Lyndon Baines Johnson (American Presidents Reference Series) Review

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Lyndon Baines Johnson (American Presidents Reference Series) ReviewThis represents an interesting twist to the brief presidential biography. It includes key documents at the end of each chapter, so that the reader can use some primary sources to flesh out their understanding of the subject of each volume in the "President's Reference Series."
The subject here is Lyndon Baines Johnson, who succeeded to the office after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The author, Thomas Langston, tells us something of Johnson's perspective (Page vii): "Lyndon Johnson's dream was to be a somebody. From childhood, he displayed a keen sense of power and an urgent need to dominate people. . . His vision was to improve life for ordinary people throughout the country. . . ."
The book begins with a sketch of his life in brief--from the Hill Country of Texas to Washington, D. C., to Texas again after his presidency. Documents at the end of this chapter include a map of the Hill Country, election results in his Congressional district (four of his elections were unopposed, with LBJ receiving 100% of the votes), and examples of Johnson's humor. There follows a chapter on campaigns and elections, which is pretty straightforward in its look at election irregularities in key campaigns. We learn about his "no holds barred" energetic campaign style. Documents at the close of this chapter include public opinion and election results. The Daisy TV Commercial (aired only once against Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election) is also depicted. Policies of the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations are outlined in Chapter 3, with special emphasis on key initiatives enacted under Johnson (e.g., Tax cut, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, The War on Poverty, the Great Society, and foreign policy decisions. Chapter 4 examines crises facing him--acceding to the Presidency after Kennedy's death and the Vietnam War. As usual, a series of documents appears at the end of this chapter.
Chapter 5 looks at his relations with other government institutions, such as the courts, Congress, the public, media, intellectuals, the military, and so on. Finally, his career in retirement is described.
The narrative is relatively brief, given the inclusion of so many documents. But the combination of documents and text provides an interesting perspective on understanding Lyndon Johnson as person and as public figure. And the book does not shy away from some of Johnson's "edgier" aspects (election shenanigans, duplicity on ownership of his media "empire").
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Presidential Power: Unchecked & Unbalanced Review

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Presidential Power: Unchecked & Unbalanced ReviewThere has been a flurry of books about what Charlie Savage in Takeover - which is one of them - has termed the 'return of the imperial presidency'. Now while most of the books in particular seem to blame the Bush-Cheney administration for the usurpation of executive powers, Crenson and Ginsberg provide a much needed historical and structural analysis of the phenomenon, going back to the beginnings of the Republic. Crenson and Ginsberg convincingly argue that one of the more structural causes of the rise of presidential power is the weakening of the American party system. In the old days parties had a much stronger grip on the selection of presidential candidates. Nowadays, due to the primary system, campaigns are all about personalities who do not merely want to serve their country but aspire nothing less than change history. So if you want to go beyond the last eight years and the post 9/11 analysis of the rise of executive power, this is your best pick.
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Democracy Denied: How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America - and How to Stop Him Review

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Democracy Denied: How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America - and How to Stop Him ReviewPhil Kerpen has a warning for you, America. He wants to alert you to the fact that Barack Obama is using his powers to create regulations to undermine Congress, ignore voters, and "radically transform America." But Kerpen also has some good news. There's a way to stop this left-wing assault on our country. You can find out what that something is in his new book, (...) How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America -- and How to Stop Him.
Kerpen has an uphill battle to beat back the war that has been launched against America. Why? Because the way our country is being torn down is happening in the most subtle way possible. Worse, it is all being done with such ersatz legality, a legitimacy so seemingly ironclad, that most Americans are completely unaware of what is happening. And when they are aware of it they imagine there is nothing wrong with it all.
That and the way this destruction is happening is not the sort of glamorous outrage that makes for exciting news coverage. In fact, it's quite dull. After all, the way the country is being undermined is through long-winded, legalese-filled, opaque regulatory changes. Red tape. Underhanded, jargon-heavy rules, quietly implemented without fanfare or the light of day revealing them for that matter.
Like I said, Kerpen has an uphill battle not only to alert Americans to what is happening right under their very noses, but to excite them enough to do something about it.
Through the bulk of his book Kerpen outlines the way that Americanness is being smothered in paper with the thousands of pages of new regulations that Obama is weekly churning out from his administration.
Kerpen details the way the Obama administration, guided by a hardcore, left-wing ideology, is attempting to take control of the Internet, is trying to eliminate private property rights, is destroying the business sector in favor of big labor unionization, is using the outsized fear of global warming to ramp up a socialist-styled enlargement of government control on all fronts from the EPA to our energy sector, and more. In each case, Kerpen notes that this regulatory overreach is directly contrary to our American character and our core ideals.
Kerpen also notes that this bacchanalia of regulations and the subsequent growth of the power of the president was even something that the left was exercised about during the eight years of the George W. Bush era. Unfortunately for the veracity of the left, all their concerns of an un-American growth of executive power have been wholly forgotten merely because they like the direction of the obscene overreach implemented by Obama. No end of hypocrisy there, eh?
The final chapter gives us a roadmap to pruning these obscene powers stolen from the Congress and the people by this most leftist president in American history. But, it too has a warning. Just "doing the right thing" and voting is not enough. We must not only vote for representatives that will endeavor to take back their power to legislate from an out of control executive branch, we must follow up and force these elected officials to follow through on the charge we've handed them.
Seems like a good idea to me.
If you are interested in the way the left -- and even some on the far right -- have used the presidency to steal power from we the people and our elected representatives, get this book and read it. Then go forth and make a change we really can believe in.
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Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union Review

