Rating: 
Summary: Good for you David Brock
Review: This is a terrific book. Written almost as a coming of age story, Brock uses the device of his own tortured psyche to peel back the sordid underbelly of neo-conservative hate mongering. Of course, the conservatives have blasted the book, and attacked their former darling through a coordinated smear campaign in various media outlets. But they do not seem to be lining up at the libel bar. If it is all lies and more damned lies, I wonder why they don't take him on legally - could it be they know it is more factual than they care to admit?I hope the book continues to do well, and I hope it signals a return to a little more balance from the right AND the left. Hey, I can dream can't I? I am an American after all.
Rating:
Summary: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy? You decide
Review: First I applaud David Brock for his courage in writing this book. Second I hope it shows to the purveyors of sleeze and dirty tricks that you very well might be named (someday). Brock pulls no punches and shows how from the Scaife's "Arkansas Project" to derail the Clinton presidency by funneling millions of dollars to extreme right wing rascists, con-artists, Clinton crazies, and people that the kindest thing you can say to them is that they have mental problems--to inner Republican circles--there was a conspiracy to destroy Clinton by any means necessary. Interestingly, one person who survives Brock's lambasting fairly well is Ralph Reed, the head of the Christian Coalition, who seems to be one of the few Republicans who are sincere and plays fair. If you're a Republican and read this book, you'll probably be angry that you were lied to by the powers-that-be in the Republican party about Anita Hill and Vincent Foster (just two quick examples, the book is full of 'em). If you're a Democrat, you'll know Hillary wasn't far from the truth, maybe it's not so vast, maybe its an intimate conspiracy, but conspiracy it is, of rogues who would do anything, certainly damaging the country they don't hestitate, to bring the hated Clinton down. Brooks account rings true to me but read it for yourself, it's a fascinating read into the state of politics in Amerika today. Kudos to Brock for his courage and his conversion.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice try, but...
Review: Brock wouldn't last 5 minutes in a debate with someone like Bernard Goldberg, Brent Bozell, or surely not Rush Limbaugh. He turned over when he interviewed Hillary Clinton and she put on the "mother" act with him, turning him to a pile of confused and adoring mush... For one thing, Anita Hill's mental problems are documented, and she lost any credibility she ever had long ago. If anyone could get her hooked up to a polygraph for about 10 minutes this matter could finally be put to rest, but that's never going to happen. She may be crazy, but she's not stupid...
I'd love to see some enterprising psychoanalyst do a paper on Brock and Ariana Huffington. I'm guessing they have similar idiosyncracies when it comes to principle and self-delusion...
Rating: 
Summary: And the proceeds go to...?
Review: It's always nice to see (or in this case, read about) someone acknowledging their mistakes. In this volume, the author has done so. What David Brock has failed to do, as evidenced by the content of this book, is to right his wrongs. Simply admitting you did something wrong, or in this case, many, many horrible things that have impacted the lives of many, many people, is not enough. He should make every reasonable effort to fix things, which he has not. He still hasn't personally apologized to Anita Hill for assassinating her character, which was directly responsible for the Supreme Court confirmation of Clarence Thomas, who cast the deciding vote for Dubya to be installed as President of the United States, even though Al Gore won the election. That's only one example, but I feel that example is good enough. While the content of Mr. Brock's book is well written, informative and sometimes apologetic, it is also infuriating for this reader to sit through, as I would imagine it would be for many others. While Mr. Brock's mother may be proud of her son's rising to the level of influence that he had, she should be ashamed of the fact that he is - to this day - cashing in on his evil deeds. After all, who is profiting from the sale of this book: the villain or the victims?
Rating: 
Summary: At last... a look behind the curtain!
Review: As many reviewers have noted, Mr. Brock confesses to lies and fabrications throughout this book so his veracity might be put to question. But I'm tempted to believe this political confessional if for no other reason than his portrayal of many conservative pundits seems rational enough to understand many of their rantings. It's not the political theology that many of his former colleagues embrace that's dangerous. It's the motivations and personal agendas that drive many of them to utter rumor as fact while maintaining a holier-than-thou level of hypocracy that seems unprecedented in modern times. The Rush Limbaughs, David Horowitzs, Ann Coulters and Matt Drudges of the world can bray and shout, however Brock pulls aside the curtain to give rational people a peek at what they are really after. It's a shame that Mr. Brock can't fully dissect the motivations that create a level of disgust and hate far beyond that of polite dissent, but then I doubt that anyone truly understands them. Thank you David, for at least shining a light on those who would prefer to stay back in the dark and throw mud.
