Rating: 
Summary: An Insider's Look at the Bungling Behind a Historic Choice
Review: During his first presidential term, Richard Nixon had the unusual opportunity to appoint four justices to the supreme court. This book tells the inside story of how the nominees were selected, focusing almost entirely on the selection of the latter two: Lewis Powell, a prominent Virginia attorney, and William Rehnquist, then the Assistant Attorney General to John Mitchell. Not counting the book's introduction and afterword, its main story covers just 35 days in the fall of 1971.The book begins by telling how Nixon virtually created the first two vacancies. Essentially, Nixon encouraged Senate republicans to fillibuster the elevation of Abe Fortas to the Chief Justice position. Once in office, Nixon's men then staged a PR campaign to discredit Fortas, causing him to announce his retirement. Ironically, the legal precedent for investigating Fortas' business dealings was based on a memo written by Rehnquist. If anyone should be entitled to write this story, it is John Dean. At the time, Dean was Council to the President, and it was he that first brought up Rehnquist's name, mostly as a fanciful suggestion. He recounts his experiences vetting candidates and some of his conversations as reconstructed from notes and memory. Primarily, however, the book is based on Nixon's tape recorded conversations in the oval office. Dean has done a good job editing these transcripts so as to maintain sufficient context without dragging them out too long. What emerges in these conversations is a series of bungled operations and imprudent decisions. Before Lewis and Rehnquist were finally selected in the final two days before their names were announced, the administration actually selected four other candidates. Two were rejected by the Senate, and the other two (including a woman) were deemed unqualified by the ABA (although from the sounds of it, the female candidate, Mildred Lillie, was fairly qualified but discriminated against by the all-male panel). John Mitchell and his assistant Rehnquist did an abysmal job vetting candidates, so much so that Dean and another lawyer were sent by John Ehrlichman to independently interview the candidates in more depth. And Nixon himself seemed to base his choices on hearsay and surface biographical snippets, like the candidates' class rank or the school they graduated from. He paid very little attention to the candidates' actual writings or opinions. One of the incidental but nevertheless shocking revelations in the book is the deep extent of Nixon's sexism. Recent tapes have revealed his racism and anti-semitism, but his low opinion of women is repeated time and again in the transcripts. For example he is quoted as saying "I don't even think women should be educated!" and "I don't think a woman should be in any government job whatever." In the book's afterword, Dean makes a compelling case that Rehnquist lied under oath during his confirmation hearings, both when he was initially confirmed in 1971, and then again in 1986 when Reagan nominated him to Chief Justice. At issue were Rehnquist's activities in Arizona during the 1960's preventing minorities from voting, and a controversial memo he wrote while clerking for Justice Robert Jackson in which he urged Jackson to vote to maintain segregated schools in the historic "Brown vs. Board of Education" case. Dean argues that if Rehnquist had been better vetted and prepared for his initial confirmation hearings, he would have had ready answers to these questions. Instead, he was caught off guard and ended up lying in 1971, and then lying again in 1986 to maintain the original lies. Due to Rehnquist's dishonesty and the profound effect of his rulings on the high court, Dean openly regrets ever having suggested Rehnquist's name to Nixon staffers. Although this fascinating book is about far more than just Nixon's selection of Rehnquist, clearly that selection was the most important from a historical perspective. In a sense, this book is Dean's act of repentance for his role in the Rehnquist choice.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth it...
Review: Even in politics the credit for mediocre decisions are fought over. Is it just me or does John Dean want to write himself into every important or at least not illegal decision that was made in the Nixon White House? With that being said this book does give the reader an interesting view into the process the President goes through in selecting a Supreme Court Justice. I have to imagine that this process has not changed much in the past 25 years. If you have also read some books on the Nixon administration it is interesting to get his view of the people and the relationships. The author also gets a lot of criticism from his former co-workers in he White House every time he puts out a book so that says to me that he is either telling something they do not want told or he is just hated. If you are a political junky then this is an interesting book to read.
