Rating: 
Summary: Best account of the VRWC--"vast right wing conspiracy" yet!
Review: Goeffrey Toobin's book, _ A Vast Conspiracy_, is pretty good. Gene Lyons' and Joe Conason's _The Hunting of the President_ is also good. But this is by far the best book to explain, succinctly and by means of a personal odyssey, just what happened in the '90s as the corrupt and hypocritical GOP right wingers pursued Bill Clinton.Brock is a fine writer. Yes, he is self-indulgent to a degree, but if you are sympathetic to his situation, you will find it more "introspective" as he struggled with his sexual orientation, his suspicions about his friends' true feelings toward him, but most importantly, his suspicions about the integrity of the VRWC. Almost everyone in the VRWC gets trashed convincingly here: The Wall Street Journal, Kenneth Starr, Theodore Olson, Bill Bennett, Ann Coulter, Robert Bork, Matt Drudge. As a special bonus, Brock adds personal insults that are mostly well-deserved. (For every cheap shot he offers against some of these people, he usually offers examples of worse conduct on their parts... It takes a lot of courage to write a book like this, wherein the author acknowledges that he stretched the truth and journalistic ethics in his political diatribes that were so influential in the "hunting of the President". I found his observations about his personal struggles with those who were supposedly his close personal friends to be convincing and moving, whether they were the results of his sexual orientation or his increasing estrangement from the right wing. I think it's pretty telling that no one has succeeded in attacking Brock's book on the merits or the facts. And the insights he offers about how one can get caught up in the social, financial, and political advantages of service to a well-funded and glamorous coterie of partisans only make his book more convincing. The Bush administration is full of VRWC members. He also offers some observations that I have been looking for in the mainstream press, but have not been able to find, such as that many of the so-called "commentators" in the middle of the so-called "Lewinsky scandal", including most of those you used to see on the cable news programs--Olson, Braden, Levin, Coulter, Bennett, Fund, et al. were in fact members, even paid members, of the VRWC... I highly recommend this book. Why not five stars? No photos, no index, and most annoyingly, no photo of the "amazing dog" that Brock describes, ending the book, alluding to Truman's remark about how to have a friend in Washington.
Rating: 
Summary: I wouldn't trust anything Matt Drudge reports
Review: ...If even 10% of this book is true, then Mr. Brock surely paints a scary picture of the "blood sport" that politics in this country has become.
Rating:
Summary: I wouldn't trust anything Matt Drudge reports
Review: Matt Drudge claims that David Brock was in a mental institution last summer, but I wouldn't take anything Drudge reports seriously -- he's a sleazy gossip columnist whose show on Fox was cancelled because he would (and still does) constantly purvey inaccurate information. Why so many people mistake a gossip columnist for a serious journalist is a mystery to me. Besides, I think Drudge is angry at Brock because Drudge is -- as Brock suggests in this book -- a closeted gay man himself and does not want to come out. If even 10% of this book is true, then Mr. Brock surely paints a scary picture of the "blood sport" that politics in this country has become.
Rating: 
Summary: One writer flew over the cuckoo nest
Review: Those rah-rahing over this book might want to check out numerous columns online which are devastating to many if not most of David Brock's assertions. This guy apparently can't seem to tell the truth, ever, to anyone. He also recently was forced to admit that he'd been admitted to a mental institution in the recent past. We're talking rubber room, disassociation from reality stuff here, not depression or substance abuse. So, enjoy it as you might, beware of reading books that just tell you what you want to hear. They're fiction, as is, apparently, most of this book. Brock's "conservative" books were full of a lot of hooey, but this one is too.
