From Publishers Weekly
The thesis of radio host Flanders's searing, incisive polemic is that prominent female conservatives in the current administration are the candy coating in which George "W. Is for Women" Bush enrobes a bitter, radical policy. Devoting a chapter to each, Flanders (Real Majority, Media Minority) takes to task women like National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao for betraying the causes-affirmative action, civil rights and feminism-that helped them rise to prominence, while allowing the Republican Party to use them as identity politics puppets for expanding its minority voting base. They, along with former EPA head Christine Todd Whitman, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman and Secretary of the Interior Gale Ann Norton, have, Flanders contends, been given an easy ride by national media more interested in their fashion choices and family history than in the jobs, lands and freedoms they've eliminated during their tenure. Then there are what Flanders says are the Bushwomen's conflicts of interest and government valentines to corporate concerns, such as destroying previously protected grizzly bear habitat to please logging interests. Along the way, Flanders provides a powerful account of how the government's social agencies have been systematically disabled-or so she claims-over the past 20 years by the very people hired to head them. Fierce, funny and intelligent, Bushwomen fills in an important gap left by other anti-Bush books.
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Review
In a sea of reactionary propagandizing and mass-media misinformation, Laura Flanders's voice is a desperately needed beacon of clarity and common sense.