Rating:
Summary: What a Story
Review: Even in politics the credit for mediocre decisions are fought over. Is it just me or does John Dean want to write himself into every important or at least not illegal decision that was made in the Nixon White House? With that being said this book does give the reader an interesting view into the process the President goes through in selecting a Supreme Court Justice. I have to imagine that this process has not changed much in the past 25 years. If you have also read some books on the Nixon administration it is interesting to get his view of the people and the relationships. The author also gets a lot of criticism from his former co-workers in he White House every time he puts out a book so that says to me that he is either telling something they do not want told or he is just hated. If you are a political junky then this is an interesting book to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Nixonology at its Best
Review: Every time I think about John Dean sitting in the National Archives listening to his own voice on the presidential tapes, I think how surreal that must have been for the other researchers at the adjacent study carrels. How odd for a man to be able to hear his own voice, 29 years later, occasionally exclaiming: "I said that?" This is a wonderful look at Nixon with some of the funniest anecdotes you'll every come across. John Dean has a real ear for irony and a smooth writing style that will surprise people who know he is a lawyer but didn't come across his talent in the excellent Blind Ambition. There are a couple of points worth making. One is that even though President Nixon weighed political considerations for every move he mad, he seemed to genuinely relish the opportunity to appoint a qualified person from the top of his class at Stanford. If there is a disconnect in this book, it is that Dean makes Rehnquist out to be a much worse person than he is. The Chief Justice is not a bad man and Dean need not feel so guilty about being the first person to raise his name. Skip the moralizing at the end of the book and concentrate on a true story of how a justice was picked and you will laugh until you cry. Some might say it makes them cry, it shouldn't . Its just politics.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect for Supreme Court Junkies
Review: If you love reading about the Supreme Court and the story behind the Justices and how they got there, then this book is perfect. John Dean was in the Nixon White House when Tricky Dick was looking to make two Court appointments at the same time. The first appointment, Lewis Powell, wasn't too hard. He was a distinguished lawyer. But what about the other appointment? Nixon couldn't find anyone suitable for the position. His choices were either not qualified or didn't want the position. As a last resort, he picked an obscure White House lawyer who went on the change the face of constitutional law, William Rehnquist.
John Dean explains how Rehnquist was chosen and quotes Nixon saying some very unsavory things about women as well as other intemporate comments. This was the real Nixon -- a foul mouthed political animal who placed ideology over everything else. The book also talks about Rehnquist's unsavory past, including a memo he wrote as a Supreme Court clerk in 1954, when the Court decided Brown v. Board of Education, the seminal ruling outlawing separate but equal schools. The future Supreme Court Justice proposed affirming Plessy v. Ferguson, which affirmed racial distinctions in schooling. John Dean talks about this controversial memo and takes apart Rehnquist's position that it did not reflect his views.
Rating:
Summary: Confirms Confirmation
Review: John Dean has written a readable retelling of the appointment politics surrounding William Rehnquist, then Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and since 1986 Chief Justice of the United States. Those who have read about the Court avidly or extensively will not find much here that is new, but that tends to validate what Dean says. Those who knew little about President Nixon or the politics of appointments in the Nixon Era will find more than a few fascinating stories. Mr. Dean was a lawyer working in the White House. Thus, he was privy to many of the machinations of the Nixon Administration. If Mr. Dean is liable to be suspected of repenting or exaggerating his role, he may be at least presumed to be an authority. One of Mr. Dean's overarching points is that Mr. Rehnquist was appointed to the Court nearly accidentally. The naive reader will be startled to see how little thought went into the selection, how late in the process that thought came about, and how few second thoughts were lavished on the selection once it was made. In addition, the reader will be amused by the cavalier banter that passed for analysis between Nixon and his various sounding boards. Dean has reproduced dialogue from the White House tapes, so the quotations appear to be authoritative. The "might have beens" are too delicious to spoil in this review. Dean deftly introduces each possibility with a capsule description so that readers who did not pay much attention in 1971 may appreciate who was who. No one should be surprised to read that Nixon was prejudiced against blacks, Jews, and women, but the vehemence with which Nixon spews stereotypes startles even thirty years later. Dean concludes that Rehnquist, in 1971 and 1986, fibbed his way thorough difficulties. The splendid irony that the fellow who presided over Clinton's trial in the Senate in 1999 had perjured himself onto the Court and into the Chief Justiceship is hardly news. To believe Rehnquist's denials concerning challenging minority voters in Arizona in the 1960s or concerning his memorandum urging the justices to uphold "separate but equal" as good law required muscular denial. [Dean does not raise the matter of the restrictive covenant on Rehnquist's property.] Those familiar with these issues will find very little new. However, those new to the matter will find in the "Afterword" a concise but articulate discussion of why Rehnquist's denials were unbelievable. What readers may not gather from Dean's prose, however, is that, in a roundabout way, the system worked. Stymied by the American Bar Association [which found Nixon's first few candidates to be unqualified or unimpressive] and stung by mass media attacks on Nixon's attempts to appoint mediocrities, Nixon felt compelled to go for a little stature with predictable ideology. Rehnquist was a predictable conservative. He was also many cuts above the sorts of people with whom Nixon wanted to saddle the Court.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Choice-- You Be the Judge!
