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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 973.931092 EAN: 9781594201868 ISBN: 1594201862 Label: Penguin Press HC, The Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 384 Publication Date: September 16, 2008 Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The Sales Rank: 946 Studio: Penguin Press HC, The
Product Description: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barton Gellman’s newsbreaking investigative journalism documents how Vice President Dick Cheney redefined the role of the American vice presidency, assuming unprecedented responsibilities and making it a post of historic power.
Dick Cheney changed history, defining his times and shaping a White House as no vice president has before— yet concealing most of his work from public view. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman parts the curtains of secrecy to show how Cheney operated, why, and what he wrought.
Angler, Gellman’s embargoed and highly explosive book, is a work of careful, concrete, and original reporting backed by hundreds of interviews with close Cheney allies as well as rivals, many speaking candidly on the record for the first time. On the signature issues of war and peace, Angler takes readers behind the scenes as Cheney maneuvers for dominance on what he calls the iron issues from Iraq, Iran, and North Korea to executive supremacy, interrogation of Al Qaeda suspects, and domestic espionage. Gellman explores the behind-the- scenes story of Cheney’s tremendous influence on foreign policy, exposing how he misled the four ranking members of Congress with faulty intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, how he derailed Bush from venturing into Israeli- Palestinian peace talks for nearly five years, and how his policy left North Korea and Iran free to make major advances in their nuclear programs.
Domestically, Gellman details Cheney’s role as “super Chief of Staff ”, enforcer of conservative orthodoxy; gatekeeper of Supreme Court nominees; referee of Cabinet turf; editor of tax and budget laws; and regulator in chief of the administration’s environment policy. We watch as Cheney, the ultimate Washington insider, leverages his influence within the Bush administration in order to implement his policy goals. Gellman’s discoveries will surprise even the most astute students of political science.
Above all, Angler is a study of the inner workings of the Bush administration and the vice president’s central role as the administration’s canniest power player. Gellman exposes the mechanics of Cheney’s largely successful post-September 11 campaign to win unchecked power for the commander in chief, and reflects upon, and perhaps changes, the legacy that Cheney—and the Bush administration as a whole—will leave as they exit office.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Timely reading.
This was a gift and so I can't comment on the book. Delivery, however, was typical Amazon speedy!
Rating: - Second Draft of History
If journalism is the first draft of history, telling us generally what has happened, the second draft should be able to tell us more specifically what made it happen and why. Barton Gellman "Angler" is outstanding in this sense, describing in detail how and why the tumultuous last eight years were to such a large extent the product of something never before seen in America, a Presidency weakened by the President's choice to delegate his authority to his Vice President.
Many readers will find it odd that the matter is put this way. Gellman makes clear Cheney's deeply held belief in ... Read More
Rating: - Darth Vader Made Real
All I can say is that I'm glad I read this book post the November 4 election rather than before, because this story sent chills up my spine. We all knew that the last eight years was more of a Dick Cheney presidency than that of George Bush, but reading about Cheney's careful and methodical approach to taking us down the darkest of rat holes is truly horrifying. Now knowing how deep in the grip we've been in the hands of a madman surrounded by other madmen it's not surprising that America has lost its way so terribly. Several times I wanted to put this book down but couldn't, because like driving ... Read More
Rating: - Brilliant, Terrifying, Fascinating
This is brilliantly written, gripping, horrifying, impossible to put down. Gellman's got 70 pages of source notes, and talks to or quotes the major players, which makes his research credible, and he sticks to the facts. Jim Comey is now my personal hero. Read this book!
Rating: - You can't understand the Bush presidency unless you read this book!
The best book of 2008, none I've read thus far even compare. Angler is an incredibly illuminating book into the most unique vice presidency in American history. I would also argue, after having read about a dozen books on President Bush and his Administration; that you cannot truly understand the failures of the Bush Administration and the woeful performance of the GOP in the past eight years without having read this book.
My perspective is one that had me voting for Bush in 2000, primarily in hopes that a Republican president and Republican-majority Congress would lead to authentic ... Read More
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