The Conservative Crack-Up

Tyrrell, editor of American Spectator , argues that a ``conservative crack-up'' began in 1987 with the rejection of Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court. The Bork hearings, in his view, typify the battles that conservatives are increasingly losing to ``the infantile left.'' Melding memoir with political analysis, the book is at its most interesting when discussing individual conservatives the author has known--Irving Kristol, Luigi Barzini, William Casey, Malcolm Muggeridge, William F. Buckley--or when blasting such liberals as ``the radical mountebank Jesse Jackson.'' The most memorable section of the book is a hilarious set-piece on an evening President Reagan arrived for dinner at the Tyrrell home accompanied by a battalion of Secret Service agents. The author asserts somewhat recklessly that Reagan was the most successful president since FDR. An amusing and occasionally clever commentator on the political scene, Tyrrell has a reputation as a debunker of balderdash. But in these pages it is not always clear what balderdash he is debunking. (May)