Posted on 04/17/2004 10:19:11 AM PDT by Fizzie
Author Bob Woodward talks about his book, "Bush at War," during a taping of NBC's "Meet the Press" in November 2002. His new book, "Plan of Attack," will be on bookstore shelves on Tuesday, and the administration is concerned about its contents.
Thorn: Bush-basher bandwagon rolls Dubya's detractors pile bookshelves high as election day draws nearer
By Patti Thorn, Rocky Mountain News April 17, 2004
In the often dainty world of books, I have to admit I love a good brawl. But when it comes to the schoolyard fight between the right and left in the playground that is publishing, I'm beginning to feel like maybe I should avert my eyes.
This scuffle has become a frantic pile-on: And that's George W.'s bruised face at the bottom of the heap.
Advertisement
The Bush-bashing books are coming so fast, I can barely keep count. In recent weeks we've seen Against All Enemies rocket to the top of the best-seller list. There, Richard Clarke's criticism of the president and his administration's handling of the Sept. 11 tragedy has joined forces with:
• Kevin Phillips' American Dynasty, a look at the "pattern of deception" of four generatons of the Bush family;
• Ron Suskind's The Price of Loyalty, based on critical insider information from Paul O'Neill, Bush's former Treasury secretary;
• Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them (Enough said);
• Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud, which examines the Bush family's unsavory ties to the Saudis.
As if this best-seller bonanza isn't enough, more books are jumping into the brawl every day.
John Dean's Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush hit shelves a few weeks ago. And Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack enters the fray Tuesday, sure to command a huge audience. (While the publisher is cagey about whether this has a pro- or anti-Bush slant, the administration is reportedly concerned about its contents.)
Others are slotted for spring and summer - so many that at the Tattered Cover, the Bush- bashing books are beginning to tower over the pro-Bush titles like so many tanks in a field of Toyotas.
"We've talked in the store about having a display divided down the middle with both sides equally represented," said buyer Cathy Langer, "and that's getting harder and harder to do."
Cynics will call it election year posturing - nothing but sour- grapes politicos hoping to derail Bush at the polls. But the huge outpouring, say industry insiders, indicates that there's more at work than simple campaign carping.
Call it what you will, "there's something about the broad social psychology of liberals in this country that's really brashed off by George Bush," said Carl Bromley, editorial director of Nation Books, publisher of several anti-Bush titles. "He really pushes their buttons in the same way that Clinton really got to Republicans in the wrong way."
Case in point: Jack Huberman. When asked why he felt compelled to write The Bush-Hater's Handbook - a catalog of all the wrongs of the administration in alphabetical order - Huberman didn't miss a beat.
"Because this is the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen," he said, parroting the recent words of John Kerry.
"Partly in a way, it wasn't even a decision (to write the book)," he added. "I was building up so much frustration, I had to do something . . . I had to vent somehow."
Huberman notes that his anger began mounting after Bush's contested victory, when most Americans accepted the notion that they should squelch dissent and support Bush for the good of the country. It continued to build after Sept. 11. "That's when it was virtually taboo to voice criticism of the president."
In the wake of Iraq, however, the taboo has lifted - and so have the floodgates.
"I think what this outpouring of books reflects is all the contained criticism of that time sort of spilling out," said Huberman.
John Podhoretz, author of Bush Country: How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals Insane, agrees that there's plenty of anger out there. But it's not because of pent-up frustration over lies and incompetence, he said. It's the president's effectiveness that fuels the fire.
"Partisans hate it - Democrats or Republicans - when the opposing party is doing well . . . They have difficulty with the fact that someone they dislike and despise inspires loyalties and respect in so many other Americans."
Podhoretz, who calls Bush a "transformative political figure," notes that he sometimes feels like a lone voice among authors these days.
"I do feel as though at this moment my book is the antidote to a lot of this. There's so much venom being spewed. I represent equal time."
Most industry observers credit Michael Moore's Stupid White Men with kicking off the Bush-bashing trend. Enjoying more than a year on The New York Times best-seller list, the book proved that beating up on Bush could be profitable.
But while the newer books contain their share of similarly snide titles - 50 Ways You Can Show George Bush the Door in 2004 or The I Hate George W. Bush Reader, for example - there's been a shift in the sort of books attracting customers, say booksellers.
