Audio Book: The Book On Bush
Written by Eric Alterman and Mark Green (Audio Partners)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

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The talk show cauldron is bubbling out of control, the political gadflies are pontificating from whatever petty mount will hold their weight for even a fleeting moment. The endless stream of political cartoons, when read in totality, crush any naive sense that any debate taken from the current stream of rhetoric is anything but savage character assassination. Who was where and in what capacity has never been more in doubt; the news has become fiction and the narrator as unreliable as the spawn of Humbert Humbert.

Welcome to Election 2004, an absurd place more likened to circus than nation building. In fact, in 2004 the idea of building anything out of the election has long since passed. The fraternity of Skull and Bones has pitted two of its finest against each other; their names are clearly written on bumper stickers from Texas to Cape Cod, but beyond those monikers nothing seems certain.

The cottage industry that is Bush Muck Raking is seeking to change that. As an invaluable tool from that seemingly endless procession is The Book On Bush, the work of progressives Eric Alterman and Mark Green. Theirs is a credible tome, grounded in facts that are salacious, revealing and considering the front page works of our president, imminently believable. While the GOP seeks to churn up eager voices from John Kerry's past, Alterman and Green have followed a hard line of truth in writing their book. At nineteen and one half hours, there might be precious little time over the next two days to digest what The Book On Bush offers, but even a strafing glimpse of what it offers is enough to steer the swing voter in anyone.

© 2004 - Erick Mertz