Review: John Dean has written an insider's book that chronicles President Richard Nixon's appointment of William Rehnquist to the United States Supreme Court. It was without doubt a Presidency filled with history, and the appointment of William Rehnquist to the Supreme Court is an often forgotten part of that Presidency. The book is well researched and throughly documented with first hand material from the National Archives, including several verbatim passages transcribed from the infamous White House tapes that otherwise doomed the Nixon Presidency. Dean brings us inside the "vetting" process used by the White House staff and Justice Department to select nominees to the Court. Dean floated the name of Rehnquist to several in the administration, including then Attorney General John Mitchell, as a possible conservative candidate for the Court as Dean had worked with Rehnquist in the Justice Department and learned of the Rehnquist's strict constructionist interpretation of the constitution. What was fascinating was that Rehnquist while toiling away at the Justice Department was tasked with "vetting' the other possible Court nominees chosen by the White House. Sounds much like the recent scenario of the selection of Dick Cheney as Vice President. The book details the other nominees Rehnquist beat out for the coveted position. If anyone believes that politics plays no part in the selection of the members of the Court, then this is required reading. At times humorous and at times self-serving, this book is well worth the purchase. If you are not a Court watcher don't worry, you don't have to be to appreciate this book. Dean is a good writer and the text flows easily. Add "The Rehnquist Choice" to your summer reading list - you will gain an appreciation of the importance of Presidential nominations to the Court.
Rating:
Summary: good history, bad politics
Review: John Dean was the man partly responsible for putting William Rehnquist's name in contention leading Nixon to nominate him, who decided on Rehnquist only hours before he announced his nominees for two positions on the Court. As a history, the first twelve chapters of the book are an interesting look at how Nixon went through his list of nominees (many of which were frightfully unqualified). Though toward the end, the book gets a little redundant with similar conversations being transcribed, just with different people. Other than the length, the twelve chapters dealing with the decision-making process are a good dispassionate history. The afterward (about the Senate hearings), however, seem a little unfair. John Dean (as well as Rick Perlstein in Before the Storm) has leveled a charge that Rehnquist 'harassed voters' in Arizona in 1968 at the election polls. 'Harassing voters,' or checking their eligibility by making sure that they were in fact registered to vote and that they were not voting under someone else's name, is not exactly an illegal practice and is in fact a common party tactic that still remains today in both parties. You can hardly blame Nixon officials for wanting to be sure the game was being played fair especially after Nixon's experience in 1960 with massive voter fraud in Illinois and Texas. Dean also implies that Rehnquist is racist, because he presented a defense for the Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1953 and thought that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was unconstitutional at the time (as did Senators Barry Goldwater and Al Gore, Sr., who both later regretted voting against it), and implied Rehnquist was an extremist because Rehnquist seemed to question the Miranda decision. This is unfair because it doesn't acknowledge room for intellectual growth that a person inevitably undergoes, and as Rehnquist has obviously shown, if indeed he did question them, in decisions on the Court upholding Brown v. Board of Education decision and Miranda in his rulings as well as the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In short, if you are looking at the first 12 chapters, the book deserves 4 and a half stars, but the somewhat intellectually dishonest afterword spoils an otherwise interesting book.
Rating:
Summary: Politics, Happenstance, and William Rehnquist
Review: Only in the last couple of years have all the tapes of Nixon's many conversations as President in the White House been released. The tragedy of Richard Nixon is that every time someone wants to think well of him, tapes or something else surfaces that shows his real unpleasant, dark, and unsavory character. John Dean waited for the release of these tapes and along with his personal recollections during the time period has written a book that deals with the selection of Rehnquist and Lewis Powell as United States Supreme Court Justices. Its not pleasant reading for those naive enough to believe that Presidents seek out the most qualified people for appointments. Rather, the book exposes the process used by President Nixon to select two supreme court justices as frought with politics, bigotry, and regionalism. Nixon's bigotry about Jews, prejudice against easterners, and nasty language make this a book that someone who is very sensitive should not read. The real shocker here is that before picking Powell who was a superbly qualified justice, Nixon first selected two candidates who could not even win acceptance as "qualified" for the Supreme Court by the American Bar Association Committee on the Federal Judiciary. Nixon stubbornly tried to get these individuals appointed until it became absolutely clear it was hopeless. Only at this point, did a real candidate like Powell get nominated. Nixon further abused the process by sending names to the ABA of other people he knew would never win approval. Rehnquist had good paper qualifications to sit on the Supreme Court. However, it was known early on he was extremely conservative. He may have lied about statements he allegedly made expressing approval of racial segregation in schools. Dean presents the case for this. Its up to the reader to judge. In the end, we are left gasping at the twisted and bizarre process which put Rehnquist on the Supreme Court. Even those who support Rehnquist and other conservative justices should wish for a better process to select judges. Hopefully, one day we shall see such a process and never see another President like Nixon again. Mark
Rating:
Summary: Worth it...
Review: The book is good for those of us who love the Supreme Court and convservativism, but be warned... Mr. Dean is not a huge Nixon fan nor does he really like Rehnquist. You may find yourself doubting his convictions and disagreeing with him, and that's okay. It's worth it, though, so read the book. It's a fairly quick read.
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