BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

From Publishers Weekly:

In this incisive and timely essay compilation, Blumenthal, a former adviser to both Bill and Hillary Clinton, charts the fatal radicalization of the Republican Party, its imminent great unraveling and the consequences for the 2008 election. Blumenthal argues that the presidency of George W. Bush heralds the decline of the Republican Party after 30 years of political dominance, moderating his otherwise passionate indictment of the GOP by acknowledging that power ebbs and flows between the two parties over time. He likens the current shift to the implosion of the Johnson presidency and subsequent weakening of the Democratic Party, saying, Vietnam ended a Democratic era as definitively as Iraq is closing a Republican one. The consummate Washington insider, Blumenthal has a host of high-ranking (albeit often anonymous) sources, and surprising portraits of power pepper the book: of Bush as a classic insecure authoritarian given to imposing humiliating tests of obedience on his staff (such as locking Colin Powell out of a cabinet meeting for being late), Laura Bush as deeply disdainful of Rove (allegedly dubbing him Pigpen), former Majority Leader Tom DeLay as the Republican Stalin, the ruthless consolidator and centralizer. Authoritative, meticulously researched, these previously published pieces evade many of the clichés that ensnare partisan political writing and is instead a lively—if deeply sobering—panorama of political life during the Bush presidency.

From the Publisher, Union Square:

Sidney Blumenthal—trenchant analyst, best-selling author, and senior adviser to former President Bill Clinton (and more recently, Hillary)—offers a penetrating journalistic and historical examination of the ongoing collapse of Republicanism. Closely charting the Party’s imploding reputation in America and the world, as well as the potential consequences of George W. Bush’s radical presidency for the 2008 election, The Strange Death of Republican America will be required reading for anyone interested in politics and concerned about the fate of the nation. In these essays and opinion columns written by Blumenthal over the past few years for The Guardian of London and salon.com, along with a new and stimulating introduction, Blumenthal provides a unifying and overarching perspective on the Bush years.

Blumenthal scrutinizes the past and present state of the Republican Party, which he believes portends the incipient demise of their vaunted political machine and the Republican era since the Nixon administration. The issues on the table range from the legacy of Nixon’s imperial presidency and its influence on Dick Cheney to Karl Rove’s failed strategy for political realignment, as well as conflicts within the military and intelligence communities over Bush’s policies, and the underlying political shifts that are demonstrably weakening the once-strong foundations of Republican philosophy and governance.

These essays have the cumulative effect of an irresistible factual and historical tide—a portrait of a party in self-destructive decline that will grab the attention of anyone fascinated by the world of politics.

From BuzzFlash:

Sidney Blumenthal, who counts the New Yorker and Washington Post as former journalistic venues, is one of the most incisive analysts of the Republican game plan, and its collapse like a souffle cooked by first graders in the White House.

We know Sidney as a fellow Chicagoan, who grew up just a few blocks from the editor of BuzzFlash -- and Sidney is the exemplar of the mix of urbane, brilliant Eastern insider analysis with the knowledge of the reality that pervades politics, which comes from growing up in Windy City ward politics. He's been on both sides of the fence for the last couple of decades, most recently returning as an advisor and besides the scene PR strategist for the Clinton campaign -- and Sidney doesn't take prisoners, as he showed when he was Hillary's key communication's person during the impeachment.

So, we ended up on different sides of the primary, but in the spirit of unity we are putting that behind us. We admired his hard-hitting, smash-mouth politics during the latter Clinton years, but weren't so excited about them when used against Obama. But that's politics. You come together in the end, and Sid is truely a nice guy. It's just when the bell rings, he puts on his boxing gloves, even if he is impeccably dressed, as he usually is.

In fact, Sid is a fascinating guy, ever urbane, precise and keenly insightful when writing (and he is a thoughtful, forceful journalist), but willing to play politics Chicago style when he's in the game. It's an unusual combination in D.C. Usually the hard hitters can't stand back and pen deft journalistic commentary. And the last of the real non-corporate journalists don't want to "switch sides" and play rough. Sid can do both with equal skill -- and that's a rarity.

Ultimately, he's very close to the Clintons, but he's a Democrat first. And remember that behind all the "issues" in the primary was a battle for control of the Democratic Party by people who have been running it since 1992. Hillary holdouts may have been caught up in identity politics, but the big wheels were playing for power.

All that said and done, we always read a Sidney Blumenthal commentary. He is a journalistic surgeon who gets right to the heart of the matter and cuts out most of the GOP mantras and failures as one would extract a cancer. He's well worth reading, and this collection gives you a sense of his broad understanding of the Republican forces at play over the last few years -- and the devastation that this party of slogans and self-enrichment has left behind.

Sid, when he's on the inside of politics -- to quote, ironically, Barack Obama -- doesn't bring a knife to a gun fight: he brings an M-80.

As a journalist, he's briliant, insightful, and endlessly illuminating.

All the more reason to read these "Chronicles of a Collapsing Party."

He's quite a guy. The Clintons are lucky to have him on their team.

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS