Bushworld [Hardcover]

I am probably one of the few people reviewing this book who hadn't read many of Ms. Dowd's columns before reading the book. That being said, I found the book to be a nice surprise on at least two levels. First, the facts it filled in for me about what goes on and has gone on for generations in the Bush family were way more valuable to me than the clever nicknames (41, 43) that peppered the text. Second, her unique style, from which said nicknames derived, allowed her to talk about the history of the Bush family in a both a humorous and forlorn manner that few writers could pull off.

The only reason why I didn't give it five stars is that I found myself when I finished the book thinking, "That was intriguing... funny... but now what?" It was, in the end, an interesting spectacle, but did she write it for anything else other than to make clever jokes? After all, she made fun of Gore and Clinton, and Reagan, etc. etc. etc. too. Is there anything she doesn't turn a cynical eye toward? One of earliest sentences in the book says it all. "It's their reality. We just live and die in it." Is she really making an anti-Bush statement, or is she just making fun of a "current President?" The book is humorous, but it's unlikely to move liberals to social action. If it's really already Bush's reality, after all, what's the point?

I believe that H.L. Mencken once spoke of some class of persons who could not push a noun and verb together without blowing something up. In that spirit, Maureen Dowd presents "Bush World". To the most protective of Bush supporters, Dowd is a bomb thrower. To anti-Bush partisans, Dowd's book is the Fourth of July. To those in the middle, "Bush World" is a rumble to be investigated.

In "Bush World", Dowd compiles her columns in the New York Times since Bush appeared on the national stage. Dowd writes with a cleverness that can be just a hazy memory to, well, a certain radio talk-show host who had conditioned his hard-core base to confuse scorn for wit. Dowd is not like that; this book is the real thing.

These colums are quite critical of the Bush administration's actions and practices. Some people might find this compilation too negative. However, another Mencken quotation comes to mind: "Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only error to be exposed."

You don't have to agree with what Dowd writes, in whole or in part, to value this book. I have listened to very conservative commentators whom I strongly disagreed with, and I appreciate them when they are clever or interesting. I expect my fellow citizens to the right-of-center likewise enjoy a differing viewpoint well put. Maureen Dowd is, at least, very clever and interesting. Nor did I agree with everything Dowd wrote in "Bush World". For example, several times Dowd characterizes Dick Cheney's world-view as "Hobbesian". So, what's wrong with Thomas Hobbes, who famously wrote, "[The state of nature consists of] . . . continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"? Personally, I don't think there is anything wrong with Thomas Hobbes' perspective; nor, per se, with people who hold a Hobbesian world view.

I recommend "Bush World". It presents sharp commentary on and analysis of events that people who follow the news are already familiar with, at least in outline. Reading through these columns, you will recall scandals and missteps that have happened in the last four years. You might alternatively wince, smirk, and grow angry again. Or, if your perspective disposes you to disagree with Dowd, at least you can be forewarned and forearmed for discussions you might have with friends on the left -- if not with friends on the right, some of whom have jumped off the Bush bandwagon based on the last four years.

If "Bush World" pleases you or challenges you in a good way, you might also enjoy or be challenged by "Bushwacked" by Molly Ivins. The strength of that book is that it dissects actions by the Bush administration, many of which happened under the radar of the news cycle, but which have an enormous impact on average Americans.

It should be noted that while this book is a collection of her columns on G W Bush the fact is she has written some funny but hard hitting columns on Democrats and 'liberals' as well.

In Bushworld she notes that while Bush attempts to keep religion and government separate in Iraq he seeks to do the opposite of this here in the states. I even thought of her the first week in August 2004 when Bush stated that both the terrorists and he himself seek to hurt Americans. It was slip up on his part, but its slip ups and other goofs that she takes on in the book. As she notes in Bushworld 'You and I are just bit players or modern day slaves in the Bushworld. The Bush family believes that it should rule, that it is destined to rule, that it is right and just in its rule and they seem to believe that they have a right to damn well what they want. And as she shows they don't do the dirty work but play the Gotti game of using hired guns. This allows them to project a holier than thou mode, with Emily Post etiquette style.

Read the book and then do some homework and you see she's right on target. Like how GWB ran basically for revenge. Revenge against the popular Clinton who gave us the best economy in decades, and who beat Daddy Bush big time and revenge for some Iraqis making an attempt on his Daddy's life. Not because he had anything of value to offer the American people who 'hired' him. It was and is all about selfishness as her astute columns demonstrate.

Now there will be those who like the three monkeys don't want to hear see or speak no evil of the G W Bush or his father. But Ms. Dowd is one of the brave souls who dares tell the Emperor that he has no clothes and that his pious holier than thou religious image is artificial to boot.

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