Rating:
Summary: Eye-opening and mind-blowing.
Review: Reactionary movements, in order to thrive, must have an enemy - someone who can be demonized and dismissed as subhuman. When communism collapsed, the right choose as its new enemy - us, its fellow Americans. Suddenly, everyone who isn't on the extreme right-hand edge of the political spectrum is an evil, baby-eating "Liberal" - not a fellow citizen to be disagreed with but a treasonous enemy to be utterly destroyed. Political discourse has been replaced with increasingly hysterical ranting by extremists who sneer at traditional conservative values such as civility and public service, and are obsessed with annihilating "the enemy" at all costs. David Brock lays out the sordid history and chilling agenda of the extreme right in riveting detail. Page after page reveals the mind-blowing hypocrisy of the self-congratulating guardians of family values, their brazen lies, their open racism and anti-Semitism. I didn't think my opinion of the reactionary right could go any lower, until I read this book. This is a long overdue exposé of a movement that is politically, intellectually and most of all morally bankrupt. Anyone who wonders how so much poisonous rancor has been injected into the US political process must read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Inside the Cocoon
Review: Few books capture the unmistakable odor of decadence from our nation's capital as abjectly as this one. Brock may believe it is the political right he has unmasked in his 300 page confession -- and so he has. But more importantly, he has helped expose the power that big money has in setting the nation's issues and agenda quite apart from what ordinary people may think or feel. Aside from an insider's account of rightist shenanigans, interesting as these may be, the work's lasting value lies in Chapter 4 where we find out who bankrolls such efforts and why, and how many of these rightwing outfits suck on the teat of cash cows like Olin, Coors, Scaife, et. al. Not that I'm carrying a brief for the Democrats. Their particular version of sell out is amply recorded by Ralph Nader in Crashing the Party. What these books add up to is a glimpse into where power really lies in America, and how it gets promoted by well-paid idealists like Brock. And while an insider's account of the power struggles and Kultur Kampf at the top makes for juicy reading, it's scarcely the most important aspect of Brock's personal mea culpa.
Rating:
Summary: A better title would have been "The Stooge"
Review: More trash from David Brock. He keeps taking money from the right & the left. Save your money and avoid this.
Rating: 
Summary: Are you being swerved?
Review: David Brock spends most of his book describing his tremendous hand in bringing sleaze media into Republican politics. He acknowledges many behind-the-scenes conservatives as well as other vested interests in the Republican party, which is helpful in perpetuating the reality of conservatism being the party attempting to legislate social norms and behaviors, but wanting government to remain distant from economics. In this respect, it's moderately helpful. I still feel awful about this book. I can't fathom how a writer spends 300+ pages discussing how his bestsellers were assortments of eggagerations, misnomers, unverified facts, and selective truth telling, and then subsequently expects readers to accept and believe his contemporary perspective. Given that he never explained at what point he learned bipartisan journalism, I really can't believe everything he claims; in particular, his treatment of his attitudes towards conservatism during his lengthy run in Washington as a sort of posturing for approval, silencing of his 'true identity', and other methods approximating brainwshing are simply unbelievable. Overall, it's nice to see a title that attempts to apologise for one's actions as a conservative, one that additionally portrays the "vast right-wing conspiracy" for what it really is (an attempt to create an image of a "vast left-wing conspiracy," such that the populace remains distracted enough, leaving their guard down to swallow conservative theory without question). The message I received from the book could be considered "Hey, don't believe this, that stuff is a lie. Believe *this* instead!" David Brock did enough damage during his career already, and I consider myself to be one bleeding heart liberal type who thinks that he owes this nation more than an apology (especially given the self-serving nature of his self-cleansing text here).
Rating:
Summary: Self Defacing horror; from the lips of a willing victim
Review: I've read dozens of political books. This is, hands down, the best one ever written. It virtually exposes the complete state of politics through the 90s with a first hand perspective.
Everybody, Democrats (interested in seeing how it all came to be), Republicans (interested in working through the many factions of their own party), and Unsure, need to read this book NOW.
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