is plain they are the ones who tout that philosophy

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Sadly, Kevin Phillips used to be a conservative.

A Nixon conservative (maybe), who tolerated Reagan, and can't stand the Bushes.

I've Read some of his more recent and not so recent stuff in excerpts, he's got the lefty propaganda down pat now. And since conversions to the dark side are rare, I tend to think he's always been so, and is openly showing it of late.

[mdefranc]

To the best of my knowledge, Kevin Phillips always has been a liberal Republican and NEVER has been a conservative. He has a right-wing reputation only because of his first book, "The Emerging Republican Majority", published in 1969. That book was a brilliant, objective analysis of why the GOP would dominant presidential politics for decades to come. I was told that Phillips was a Young Republican, but on the wrong side within the organization. He worked in the Nixon Justice Department. ALL his later political books have displayed an anti-liberty, pro-government bias typical of elitist, northeastern RINOs.

[summer]

That book was a brilliant, objective analysis

Your comment brings me to another point I was pondering: Why is this book "American Dynasty" even called "non-fiction"? This authors struggles in the beginning to claim that the dynasty is a FACT, but the way I see it - you have to actually WIN elections in this country. Gov Bush lost by the narrowest of margins in his first race for gov - no one was waiting around to "crown" him governor, which is what this title implies, and implies wrongly, IMO. If the author has a different opinion that I do (and, a bunch of non-facts painted as facts) that he wants to throw in, then I think his book should be in a new category of books called OPINION books. Just as we now have "SELF-HELP" books, so too should book stores start recognizing that some authors are NOT sticking to "facts" - they are offering their own opinions. The long editorials should NOT be labeled as "non-fiction." What if some student relies on this book for facts? The kid would look like an idiot claiming Gov Bush's 1994 running mate was "Tom Mooney."