Worse Than Watergate (Hardcover)

2. Ditto for the author, who must have been using a barbituate drip tube for the same amount of time...Iran-Contra (mid-level employees launching an undeclared war against a foreign government in the basement of the White House), nation building efforts that were rarely subject to extensive debate (Somalia, Haita, Kosovo, etc.), the expansion of the national security state (again, without much serious attention or opposition). Where was John Dean during all of these events? More Sominex, anyone?

George Bush and Dick Cheney don't talk to many people, and run a secretive operation on many fronts...which exactly mirrors the role of Hillary, John Sununu (Bush I), and Don Regan...mmmmmmm...could this be the arrogance of power?

And will any other current candidate operate any differently?

And, to be clear, the purpose of Dean's book is not to bash Bush, but rather to try to warn Bush and the American people what a dangerous road the Bush administration is on. And by drawing parallels to the Nixon administration, he warns of what is likely to happen if Bush is elected for a second term.

In Worse that Watergate, Dean walks us through the secrecy, double dealings and hidden agendas of the Bush Administration. As I mentioned, he then extrapolates those behaviors into likely scenarios for Bush's second term - if he is elected. Next, Dean provides a list of eleven scandals likely to emerge from the Bush administration in the coming years. Finally, Dean disects Bush's argument for going to war in Iraq, listing each lie and exaggeration.

This book is meticulously researched, with hundreds of footnotes citing primary sorces. This is a great resource for anyone who wants to become better educated on the Bush presidency and make an informed choice in November.

This book will scare you. After reading this book I understood that some of my worst fears about the Bush administration were completely true. ANd that the truth was worse than my fears.

Now, if we could only figure out how to get Bush's supporters to read this book and understand the truth!

On the other hand, Dean is a VERY qualified author on the subject. He knows the ins and outs of how the government communicates with the public and the media, and documents in considerable detail a major policy reversal that has occurred under the Bush administration. In the five presidencies since Watergate (Ford through Clinton), the consistent, bipartisan trend was for more and more government information to become available to the public (starting with the strengthening of the Freedom of Information Act in 1974, and including recent executive orders on the systematic declassification of government documents). Under the Bush II administration, this trend has been sharply reversed, and the administration generally disseminates information only on a "need to know" basis. Most concretely, this has meant that requests by journalists, lawyers, NGOs, and other individuals and organizations for public information, such as the workings of the EPA and other government agencies, are simply ignored, and the public is kept in the dark. (This trend is also documented in other books, such as the recent book "Strategic Ignorance," by Carl Pope, on Bush environmental policy.) The government also stonewalls on clearly public-interest information like the composition of Cheney's energy task force. This is a deeply disturbing reversal in policy and deeply threatens the core relationship between the executive branch of government and both the rest of the government and the public itself. John Dean is the man to document and critique this reversal, and he has written a book worth reading.