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Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union ReviewThe New York Times has called Robert V. Remini "our foremost Jacksonian scholar". No matter how one feels about Remini's scholarship or historical interpretations, he is undeniably the most prolific Jacksonian historian of our time - our any other time, for that matter.
In reading his celebrated three-volume biography of Andrew Jackson and other related works, I'd come to think of Remini as something of a "Jackson bigot." The reverence Remini has for Jackson practically oozes from the pages of his books, while the many injustices and dubious actions undertaken by the seventh president throughout his lifetime are treated as the unfortunate, but excusable episodes of a passionate and often impulsive man (some examples might include: the Treaty of Fort Jackson and other Indian treaties; the unauthorized invasion of Florida in 1818 and his conduct during that campaign; the forced removal of the Cherokees from Georgia; etc.). Indeed, I have often thought that had Remini lived in Jackson's lifetime he may have supplanted Francis Blair as editor of the pro-Jackson newspaper, the Washington Globe. Thus, given such an undisguised admiration for Jackson and his trenchant democratic principles, I was curious to see how Remini would treat his arch-villain: the indomitable Henry Clay of Kentucky.
To my great surprise and pleasure, Remini presents an exceptionally balanced and thorough account of "Prince Hal" and his feud with Andrew Jackson and the Democrats as nominal head of the Whig party. The author pays homage to Clay's tremendous oratorical and political abilities and openly laments the fact that Clay's overweening desire for the presidency ultimately deprived the nation of his services in that office.
Clay's career in national pubic service was long and extraordinarily influential from start to finish. Beginning in 1811, when he was sworn in as a freshman Congressmen, he was immediately elected Speaker of the House owing to his leadership position in a group of young, nationalistic and anti-British Republicans known as the "War Hawks." Remini credits Clay with single handedly changing the fundamental nature of the Speaker's position (which he held for longer than anyone in the 19th century), turning it from that of mundane legislative traffic cop to a leadership role of setting the political agenda and steering national policy. Clay reveled in the rough-and-tumble nature of the House, where his quick wit and speaking abilities were distinct competitive advantages, and openly preferred it to the more rarified and sedate proceedings of the Senate. And when circumstances ultimately brought Clay's talents to the US Senate, he again shaped that body in his own image, ushering in a period of great political debate that is still considered its "golden era."
In the end, Clay failed in his endeavor to shape national domestic policy to include federally funded internal improvements and, much to his chagrin and Remini's, he never had the opportunity to leave his imprint on the executive branch. Nevertheless, as Remini's superb biography makes clear, the legislative branch was Henry Clay's domain, and during his remarkable career in that body (off and on from 1811 to 1852) he did more to refine and redefine the tone, process and importance of Congress than any other American statesman in history.Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union Overview

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America's Secret Power: The CIA in a Democratic Society Review

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America's Secret Power: The CIA in a Democratic Society Review"America's Secret Power" is Loch Johnson's 1989 study of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the premier U.S. intelligence agency. Johnson, an academic by trade, had extensive experience working as a staffer in Congress, most notably on the 1974-75 Church Committee investigations of CIA excesses.
The good news is that Johnson has compiled extensive unclassified research on the CIA, based on a variety of sources, and made a meaningful effort to analyze, for the general public, the attributes of an agency which by necessity conducts most of its business out of public view. Johnson discusses the many functions of the CIA, including its controversial responsibility for covert action and its contentious relationships with academia and the media. Johnson is to be commended for having gone the extra mile in trying to provide constructive criticism for the many faults he finds.
The bad news is that Johnson tends to undercut the value of his own work:
First, he is sometimes careless in his fact-checking, ranging from the merely annoying (Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japanese naval aviation, not the Japanese Air Force) to the fairly significant (confusing "counterinsurgency"-a method-with "paramilitary"-a tool).
Second, Johnson places too much credibility in the media accounts he relies upon in his study of CIA actions. An author who implies, for example, that the New York Times is "an organ of unfettered expression of fact" has made a remarkable assertion given the longstanding political activism of that paper.
Third, Johnson is challenged to maintain his objectivity throughout the book. He is prone to characterize various CIA activities as illegal, without actually documenting that any competent authority has found a particular activity to be illegal (as opposed to merely objectionable). Sometimes, he indulges in hyperventilating prose. The Iran-Contra Scandal, an admittedly botched attempt to ransom American hostages out of Lebanon coupled with an illegal diversion of funds to support anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua, is characterized as somehow threatening the very existance of American democracy, instead of merely the careers of the individual officials involved. Johnson seems blind to the highly partisan nature of some Congressional criticism of the CIA, rooted as much in policy differences with a President as in real or alleged wrong-doing.
"America's Secret Power" has much value as a textbook on the Central Intelligence Agency for the student who has the background and skepticism to weed through Johnson's occasional failures of objectivity and the limitations of his sources. Johnson has posed many very useful questions about the value of secret intelligence organizations in a democracy. It is to Johnson's credit that he acknowledges that many of these questions have no useful permanent answer.America's Secret Power: The CIA in a Democratic Society Overview

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The Politics of Presidential Appointments: Political Control and Bureaucratic Performance Review

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The Politics of Presidential Appointments: Political Control and Bureaucratic Performance ReviewIn this volume, Lewis deftly explores the ways that presidents use the appointment process for political advantage, and in so doing, he addresses many mistaken assumptions scholars and pundits have held in the past. This work is substantive and intriguing, and I recommend it for anyone interested in the American presidency.The Politics of Presidential Appointments: Political Control and Bureaucratic Performance Overview

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