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Whistle Stopper - Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy
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List Price: $15.99
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Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9780316118057
ISBN: 0316118052
Label: Back Bay Books
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 448
Publication Date: 2008-04-28
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Studio: Back Bay Books
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: TAKEOVER
Comment: THE POWERS OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH HAVE GONE TOO FAR IN OUT WEIGHING THE OTHER BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT.
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Summary: The History of the Unitary Executive Theory.
Comment: "Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency" offers a view of American history and how various presidents have tested the Constitutional boundaries of executive power. Richard Nixon framed it well in these words-"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal."
One of the strengths of this book is the information about Dick Cheney and how integral a part he has played over the course of his career in the White House in his obsession with strengthening the presidency. With George W. Bush he has succeeded in making the presidency virtually free from oversight on the part of the legislative and judicial branches.
A disturbing pattern of behavior appears in the current administration; if the Constitution, a law, or Congress gets in their way, they simply ignore the obstacle and continue on.
Mr. Savage examines another intriguing aspect of the Bush administration that is secretive. That would be the conflicts in the White House involving an inner circle of people around Dick Cheney.
An interesting tidbit that Judicial Watch discovered about Cheney's secret energy task force- as early as March 2001, two years before the invasion of Iraq, the group was studying Iraqi oil fields and who owned the drilling rights.
On page 132 is a relevant quote on the quest for political power. "The rule of law is the enemy of the powerful. The essence of law is that everyone obeys the same rules regardless of weakness or strength, so the law chafes most keenly against those who, in a world without rules, have the power to simply impose their will."
George Sutherland wisely said "An informed public is the most potent of all restraints upon misgovernment."
Mr. Savage covers the president's signing statements as alternatives to vetoes. The use of this tool to more or less serve as a line-item veto is explained. He also does an excellent job on examining the judicial appointments of this regime. The unofficial criteria for a Bush appointee often get's missed amidst the buzz surrounding social issues like abortion.
I can't think of a better-written, more illuminating book about the subject of presidential power expansion, both from a current view as well as a historical standpoint. If you read just one book about the subject, this is the book to read!
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Summary: Great Read! Well written, accessible, compelling, and disturbing
Comment: This book is a great read. Yes the title is sensationalistic. I look past that at the content. It's easy to read through, and explains complex issues well. More than that it's something that anyone who cares about democracy and balance of power should read.
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Summary: Well-Done Warning of Power Abuses
Comment: Pulitzer-Prize winner Charles Savage is on target with this well-researched expose. Savage shows how the Bush White House consistently grabs power and abuses the Constitution with signing statements. The author attributes this dangerous trend to Cheney's days in the Nixon and Ford administrations, but it's hardly a one-man show. Few actions go more against the spirit of the U.S. Constitution than using a signing statement to negate a law, then employing sham legal briefs to justify the practice. As the author shows, this dangerous trend started under Reagan, and kept up under Bush Sr. and Clinton. But the devious Bush/Cheney regime has greatly expanded this (probably illegal) practice, with frightful consequences for the U.S. Constitution. Actually, Bush goes even further, claiming the sole right to end treaties. Savage shows that attempts to subvert Constitutional limits on power is a dangerous, if occasional trait of most Presidents (even Truman and Carter), but never taken as far as in the current Bush/Cheny regime.
Some Republicans slam this book for partisan reasons. That's foolish. Nobody knows who the next several Presidents will be, or what they will try to get away with. This is an important and well-wrtten expose about the weakening of our Constitution by G.W. Bush. Sadly, it will probably be ignored in favor of Paris Hilton and other vital matters.
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Summary: Those who warp the Constitution and evade accountability
Comment: A most disturbing aspect of the Bush Administration is how Cheney and his chief counsel (now Chief of Staff) David Addington have maneuvered their way into essentially giving themselves a blank check that allows them to do whatever they want behind the scenes in the name of national security. The enemy has been depicted as an incalculable threat, capable of the most murderous rampages with the worst of weapons, and it is up to the Executive to use every means available to thwart them in their tracks. The War on Terror, this argument implies, requires a constant and never-ending state of emergency, in which the Legislative and Judicial branches do not have the power to check the Presidency.
The author details how the efforts by Cheney and Addington to consolidate and extend Presidential power have a history that goes back to the Nixon Administration, to the time when a young Cheney was hired by Donald Rumsfeld. The power of the Presidency had reached a low point then, and as Cheney became more empowered in government, he became more determined to reverse that trend. David Addington solidified and emboldened Cheney's efforts to defend the actions of the Reagan Administration during Iran-Contra affair, and thereafter provided him with the force of legal arguments. During the first Bush Administration Cheney became Secretary of Defense and brought along Addington as legal counsel.
Even before 9/11, Cheney was busy putting into practice the theory of the Unitary Executive (the phrase was taken from the Federalist Papers) for the new Bush Administration. In a scenario that has became all too familiar, Cheney claimed that the Executive had a right not to disclose information about the Energy Task Force. According to Cheney, the public had no right to know about the origins of the decisions made concerning energy policy (that is, how the oil industry shaped the policy), a position which in effect frees the Executive from all accountability.
The problem of accountability, of course, becomes much more difficult after 9/11 when the matter of national security becomes significantly more critical. Although the actual maneuvers are difficult to follow, because of national security barriers, it is clear the Cheney and Addington sought a legal basis for defying the Geneva Conventions and that they used their influence to get the Office of Legal Counsel of the Justice Department to do their bidding. When Jack Goldsmith tried to make relatively small changes, he ran into a buzz saw in Addington. Clearly, it was their intention to control the Justice Department. Among the shenanigans was an effort to force John Ashcroft to sign off on warrantless surveillance from his sick bed, and people like Monica Goodling using a political litmus test to hire prosecutors.
But of all the tactics, the stamp of Executive arrogance is most keenly to be seen in the signing statements. The author notes that it is unprecedented in U.S. history for the office of the Vice-President to pore over every piece of legislation, and express the intention to refuse to abide by all the parts that it does not like. But Addington acted for Cheney in this way, apparently in Bush's name. Beside insisting that the President could bypass the torture ban passed by Congress, the signing statements seek to thwart all kinds of checks on the power of the Executive over information, whistle-blowing, etc.
Finally, the question that begs for an answer is: just exactly what role does George W. Bush play? In the beginning of the book, the author notes the incident on 9/11 when Cheney seems to have been the one who called the shots. The author notes that Bush has led the way with such things as faith-based initiatives. But as the "Decider", where does he get his information? When it comes to national security, the answer seems obvious. When it comes to legislative and judicial matters, the answer also seems obvious.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Praised everywhere as a stunning work of reportage, TAKEOVER lays bare a hidden agenda, three decades in the making, to allow the White House to wield enormous powers, unchecked by Congres or the courts--an agenda that links warrantless wiretapping and Bush's judicial nominees, torture and Cheney's energy task force, the faith-based initiative and the imprisonment of citizens without trial. TAKEOVER tells the story of how a group of true believers, led by Cheney, set out to establish near-monarchical executive powers that, in the words of one conservative critic, "will lie around like a loaded weapon"for any future president.
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