Reading...

Conservatives Without Conscience by John Dean. This is the fundamental political puzzle of our time: why do people who purport to be conservatives so unabashedly subscribe to the unfettered exercise of executive power? It doesn't make any sense. Dean lays out the social science that provides an explanation, but there really is no satisfactory answer. These people have simply abandoned the critical thinking skills that I had always assumed were ingrained in everybody who passes through the public education system in this country. Our current preznit is Exhibit A.

John Dean really despises these people, and he pulls no punches in this book. He says some really nasty things about everybody from Pat Robertson to G. Gordon Liddy right on up to Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld. I like his style, but you always have to wonder, with Dean, how much of his post-Watergate rapprochement is all about saying, "Hey, we weren't so bad! Look at these guys!" His last book was, in fact, titled Worse Than Watergate. I agree with him, They Are and It Is; it's just helpful to keep the possible ulterior motive in mind.