Assault on Reason: A different review

After reading Al Gore's The Assault on Reason and reading various reviews on this book, I realize that a significant element of the book has not been examined by those who have reviewed the book.

Specifically, if Al Gore runs for President and wins, his hands will be tied.  This book is testament that he will roll back Executive power.  There's no wriggle room.  No half measures, i.e. keep some of the new powers  and ditch some of the new powers.

Al Gore has painted himself into a corner on Executive power.  

And that's a good thing.

The big 3 Democratic Presidential candidates have made noises scolding Bush for various transgressions.  However, not one has made a case for a roll back of his Executive Power grab.  Go read their campaign websites Issue Pages.  It's true.  If you want a quick and dirty search, try Geneva... as in "Geneva Convention".  You won't find any reference to it nor how they will restore this treaty in America, not to mention any of the Constitutional usurpations which have occurred under Bush.

As MICHIKO KAKUTANI says in her New York Times book review on Gore's indictment of the Bush administration's Executive Power grab:

Similar charges have been made by a growing number of historians, political analysts and even former administration insiders, and President Bush’s plummeting approval ratings have further emboldened his critics. But Mr. Gore writes not just as a former vice president and the man who won the popular vote in the 2000 election, but also as a possible future candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 race for the White House, and the vehemence of his language and his arguments make statements about the Bush administration by already announced candidates like Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton seem polite and mild-mannered in contrast.

In Assault on Reason Al Gore has systematically taken apart the Bush/Cheney power grab.  He has voiced a call for a clear retreat back to the Constitutional norms as defined by the founders and various important Supreme Court cases.

Al Gore is serious about Executive Power roll back.

For me, this is the #1 reason why Al Gore must run, and the #1 reason to support Al once he declares.

The damage done to the US Military, US standing in the world, US treasury, and our national psyche has been severe.  But the descent down the slippery slope cannot be arrested unless we first repair the damage to our Constitutional system of Laws.

Only Al Gore has shown the resolve to be the architect of this reform.

We need Gore to run.

I think he will.

We need Gore to win.

I think he will.

We need Gore to correct the injustices he identifies in Assault on Reason.

I think he will.

REFERENCES:

Campaign Websites
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/...
http://www.barackobama.com/...
http://johnedwards.com/...

Book Reviews
SusanG of DailyKos: http://www.dailykos.com/...

NonPartisan of MLW & ProgHistorians: http://www.myleftwing.com/...

New York Times Book Review: http://www.nytimes.com/...

Cross-posted on:
My Left Wing

•  If you're against the Unitary Executive

  ... then Al Gore is your man.

  by rustydude on Wed Jul 25, 2007 at 11:56:56 PM PDT

  •  He already was. This just confirms

    to me that he is the wisest choice for our candidate in '08.

    by tovan on Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 12:37:35 AM PDT

•  It's a question that needs to be asked

  in the debates. I'm surprised it has not been brought up at all so far.

  They need to be put on record on what they would do in office with regard to the dictatorial power grab that Bush has put in place. Don't count on any president of any party to give up new powers without a fight. They need to be put on the spot about this issue.

  I don't want any president regardless of party to have the vast amount of power Cheney grabbed for himself.

  by michael1104 on Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 12:00:45 AM PDT

  •  yeah, I agree

    When actually in the White House, presidents of both parties have consistently supported expansions of executive power and opposed limitations on it. Granted, some are better about it than others, but I don't see a major change happening unless someone goes on the record ahead of time on the issue in a hard-to-back-away-from manner.

    by Delirium on Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 12:19:52 AM PDT

  •  I'll go even farther

    I think the Presidency is hardly worth fighting for in 2008 without a commitment to rollback the abuses (which pretty much all boil down to power grab) of the current Administration as I diaried several weeks ago.

    by Demi Moaned on Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 12:35:25 AM PDT

    •  thanks. I missed that before. I answered your

      poll, but it wouldn't let me post the explanattion, so I'll put it here, instead:  at least one by the practical action of H Res 333 (0 / 0)
      If he could get himself elected I'm prepared to trust Kucinich with America's long-term future. Probably won't happen, but I think it's telling that we don't see Senators Obama or Clinton proposing censure or supporting House moves toward impeachment. In fact I told the Obama people that if he couldn't use the bully pulpit he already has as Senator to try to prosecute this outright criminality, then I would have to think he was pro-status quo.

      by peaceloveandkucinich on Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 04:53:40 AM PDT

    •  Thanks for the link, Demi

      You brought up some very good points.  The more I read, the more I'm convinced that only a candidate who is committed to unraveling the Bush/Cheney mess, will do.

      by rustydude on Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 09:58:46 AM PDT

•  Amen.

