Loew (Tough Call
) offers a disappointingly stale satiric look at the Bush presidency. What passes for political commentary is familiar and fairly superficial—e.g., fake and actual charts, screeds and lists of Bush's malapropisms. It is surprising that the author, a contributor to the Onion
, has such difficulty combining humor and analysis; skipping from fact to farce, the reader might have difficulty discerning where the actual accusation lies. Furthermore, Loew does not marshal new material in making his furious condemnations; instead he trots out criticisms of a variety of the Bush administration's perceived sins—everything from Bush's prodigious vacation time to the bungling of the occupation of Iraq—with familiar evidence and arguments. While the book serves as a decent catalogue of the Bush administration's (mis)handling of Hurricane Katrina and controversial positions on torture and global warming, even the most virulent Bush critics will find that this J'accuse
lacks the promised teeth and laughs. (May)