This is probably the first book I read after the election.

[Dr.Phool]

"How Bush Rules" by Sidney Blumenthal.

He really hit a home run with "The Clinton Wars", and I only subscribe to Salon to read his columns.

http://www.tpmcafe.com/book_title/how_bush_rules

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/bookclub/2006/sep/13/base_bush_and_bushs_base

By Todd Gitlin | bio

Reading Sid’s invaluable, rightly unnerving columns, I’ve also been musing about David Greenberg’s question: Bush’s responsibility. It’s immense, and Sid properly nails many instances where Bush’s self-intoxicated admixture of bulldozer willfulness, pseudo-godliness, and unacknowledged ignorance have made the proverbial difference. No question but that Bush himself, Bush the pretender, is indispensable to the victory of the radical pseudo-conservativism of his government. Cheney may be the brains in this brainlessness, but Bush and Cheney have fashioned a division of malevolent labor that works for both of them, and Bush is, I don’t doubt, ultimately the decider-in-chief.

That much is straightforward, I think. But it also must be said that Bush incarnates certain potentials long embedded in movement conservatism, potentials that, in combination, add up to a whole drastically worse than the sum of the parts: ignorance of the larger world; deafness toward reason; vindictiveness toward dissidents; cronyism; systematic deception; fiscal recklessness; centralization of power and its abuses. Reagan began the process of conservative consolidation, but Bush has the energy, focus, and vindictiveness that Reagan lacked. He also, not least, had September 11.

The magic has worn thin, but never forget that base Bush is the voice of Bush’s base. Republican control of all branches of government has certainly afforded Bush the means to act on his tunnel vision. It’s a necessary condition. So are the Rove-Ailes-Atwater commitments to what Spiro Agnew (or wasn’t it elder literary statesman William Safire?) once called “positive polarization.” But the will of the bulldozer is essential to understanding the magnitude of the ruination that Bush has accomplished.

(snip)