Invasion of the Party Snatchers

Starred review from December 31, 2007
Make no mistake: author Gold, a former speechwriter for George H.W. Bush and aide to Barry Goldwater, is one disgusted Republican. The GOP of the 2006 midterm election, he writes, is “a party of pork barrel ear markers like Dennis Hastert, of political hatchet men like Karl Rove, and of Bible-thumping hypocrites like Tom DeLay.†Gold looks to Goldwater, “a straight-talking, freethinking maverick,†as the yardstick by which to measure just how far the party of Lincoln has fallen. He traces the beginning of the end to the 1980 Republican National Convention and the presence of “a militant new element... personified by Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.†The other half of the equation, the neoconservatives, is embodied by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, “two cuts from the same Machiavellian cloth.†In efficient prose, Gold scrutinizes a significant swath of recent GOP history, in particular Newt Gingrich's 104th Congress and the Bush II White House, without losing momentum. He also has choice words for “the Coulterization of Republican rhetoric,†the revolving door between Capitol Hill and K Street, and “sideshow†legislation like the Flag Protection Amendment. Gold sees a promising future for the Republican Party, but not until they lose some major elections and are able to keep down a slice of humble pie; for those disillusioned with the state of the GOP, this quick, uncompromising polemic provides substantial support, along with a large dose of cold comfort.