Rating: 
Summary: required reading
Review: I bought this book after having read a review of it in "Mother Jones" last month and have been impressed by the author's thoroughness. Basically, the revelations of the Bush family's shenanigans are so much worse than I thought .This should be required reading for all registered voters in the upcoming election to counteract the fuzzy spin that the Bush campaign will use to get re-elected.
Without the humor mixed into so many political books lately, we're left with the just the truth, which is pretty darn scary.
Rating: 
Summary: Hardly Believable
Review: Sorry, but I don't believe Kevin Phillips. He was as we all know a close friend of President Richard M. Nixon and even wrote a book called "The Emerging Republican Majority." Now he wants us to believe that he is anti republican and attacks the Bush's?Sorry, I'm not buying it. This is all about writing and selling books and nothing about integrity or facts. By the way, check the standing on Phillips other books like "Profits and Politics", "The Cousins Wars" and other junk that he has written to see how well they did and are doing. They all seem to come flying out of the gate and then drop off quickly (once word of mouth spreads and people actually read this garbage) Save your money and buy a better book. This guy has no real credibility. Remember, this guy helped get Nixon elected. Does that tell you something? I mean, someone who supported Nixon, possibly the only President that was worse than Clinton and he expects us to believe him? Pass on this one.
Rating:
Summary: He's the reason I left the Republican Party!
Review: Kevin Phillips is a Republican through and through. Unfortunately, he was brewed int he Nixon era and was a close personal friend and supporter of Noxon. You remember Nixon don't you? You know that old pie face who through both arms in the arm flaring peace signs and then several years later said; "I am not a crook." How can you take a guy who brages about helping to get Nixon elected as Phillips deos seriously? I h ave read some of Phillips other junk like "The Cousins Wars", "Arragant Capital" and his most recent flop "Wealth & Democracy." Phillips, like the tabloids has his audience. Unfortunately, they are the type of audience that are loud but are same time impotent to make any changes. Phillips took cheap shots at Pres. Clinton too. Now it's the Bush family. He has been rumored to attack the Kennedy's too. It appears to me that Phillips is a very bitter man who attempts to attack anyone of worth. Now it's the Bush's. When Howard Dean becomes President, no doubt Phillips will attack him as well. Hey Phillips, why not write a book attacking Michael Jackson? How about Michael Jordan? How about Arnold Schwanzennegger or perhaps you would prefer to attack Gray Davis because he is a democrat and you are a stinky republican? Phillips is a joke and is clueless.
Rating:
Summary: Sad but true
Review: While we're on the subject of "objective writing" vs "liberal screeds," intellectually-curious people would also enjoy "Rogue Nation?" by Clyde Prestowitz. This author was an economic advisor for the Reagan administration and currently involved in world economic policy. Despite the provocative title, Prestowitz' book is well thought out, well researched and written unemotionally. The substance of his arguments (to paraphrase an earlier reviewer of this Philips book) are also little different from those of Michael Moore et al. Perhaps those who are quick to discredit these works should consider that there might be some factual basis to them. Prestowitz, by the way, is advising Howard Dean. Credit is due to the few real conservatives (Prestowitz, Phillips, David Brock) have awakened to realize that the current cadre of "conservative Republicans" are the true radicals. I long for the day when the word "reform" again has a positive meaning. Too often now, the word is a smoke screen for yet another destructive radical-right initiative that's bad for our country and its people. Geez, even John Le Carre, ever one to avoid politics in his novels, can no longer remain silent about the madness that has hijacked the United States and an activist minority of its people! To those who hope that people will wake up to the disparity between the Bush class and the mainstream of our country; the Phillips book deserves reading. There is a pattern to these Amazon reader reviews - some say this book is inspired & insightful; others say it is trash. To those who would say that it's "liberal conspiratory trash," has it occurred to you that perhaps there is some truth to the reporting? Unfortunately, the information sources that so many "conservatives" consider to be authoritative are opinion-based and not fact-based. Yet they are positioned as fact and that's enough for many people. It is sad.
Rating:
Summary: 5 Stars from a Conservative Republican
Review: I am amazed that it has taken this long for a notable historical researcher and author to write about such an important topic. You will not be disappointed with this book. This is not a knee-jerk attack on Bush like those books that we have seen from the knee-jerk liberal jerks. It is more in-line with Robert Caro's well-researched study of Lyndon Johnson than it is with Al Franken's or Michael Moore's rants. Nothwithstanding the information presented in this book, I am still planning to vote for George W. like I did in 2000. He, and the Republican Party, are simply better on the tax issue and have been for the past 25 years. Simply put, the Democrats use the income tax system to re-distribute wealth from those who have earned it to those who have not. However, regardless of my party allegiance, I am interested in reading a fascinating history and this book is the best I have read so far on the Bush family. Unlike many other best-selling books this year, this one will stand the test of time.
Rating:
Summary: Make Up Your Own Mind
Review: I too first saw Kevin Phillips on C-Span discussing this book. Phillips is a lawyer and former aide to the Nixon White House, and is hardly a liberal flame-thrower. I was impressed by his level-headedness in reviewing, with a tinge of disappointment and anger, the history of the Bush family and its many years of backroom dealings with Saudia Arabia, the oil industry, and, incredibly, the Bin Laden family. (Don't forget, in the days immediately following 9-11, the ONLY commercial flights that were allowed to take off in the US were the planes carrying members of the Bin Laden family out of the country.) This is not a shrill, one-note, Bush-bashing book, and Phillips does not appear to have an agenda or axe to grind. Accordingly, he comes across as exceedingly fair and objective. His history goes back several generations, is detailed and fully supported, and reveals the Bush family's long-standing ability to insinuate itself with, and do the bidding of, the monied class. As others, including Phillips himself, have mentioned, these are not new revelations - it is all public and available information. What seems to particularly gall Phillips is the mainstream media's laziness and lack of interest in pursuing any aspect of this tale. Neither Al Frankin nor Ann Coulter, Phillips is to be commended for this book.
