I’ve received bushels of emails over the past few years denouncing my pinko liberal tendencies. Here’s a collection of some of the highlights after Bush Betrayal came out in 2004.
I was rummaging through some old material yesterday and came across this fervent review of Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years.
I chuckled to see this political science professor assert that the book did not contain anything about the “lies” of the Clinton era. The dude should have slowed down on his speed reading….
Anyhow, here’s the review –
DENVER ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS November 5, 2000, Sunday
SECTION: Books; Ed. Final; Pg. 1E
HEADLINE: JUDGMENT DAY: AS ELECTION NEARS, AUTHORS VOTE ON CLINTON LEGACY
BYLINE: By …Norman Provizer
BODY:
Wave good-bye. Our boy Bill will soon be packing his bags and dusting out the Lincoln Bedroom. Will he be remembered as the hero who crafted the biggest economic boom in recent memory? Or the randy goat who degraded the Oval Office and introduced innovative new uses for the cigar? This week, as we prepare to vote on Clinton’s successor, Books looks at three recent Clinton tomes – and their assessment of his legacy…..
FEELING YOUR PAIN: The Exploitation and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years.
By James Bovard (St. Martin’s Press, 432 pages, $26.95).
Author’s political leanings: Bovard might well be described as a Libertarian-leaning journalist who has never met a government program he liked and has never quite adjusted to the fact that the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia actually created a national government that was more than window dressing.
Book in a nutshell: Bovard argues that the government “is now the most dangerous predator” on the block, and that Bill Clinton “stretched the power of government (the Evil Empire, if you will) on all fronts.” And the author says it all without even discussing sex, lies and semen stains.
Clinton at his best: The author would have an easier time compiling a top-10 list of Hitler’s accomplishments than he would finding a single thing that Clinton did right. On second thought, Bovard might be tempted to cite the old British Army saying which holds that no man is ever a complete failure because he can always serve as a horrible example for others. In that sense, Clinton, in the author’s eyes, might be seen as the “best” horrible example you can find.
Passage Clinton would likely include in his own book: From Clinton’s perspective, this entire volume would provide a grand example of the conspiracy of unfairness that has so often shaped judgments of his presidency. After all, on page after page, Bovard condemns Clinton as virtually the devil incarnate. Yet, on issue after issue, he slides in a line noting that Clinton hasn’t been alone among residents of the White House in pursuing horrible policies and that many of what the author views as “pernicious” policy trends began long before Clinton arrived. Clinton’s war on drugs is a failure, but he didn’t start the war. Clinton’s trade policy is terrible, but Bush’s record on trade is an embarrassment. Clinton’s policy regarding people with disabilities is crazy, but the law he is following was a legacy of the Bush administration. The list goes on.
Clinton at his worst: According to Bovard, just name any day, any policy, in fact, anything at all and you will see Clinton at his worst.
Passage Clinton would leave out of his own book: Anything found in the 432 pages of this book.
Clinton’s legacy, according to the author: In Bovard’s eyes, “The principle of government supremacy is Clinton’s clearest legacy.” The author holds that Clinton “did more than any recent president to place the federal government above all laws.”
Book’s strength: Bovard does offer a useful, muckraking examination of governmental “abuses” in areas ranging from the Internal Revenue Service to Waco. Whether or not one accepts his judgments, the constant monitoring of governmental policy is a necessity for liberal democracy.
Book’s weakness: This anti-Clinton screed offers no insight whatsoever into the actual workings of the Clinton administration. It’s single chapter on foreign policy concerning Kosovo is weak, including its defense of Slobodan Milosevic (now the former president of Yugoslavia). It is replete with twisted half-truths. For example, Bovard chastises Clinton for an illegal, undeclared war in Kosovo without ever bothering to mention that, during the entire run of American history, there have been but four official declarations of war by Congress. If you want to get a handle on the Clinton years, read another book.
Rating: While the book’s muckraking aspects deserve a 3, it is barely a 1 when it comes to explaining Clinton and his administration. On that front, Feeling Your Pain, is really a pain. – Norman Provizer
tagline: Norman Provizer is chair of the Political Science Department at Metropolitan State College of Denver and director of the Golda Meir Center for Political Leadership.
President Clinton, who raised ugly woman to the status of National Security Threats is anxiously awaiting his bride St. Hillary’s ascendence to the White House because then they will have gained the office after it has been pumped up like a Steroidal Sports Star at the same time that certain capitalist excesses presage another swing back toward bombastic socialist policies. We have here a perfect storm in the making, one in a Made For Hollywood vein.
Anything honest said about the current debauched mosh of politics must be, by nature a “screed”.
Anybody that don’t screed about today’s politics must be one of it’s legions of sycophants and shill artists who straggle along every political train like camp harlots…..oh excuse me, this is an honorable thing now, Camp Companions I meant to say.
The merest mention of any aspect of todays politics is, by definition “muckraking”.
But then, politics is a kind of sex industry writ large. Everything always sounds so titillating until the day after when we wake up to discover something on the next pillow that would make Caligula whimper like a whipped terrier.
The “highlights” were excellent ! Thank you Jimmy. You’re a good man. Hate mail is the best reading. [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/bovard3.html]
Can someone help me spell ‘dilusional’? People are always telling me to “take my meds” too. Some will ask me “what kind of kool-aid have I been drinking.”
They should go easy on me; I’m just a beginner.
Not trying to place myself in your class at all Jimmy (believe me), but I’m classified the same as you so very often. I wonder why ? Poor Bush, he’s a hero to so many slugs and thugs.
I blame the news media. But.
Norman Provizer worships our rulers. Not good, Norman. Does he pass on anything about our constitution to his students at Metro State College ?
‘Feeling the Pain’ :
We need to eliminate the NSA, CIA, DEA, the ATF, and cut in half the size of every police department. Then, and only then will we regain our privacy in this electronic age.
Wow, Jim. That link you posted above sure has a number of stirring endorsements on it. It looks like you got the cream of Freeperdom, dittoheads and other assorted poor, misguided fools.
I alwaze injoy it wind people vindikate the precedint from you partician commie roger moore bastards. why done you move to french sense you hate my amurika so mutch?
One problem with skedaddling to France is that I durn near flunked French in high school. I skidded by with a Gentleman’s D-minus for the first year of French. But, following the guidance counselor’s advice, I signed up for French 2.
On the first day of class, the teacher – Mrs. McFall – walked in – saw me in the front row – and looked like she was going to faint.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? she demanded to know. At least she had not forgotten me from the prior year.
“Well, the guidance counselor said I needed two years of two foreign languages for college, so…”
OUT! OUT! OUT! She explained. I was banished.
C’est la vie.
But France’s loss was Kelly Girl’s gain. I took typing instead of French.
Tom – your nuance is perfect. You could write script for the nation’s top radio talk show hosts!
…Yours Jim, is a an uncompromising voice in a wilderness of idiotic and synthesised complacency—To quote Goethe in this context? “Death, is to a certain extent an impossibility that becomes a reality.” To my mind, such is also the common perception of an imposed tyranny…It’s no mystery why a man never misses a woman till she’s up’n gone…That notwithstanding: You got more guts than an Army Mule.
Admit Jimbo, you are a Koskid