cover image No-Fault Politics: Modern Presidents, the Press, and Reformers

No-Fault Politics: Modern Presidents, the Press, and Reformers

Eugene McCarthy. Crown Publishers, $25 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-8129-3016-0

In his introduction, journalist Burris describes former senator McCarthy as ""a liberal Catholic and a conservative liberal,"" and McCarthy has things to say here that will upset people on all sides of the political spectrum. First he warns against ""do-gooders"" and invokes the ""RE"" factor, which is to ""vote against any proposal carrying the letters re as part of its title, prefix, or opening syllable,"" such as reorganizations, recodifications, reforms and resolutions. He continues on to the headlines of the day, targeting Washington's mania for special prosecutors: ""The office of special prosecutor is an essentially undemocratic office with an essentially fascistic writ of power."" In a scathing chapter on ""The No-Fault Presidency: Who, Me?"" he plummets George Bush and his Iraqi war and reads the president's lips, calling the Bush presidency ""representation without taxation."" Citing examples such as Spiro T. Agnew and Dan Quayle, he favors abolishing the office of vice president because ""the vice presidency can appear to dignify a fool"" and he rates his all-time best and worst cabinet officers with George Marshall at the high end and Robert McNamara bringing up the rear. He longs for the ""good old days"" of Congress when the seniority system reigned, and he solemnly warns the one should never vote for a candidate who ""lives off a trust."" And as one of his tenets he quotes Ed Leahy of the Chicago Daily News: ""Never trust the press."" At the age of 82 political iconoclast McCarthy is still going strong in this, his 21st book, a wise, wry journal. (May)