Rating:
Summary: Who is Kevin Phillips?
Review: The reviewer who said that "Kevin Phillips is very far right of center" should explain why a very far right of center author would write an article entitled "Why I am no Longer a Conservative", in which he decried "Wall Street, Big Energy, multinational corporations, the Military-Industrial Complex, the Religious Right, the Market Extremist think-tanks and the Rush Limbaugh Axis" and called for "Democratic retention of at least the Senate." No ideological axe to grind there, is there? Why there must be scores of issues on which Phillips disagrees with Al Franken, like, um, uh, . . . . Can someone help me out here?
Rating:
Summary: A gift!
Review: I just opened a box from Amazon.com a few days ago and it was this book, the Christmas gift from my oldest brother (who is a lawyer AND Ph.D. for those who'll surely challenge is intelligence.) After I saw the book, I looked on this page to see if anyone had reviewed it yet; you see, every time a book is released that leans in the direction of this book, i.e., either challenges Republican fantasy\mysticism, or defends some of the good the likes of Bill Clinton did, a rash of right wing activists rush to these pages and say it's all rubbish. At the point of my receipt of the book, just a couple of days ago, there were no reviews. Now, a few days later, look: 13 some of which are one liners saying, "Nonsense" with no evidence but their platitudes to defend their stands. Unfortunately, as I am in the middle of several other books--two of them being a math book and a history of the Gettysburg campaign for those same who think all I read is left wing or "liberal propoganda"--I haven't yet begun the book. But I can't wait to.
One reviewer stated accurately that most of the anti-Bush material one hears has been publicly available for years (through the Web or even the public library.) So those who shout "Nasty Phillips" are revealing their own abysmal ignorance. I'll have read this within a few weeks. I can't wait notwithstanding the positions of Generals Lee, Hooker, and Meade in American history.
As to the one-star reviewers, I gotta hand it to you: you sure do get your messages out--despite their inaccuracy.
Rating:
Summary: A Critique from a Mainstream Professional
Review: The fascinating news about Kevin Phillips' entry into the Bush biographical scene is that a mainstream professional is now taking aim and firing in the same direction traversed earlier by daring muckraking authors such as the late J.H. Hatfield, Russell Bowen and Walter Tapley. Another point of interest is that Phillips has seen mainstream Republicanism at the presidential level firsthand, as a former White House operative of President Richard M. Nixon. Phillips cites the skepticism held by Nixon concerning George Bush I, despite appointing him to positions such as Chairman of the Republican National Committee and head of CIA Director. When Bush sought the presidency against Senator Robert Dole in 1988, Nixon supported the latter candidate, exclaiming at one point that "Bush is the kind of person you appoint to things." Elder statesman Nixon made it be known that he was uncomfortable with the idea of Bush as president. Political professional Phillips knows that the Bush family story contained skullduggery from the outset, starting with banker and later Senator Prescott Bush, grandfather of the current White House occupant, making loans to Adolf Hitler, which assisted the Third Reich in acquiring pig iron, which was used in its war effort. Can one imagine what the media outcry as well as the right would have been if Bill Clinton's family had ever been involved in such an enterprise? Veteran Washington journalist Tom Wicker had expressed trepidation over Bush I becoming president due to his CIA background. Phillips moves into that arena, demonstrating how CIA contacts were used to assist Bush. It is particularly interesting how quickly former Bush CIA source, General Manuel Noriega of Panama, was silenced after being arrested for illegal drug activity that the then president must almost assuredly have known about when he headed the agency. Another key area of Bush family double dealing is in the oil realm. The story of the elder Bush launching out on his own in the West Texas oil patch is myth. He arrived in his father's private jet. As for Junior, he destroyed one oil company, Harken bailing out and selling his stock before it was too late. When he was investigated for potential anti-trust violations due to insider trading it was none other than his father, then president, who squelched the investigation. Junior then used father's lucrative contacts to become the front man and alleged primary owner of the Texas Rangers. The allegedly conservative Bush then helped himself to a large dose of socialism for the rich in enticing local community voters to approve the funding of a state of the art baseball stadium. As for Junior's baseball expertise, he was the one who traded Sammy Sosa to the Cubs. The most hilarious aspect of all concerning the Phillips book is the complaint from pro-Bush sources that this is just another "Bush smear." To hear this from that source is like the legendary case of being called ugly by a frog. Bush I achieved the presidency by questioning his opponent's patriotism and exploiting racial themes through Willie Horton and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Working closely with Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes in the mud-stained campaign was none other than Junior, then receiving his political seasoning. The valuable lessons learned from Atwater and Ailes served Junior and his leading guru Karl Rove well in delivering one of the most vicious smears in the history of presidential campaigning in South Carolina in 2000 against John McCain, even questioning the Arizona senator's sanity. All this was being done during a campaign in which Bush, with a straight face no less, promised to create a new and more civil climate in Washington politics by reducing its partisanship level.
Rating:
Summary: Democrats and Republicans should readf this
Review: One thing people need to understand about this book, is that Kevin Phillips was a leading Republican (now independent). The reader that compared this book to Al Franken's book was not being objective. Al bleeds liberal blood. Kevin Phillips is very far right of center and I believe it is hard for people to be objective and think out of their own political biases -- It's only natural. I consider myself and independent and appreciate books that tackle subjects that noone else wants to believe or take on. Sometimes, the truth hurts and our leaders and heroes aren't who we think they are. Wake up!
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