How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime

About the Book

In a series of columns and essays that renowned journalist and former presidential adviser, Sidney Blumenthal wrote in the three years following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a unifying theme began to emerge: that Bush, billed by himself and by many others as a conservative, is in fact a radical - more radical than any president in American history. In "How Bush Rules", Blumenthal provides a trenchant and vivid account of the progression of Bush's radical style - from his reliance on one-party rule and his unwillingness to allow internal debate to his elevation of the power of the vice president. Taking readers through pivotal events such as the hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the rise of the foreign-policy neoconservatives, Abu Ghraib, the war on science, the Jack Abramoff scandal, and the catastrophic mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, the book tracks a consistent policy that calls for the president to have complete authority over independent federal agencies and to remain unbound by congressional oversight or even the law.In an incisive and powerful introduction, Blumenthal argues that these radical actions are not haphazard, but deliberately intended to fundamentally change the presidency and the government. He shows not only the historical precedents for radical governing, but also how Bush has taken his methods to unique extremes. With its penetrating account of a critical new era in American leadership, "How Bush Rules" is a devastating appraisal of the Bush presidency.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments xi Introduction: The Radical President 1 PART ONE: HUBRIS Mission Accomplished": From the Victory in Iraq to the Defeat of John Kerry The Intelligence Wars 27 Bush and Blair: Lessons in Leadership 31 How George Transformed Tony's World 34 The Good Soldier 36 An Unlikely Dissident 39 The Hunt for WMD 41 The Madrid Express: 9/11 Meets 9/11 44 The Counterterrorism Czar Comes In from the Cold 46 The White House Has the Last Laugh 48 The Road Map to Nowhere 50 The President Goes Blank 52 The Silence of Colin Powell 54 Pulp Fictions 57 The Secrets of Abu Ghraib 60 The American Military Coup of 2012 63 The Holy Warrior 66 Riding the Trojan Horse 68 The Specter of Vietnam 71 The Reagan Legacy 74 Reagan's Funeral and Clinton's Portrait 76 Cheney's Mask Slips 79 The Senate's Da Vinci Code 82 Code Orange 85 The Oath of True Believers 87 The Rule of Chaos 89 Shock and Awe: The Republican National Convention, Day One 92 Fear and Narcissism: The Republican National Convention, Day Two 95 None Dare Call It Treason: The Republican National Convention, Day Three: 98 "A Certain Swagger": The Republican National Convention,Day Four 100 Staring at Defeat 103 Falls the Shadow 106 "The Right God" 108 "The Lowest Grade of Ignorance" 110 Colin Powell's Final Days 112 Dedication Day 115 PART TWO: NEMESIS I Catastrophic Success": From the Death of Terry Schiavo to the Vigil of Cindy Sheehan Mission Misconceived 119 All Hail Caligula's Horse! 122 Medals of Failure 124 Purging Poppy 127 Metrics 129 Regime Change 132 "A Broken Force" 134 The March of Folly 137 Spending Political Capital 140 A Hireling, a Fraud, and a Prostitute 143 The Plot against the New Deal 145 Orwell's Clock 150 The Brilliant Career of Jack Abramoff 153 A Confederacy of Shamans 159 The Passion of the Culture War 162 Politics under Red Robes 166 The Keys of the Kingdom 169 "Serial Abuser" 175 The Good Soldier's Revenge 181 The Incredible Shrinking President 184 Damage 189 Guantanamo 192 The Truth about Torture 199 Deep Throat's Lessons 204 A Broken Body 207 Blinded by the Light at the End of the Tunnel 211 "The Last Throes" 214 The Supreme Chance of a Lifetime 220 Rove's War 223 Tunnel Vision 231 "The Meaning of Words" 234 Above the Rule of Law 238 The Informer 241 Unhappy Holiday 249 Question Time 251 PART THREE: NEMESIS II Heck of a Job": From the Landfall of Hurricane Katrina to the Revolt of the Generals Hurricane Katrina 259 "What Didn't Go Right?" 262 "Heck of a Job" 268 From Gulf to Shining Gulf 270 Karen Hughes Takes a Tour 275 Twenty-First-Century Republicanism 278 Judy d'Arc 286 The Conservative Revolt 289 The Indictment of Scooter Libby 292 Cheney's rTial/ 295 Stab in the Back 298 The Long March of Dick Cheney 300 Bob Woodward's Cover-up 307 Condi's Tortuous Trail 310 "The Law is King" 316 Annus Horribilis 322 Bush's War on Professionals 325 Meek,Mild, and Menacing 331 The Republican System 334 The Proconsul's Apologia 343 Bush's Brezhnev Period 345 The Client 349 The Rules of the Game 351 Cheney's Coup 355 A Lincoln Portrait 358 Once More unto the Breach 362 Sex Police Chief Arrested 364 Blood and Sand 367 The Love Song of Francis Fukuyama 372 Apocalypse Now 375 Card Shuffle 378 I, DeLay 382 Tethered Goats 385 The President of Truth 388 The Decider 395 Epilogue: The Passion of George W. Bush 399 Index 405

About the Author :

Sidney Blumenthal, former assistant and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, is a regular columnist for the Guardian of London and for Salon, and has been a staff writer for the New Yorker, the Washington Post, and other major publications. His books include, most recently, The Clinton Wars (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). He is currently a Senior Fellow at the New York University Center on Law and Security. In 1999, he gave the Willard and Margaret Thorp Lecture in American Studies at Princeton University, speaking on American presidential history.

Review :
"Sidney Blumenthal ... understands the workings of the White House. His recently published book, How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime, collects his columns from November 2003 to April 2006, and they provide week-by-week freeze-frames of an array of significant events over the past three years. (They are, in fact, wonderfully insightful probes by a seasoned journalist with insider experience who knows exactly where to look.)"--John Dean, findlaw.com "Sid Blumenthal [is] the rare analyst of contemporary affairs who brings to his commentary a deep knowledge of American history and political culture... He was one of the people warning us all along about this administration's radicalism. But not enough of us listened or understood."--David Greenberg, TPMCafe "How Bush Rules is exemplary, convincingly arguing that George W. Bush is 'the most willfully radical president of the United States,' by documenting in real-time the episodes that have made up his presidency... Blumenthal's columns stand the test of time. Even the oldest pieces aren't dated... Blumenthal is ... original and illuminating... How Bush Rules is a book comprised of timely interventions that is destined to stand the test of time."--Rick Perlstein, In These Times "As an advisor to President Clinton, the man has an insider's perspective on how the White House works--or in Bush's case, fails--a claim few authors can make."--Billy Kekevian, Philadelphia City Paper "While lucid and elegant ... Sidney Blumenthal is ... savage in his verdict on George W. Bush in this collection of columns and essays from the Guardian and Salon."--Richard Briand, International Affairs "A fascinating study of the presidency, of presidential decision making, and of the Bush (II) presidency, journalist Sidney Blumenthal's interesting volume theorizes that George Bush is not really a true conservative... The beauty of this book is that it will stimulate countless hours of discussions, debates, and heated arguments... Highly recommended."--Choice