Developments in Iraq have brought more serious, less shrill works to the table. And readers are crossing political lines to buy them. Clarke's book, for example, sold 170,000 copies in its first week. The publisher has returned to press six times, bringing the number of copies in print to 650,000, according to Publishers Weekly.
"More moderates are reading it and wanting to understand what's going on," said Langer. "At this point it seems to be the legitimacy of the source (that's selling books), someone who has a high-level of credibility - for example, Bob Woodward, John Dean and certainly O'Neill and Clarke . . .
"When we're in a time of crises, we really want to understand what's going on and why and how decisions are made. And that's what these books are providing. People don't want to be shrieked at. They want to be informed."
Booksellers are bracing for the titles still to come, hoping they don't get caught short, as many did with Clarke's book.
Meanwhile, as the avalanche descends, some fear readers will tire of so many anti-Bush titles. Bromley, of Nation Books, notes that while Bush-bashing proposals keep coming, he won't be accepting any more at this point.
"The market's saturated," he said. And with the election around the corner, "these books will only have a three-month shelf life if Bush isn't re-elected in November."
Some would welcome a lull in the fight. But I, for one, wouldn't bet on a group hug anytime soon. In this heated political climate, the left and the right are as tense as gang members looking ahead to a long, hot summer.
More battles are sure to come.
In the meantime, readers will have to wait to see if George W. can dust himself off and limp away from this publishing pile-on.
Keep one eye on the bestseller list - and another on the polls.
Bush books on the way
APRIL
• Plan of Attack: by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster, $28).
• The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity: by Joseph Wilson (Carroll & Graf, $26).
• Power, Terror, Peace and War: America's Grand Strategy in a World at Risk: by Walter Russell Mead (Alfred A. Knopf, $19).
• Fanatics & Fools: The Game Plan For Winning Back America: by Arianna Huffington (Miramax Books, $23.95). MAY
• The I Hate George W. Bush Reader: Why Dubya Is Wrong About Absolutely Everything: edited by Clint Willis (Thunder's Mouth Press, $13.95).
• Rogue State: America at War With the World: by T.D. Allman (Nation Books, $14.95)
• Taking Back America: edited by Katrina Vanden Heuvel and Robert L. Borosage (Nation Books, $14.95) JUNE
• Obliviously On He Sails: The Bush Administration in Rhyme: by Calvin Trillin (Random House, $12.95).
• 50 Ways To Show George the Door in 2004: by Ben Cohen and Jason Salzman (Westview, $9.95). JULY
• Imperial Overstretch : George W. Bush and the Hubris of Empire: by Roger Burbach, Jim Tarbell (Zed Books, $15) AUGUST
• Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order: by Mark Crispin Miller (W.W. Norton, $24.95) SEPTEMBER
• What We've Lost : America Under the Bush Administration: by Graydon Carter (Random House Canada).
Patti Thorn is the books editor. thornp@RockyMountainNews.com 303-892-5419.
Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
John Dean is a convicted perjuror who hasnt had any role in government since the early 1970s. What qualifies him to provide an insiders view on anything? If he is what the publishing industry considers a high level of credibility, you know what their agenda is. I might say the same thing about Clarke, who's credibility has been shredded with all his contrary statements.
credibility? How about "bias"?
I no longer have the tolerance to watch another report from Iraq featuring new deaths of U.S. forces and kidnappings by terrorist thugs. At the start of the Iraq was naysayers alleged we might have as many as 25,000 casualties. That did not happen, so the networks are piling on reports of every single death like it is major front page news.
America is so dumbed down (through the efforts of public school and teachers' unions) that I cannot bear to watch television. How many "dating shows" are on the air now? Four or five? The participants typically act like crazed "Ho's" of both sexes. A good example of what is wrong with Los Angeles and New York today: Dumbed down people of voting age who act like they have never read a book or even a newspaper. Morons parade on television every night. America looks like the demograhics supporting "Jerry Springer."
This is the American electorate? Bush is in BIG TROUBLE!
Just my humble opinion. Feel free to flame away.
Did I leave anything out?
I thought publishers were in the business to make money.
I agree. I believe the public is becoming numbed out or just plain offended by all the leftist Bush-bashers coming out of the woodwork with all these hysterical books one after the other.
They have really worn out the accusation about Bush being fixated on Iraq from the beginning. Who really cares anymore?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.