Party Monsters
Joe Klein castigates both Republican and Democratic leaders for today's political culture

By Ken Bode | April 23, 2006

Politics Lost: How American Democracy Was Trivialized by People Who Think You're Stupid
By Joe Klein


...This is a deeply cynical book. Take, for instance, his description of the two political parties. Democrats have had their spiritual vigor sapped by vehement secularism, their soggy internationalism spineless in the face of a dangerous world. Their liberal wing has an automatic disdain for the use of force, an attitude that is not only weak but also unpatriotic.

The Republicans, who come off a little better, are witlessly radical, fiscally irresponsible at home, intemperate and bullying abroad, and purveyors of an intrusive religiosity that is shockingly intolerant of science or reason...

...Klein is very respectful of the Bushes, father and son George Sr. can't be blamed for the tawdry tactics of 1988, the author says, because ''he delegated politics to Lee Atwater; he was too decent a man for the hugger-mugger." When John McCain demolished George W. in the 2000 New Hampshire primary, young Bush kept his cool and headed for South Carolina. There McCain found himself depicted as having snakes in his head from the brainwashing he received during his six years as a prisoner of war, his wife was branded a drug addict, and he faced rumors he had fathered a mixed-race child. When he confronted Bush about this clandestine demolition job, McCain was told, ''It's just politics, John." The real lesson in all this is when a Bush gets cornered in a political campaign, politics heads for the gutter. In the end, it is the candidate's responsibility, not the consultant's...

...If you're looking for opinionated, gossipy dish about the consultants and the candidates, this book is for you. These are Klein's characterizations, not mine. Michael Dukakis, who hailed from the National Public Radio wing of his party, made the gratuitously lunkheaded gesture of admitting he was a card-carrying member of the ACLU. Bill Clinton was a womanizer of desperately bad taste. John Kerry was a man of regal negligence, all dignity and no details...