Rating:
Summary: The Key To Brock's Book
Review: It's very simple, folks. Brock alleges that Judge Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court (through an intermediary) blackmailed a woman named Kay Savage into filing a false affidavit. If Brock's allegations are false, his publisher's lawyers would not have allowed into print. Kay Savage would deny the story. Thomas's intermediary would deny the story -- and sue. Clarence Thomas would deny the story and sue for defamation and slander. None of this has happened. (Is anyone suggesting here that Clarence Thomas doesn't have access to good legal advice? Is too busy to notice and that no one has brought this impeachable accusation to his attention?) Brock alleges that Richard Mellon Scaife poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the anti-Clinton efforts of the nineties, that reporters and investigators financed and authorized by him published articles that they knew to be lies. The reporters are named; the publications, articles, editorials, TV appearances are cited. If these reporters, all of whom seemingly have reputations they would want to protect, have neither denied Brock's account or sued, are they also too busy, too distracted? Did Brock's publishers and his lawyers decide that American libel laws are just sort of insignificant and who cares what we publish? Obviously, no. Brock alleges, among a host of other allegations, that Theodore Olsen, the far right's leading legal visionary, their Supreme Court Champion in Bush v Gore; the current Solicitor General published articles (pseudonamously) in the American Spectator against Clinton that were clearly lies and that he knew to be lies. Does Ted Olsen care so little for his reputation that he would ignore allegations that he masterminded a camapign of dirty tricks to destabilize a constitutionally elected US President? Did Brock's publisher decide, 'oh what the hell, let's throw in some libel against one of the most ferocious legal minds in the country because we can get lots of publicity when he sues us?' Yes, the radical right wing (a small cadre) has responded to Brock's book. They have tried to ignore it and when the book became a huge best seller (NY Times top ten for weeks; Amazon top ten for weeks) they tried to demonize Brock personally, whipping up mini tempests over side issues like the assertion Brock got the date wrong on Ted Olsen's wedding to Barbara Olsen (?) -- see Chris Hitchens truly idiotic review in the Nation, reprinted in selectively abridged version elsewhere here. And they clamor here that Brock is an admitted liar about Anita Hill and the Arkansas Troopers and therefore should not be believed (although one hears no apologies from the cadre to Ms. Hill or the Clintons.) In other words, if Brock lied about Anita Hill, lied about the Clintons, these right wingers to be consistent, must rush into print in the pages of house organs like The Spectator and Commentary and The Standard a full apology to Anita Hill and an immediate call for the impeachment of Judge Clarence Thomas who has now, using their logic, been revealed as a perjurer and blackmailer. How come these things haven't happened, folks? And do you suppose they ever will? The fact is Clarence Thomas should be impeached. Ted Olsen should resign and should lose his law license. If anybody else written about here by Brock feels suitably aggrieved by Brock's account, feels that he has lied about them, they should respond in print or in a legal courtroom. Instead, they dispatch their toaides to denounce Brock personally, whisper about his 'mental instability' and hope to God this book falls off the best seller lists and that no one else from the filthy, corrupt underworld they inhabit comes forward to blow more whistles. (I call on anyone else with a conscience in that tortured and sick sect to kindly do so. This country needs you.)
Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: The most excellent book I have ever read. I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Much Needed Contribution
Review: This book provides a much needed contribution in refuting the falsehoods spread by the so-called "Christian" Right. It is a good companion to a wonderful new book titled Real Prophecy Unveiled: Why the Christ Will Not Come Again, And Why the Religious Right Is Wrong, by Joseph J. Adamson. And another good book is A Pilgrim's Path: Freemasonry and the Religious Right, by John J. Robinson. Thank God for books like these, because they shed light in a world made dark by "religious" bigotry, hypocrisy, and aggression. They give me faith that the humble and meek shall inherit the earth after all.
Rating:
Summary: The reader from Minnesota proves Brock's point
Review: I think it's funny that the previous diatribe against Brock is a perfect product of the conservative slash-and-burn movement Brock describes in his book. Quoting: "Also Drudge has reported that Brock was in the loony bin when he wrote the book...Figures!" If a liberal turncoat had produced a book similar to Brock's from the loony bin, conservatives would still line up for a copy. Moreover, utilizing a gay conservative who has yet to figure out that his movement despises him (Sullivan) to tear down a gay man who DID figure it out strikes me as the sort of typical, politically motivated sophistry that should drive a person to a loony bin. If "many people like Andrew Sullivan (are) claiming (Brock) invented the material in this book," then we should expect to see Brock and his publisher successfully sued for libel. Anyhow, regardless of any disputed particularities or stylistic shortcomings, Brock's book is the only comprehensive overview of the conservative faux research and journalism industry in general (that I know). (Many have been written against single-issue liberalism's various outlets.) It will give the objective reader insight into popular conservative commentary and how our nation is needlessly (and dangerously) polarized by foolish extremists and panderers such as Brock.
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Summary: Scary, Revealing, Truthful and Simply Wonderful Reading!
Review: This is an increadibly revealing and interesting book that will capture the attention of anybody who's ever read a newspaper or watched the evening news. In short, it should be required reading on every college-level political history class.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but take it with a grain of salt
Review: ... The book is interesting, in a soap-opera way, and Liberals will find much to smile about as he lambastes such leftist enemies as Pat Buchanan and Rush Limbaugh. As he has admitted to doing in his Spectator articles, he takes facts that are true and combines them with opinions or idle gossip that might be true. The question is... what is true? In Brock's defense, plenty of books have been written about 'left-wing conspiracies', with little or no journalistic credibility (Bernard Goldberg's book about the liberal media is a prime example) yet the media accepts those books almost as factual accounts. If that is the case, why not enjoy Brock's tale of the right with the same salacious enthusiasm? As right wing authors have proven with the left, there's nothing wrong with a little fact-finding combined whole lot of gossip, which is the main reason liberals will buy and enjoy this book. In conclusion, liberals will certainly find much to smile about and alot to whisper about in this exciting (and somewhat implausible) book, and conservatives will be seething with rage and attempt to discredit Brock (as many have already done). There's nothing wrong with reading the gossip, just keep in mind that's what it is.
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