  I've supported Al for a while now because of how important I think his ideas are.

  While reading this book though, I couldn't stop letting my mind wander to how disturbing it is that the other candidates haven't directly addressed the expansion of executive power and what some of them could do if they got their hands on it.

  Al Gore is the only person I can trust, and all have good reason to trust him with the Presidency above anyone else, because he has just shone a giant magnifying lens over the current crisis of executive power that will be inherited by the next president.

  by andyj2287 on Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 12:01:02 AM PDT

  •  Trust

    Al Gore is the only person I can trust, and all have good reason to trust him with the Presidency above anyone else, because he has just shone a giant magnifying lens over the current crisis of executive power that will be inherited by the next president.

    You know, I never think about the issue of trust when voting for President because I think of everyone who runs for President as being generally untrustworthy.  It's the LESSER OF ALL EVILS thing.  However, as you put it, I think I do trust Al Gore.  Which would be a first for me.

    by rustydude on Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 12:12:25 AM PDT

    •  Al Gore will be like FDR and bring a renewal of

      investment in the infrastructure of America while illustrating the strength of a core of character.  The most important characteristic FDR had was temperment and character that was uncontested and always apparent.

      It will be a Decent Deal for Decent Democracy.

      by yoduuuh do or do not on Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 12:19:14 AM PDT

    •  I was very angry at Gore during the time he was

      in office right next to Clinton, because I thought he should have spoken out against misbehavior more strongly. Oh Boy have I learned a lot about how much rampant corruption he would have had to fight to do what I wanted from him. I can never seem to get the search function to work for me, but I'm sure there was a diary here yesterday about which 4 Congressmen were being bribed that Sibel Edmunds isn't supposed to talk about. Aha! Thanks, lukery.

      by peaceloveandkucinich on Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 05:01:20 AM PDT

•  Great diary

  While out walking my dog, late last night, I kept thinking about the choices facing Gore right now, and I kept shaking my head because it seemed so obvious:
  How can he, this patriot who volunteered to go to Viet Nam when he could have stayed home with more honour than W, shrink from the Herculean task calling out for that singular brand of leadership that only emerges in the most parlous of times?
    Someone above mentioned FDR. That's who I think about too when I think of a putative Gore administration. In recent years I've done a lot of research on everyday life during the Great Depression, and how it devastated ordinary people, while leaving most of the old money set undisturbed to drink their martinis and play lawn tennis at their fabulous retreats and wealthy enclaves, where their inheritors still congregate in the dog days of summer. Since then, that small, omnipotent class of people has bided its time and now is back in greater force than ever before. They care not one whit about the Common Good or the Constitution, and they will stop at nothing to grow their fortunes ad infinitum, by any means necessary. They couldn't care less about the consequences, in lives and blood, of their hedge-funds, market manipulations or greed-driven, blood-for-oil, war profiteering. Their appetite for material wealth is boundless and they have succeeded in buy their way back to that lost Golden Age, which their families have pursued like the Holy Grail, ever since the New Deal shook (but did not break) their death-grip on the levers of power.
    Gore must run. I can't for the life of me see how he ddoesn't. And I believe he will. And I believe that when he announces, he will have others at his side, the team that will form the backbone of his administration, a team of uniquely experienced, passionate patriots who will be ready to roll up their sleeves and start cleaning up every branch of government that has been infiltrated, corrupted, subverted and broken by this criminal organization, the team that will hit the ground running and get to work before the ink is dry on reports of his inauguration.

  by Barcelona on Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 05:43:08 AM PDT