Bushwhacked: Life In George W. Bush's America [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0786262435 | ISBN-13: 978-0786262434 | Publication Date: March 22, 2004 | Edition: 1

A New York Times Bestseller

For years, bestselling political commentator Molly Ivins has been sounding the alarm about George W. Bush. In Shrub, she and co-author Lou Dubose skewered Dubya's abysmal record as governor of Texas. Now, Ivins and Dubose take on the Bush presidency and show how he has applied the same flawed strategies he used in governing Texas to running the largest superpower in the world.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

She tried to warn us: With the publication of Shrub in early 2000, syndicated columnist Molly Ivins detailed George W. Bush’s privileged rise and disastrous reign as governor of Texas in the mid- to late ‘90s. In Bushwhacked, she looks at his first term as president. The picture she paints is unremittingly bleak—unless, of course, you’re a big campaign donor well served by Bush’s prescription for all economic ills (deregulation, tax cuts for those who need them least, and lax enforcement of worker and environmental safety standards). As the only president in U.S. history to slash taxes and go to war simultaneously, Bush wins consistently low marks from Ivins for pursuing "crony capitalism" to its inevitably depressing extremes. While many of the topics covered here have been covered extensively (Enron, the war in Iraq), Ivins does a good job of building on what’s already been written (proving Bush’s close ties to former Enron chief Ken Lay, and laying out the fundamentalist, apocalyptic view of Iraq and the Middle East that drives Bush’s foreign policy). Ivins is particularly good in taking arcane federal regulations and showing how the Bush administration’s lax oversight has hurt ordinary Americans, making their jobs, homes, water, and food less safe. Ivins is no distanced observer. She’s clearly incensed by Bush’s policies, but her reporting is so detailed and writing so witty that even those who come to the book undecided about Bush will likely be outraged by the time they finish it. ----Keith Moerer --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

"If y'all had've read the first book, we wouldn't've had to write this one," says Ivins, a columnist who, along with co-author Lou Dubose, wrote Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush, which covered "Dubya's" short but sour reign as a Texas governor. This book picks up where Shrub left off, detailing Bush's first term as the not-quite-elected President of the United States. Ivins reads her own material and audibly enjoys discussing what she sees as tax breaks for the rich, environmental and safety deregulation, corporate toadyism and the loss of Americans' civil liberties, though it is also very apparent that behind the laughter lies genuine sadness and anger. In fact, it's hard to listen to this audiobook without simultaneously laughing and becoming incensed. Ivins is a joy to listen to. Her snappy quips, razor wit and downright damnation of the current administration are tempered by a lovely Texas drawl. She's mad as hell and is ready to do something about it, yet she never lets that fact interfere with her delightfully offbeat sense of humor, her engaging delivery or her well-researched argument.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 525 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; 1 edition (March 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786262435
• ISBN-13: 978-0786262434
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,331,939 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

147 of 157 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ASTONISHING, and based on fact, not argument, October 7, 2003

By 

WichacpiHoskila (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America (Hardcover)

This book ASTOUNDS me. It's not a "spin book," trying to argue against positions or "prove them wrong," it's simply a look at actual records of decisions and political connections (and their consequences) in the Bush administration. I find myself often gasping and proclaiming out loud to my wife, "Man, I NEVER heard this stuff anywhere else!" And it's not based on fragile strands of interconnecting conpsiracies; it's rather blunt and obvious--but just not commonly revealed in any media.

For example, this book documents in detail how Bush had done exactly the same thing with his Harken stock that Martha Stewart might be serving time for, but the SEC investigator on his case was also Bush's own personal lawyer too--and he simply allowed Bush to file his disclosure forms RETROACTIVELY. End result? Bush sells his stock moments before it tanks, costing OTHER people millions, getting rich, and then slipping through the law using the very same methods he'd later scold in his "corporate crime" speech about Enron. Oh, and remember how Cheney's company stashed billions in assets in tax shelters on the Cayman Islands to avoid paying taxes here? Now THAT'S patriotism!

Or how about this one? Bush made emissions controls in Texas VOLUNTARY for corporate polluters. How did polluters ever manage to win such benevolence? In fact, industry campaign contributers literally wrote every word of the law regulating themselves! Of more than 5,000 polluters in Texas, not one actually voluntarily reduced their emissions. Texas reversed Bush's law within the first year of his absence. Unfortunately, nobody has yet reinstated the food safety/listeria regulations for meat products that Bush cancelled during his first few months.

Or this one? In 1995, Newt Gingrich repealed the Superfund Tax on corporate polluters, which means that cleaning up Superfund toxic waste sites is now paid for by taxpayers, not by the corporations who made the messes. As a result, the $3.8 billion trust to clean toxic waste had dwindled to only $28 million this year (2003), less than one-fourth the cost of cleaning up a SINLGLE waste site (there are hundreds). So how'd Bush respond? He installed Christine Todd Whitman, a polluter's dream of an administrator, and CANCELLED the EPA's Ombudsman program. That means citizens have no method of raising concerns or reporting toxic sites to the EPA anymore; it's the same thing as cutting the wire on every phone leading to the EPA's reporting agencies. As a result, Bush can show on paper that the prevalence of toxic waste dumps is declining--not because he's done anything to remedy the problem, but because he killed the only available process for identifying and treating contaminated sites in the first place. And the sites that already exist remain untreated! (Is there one in your area? Check at http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/)

Remember when Bush said that by far, "the vast majority of my tax cuts go to the people at the bottom of the spectrum?" And his defense that he would never pass along budget problems to future generations? And that his programs would stimulate the economy and jobs? Well, it turns out that 60% of his cuts go to the upper 10% of people (40% to the upper 1%), with NO cuts (or less than $200) to the bottom class (and yet the service cuts to pay for the tax breaks affect the lower classes the MOST, meaning it actually cost us money). The stock market has lost $4.6 TRILLION during his presidency, with 3 million jobs lost and no net jobs created, a DOUBLING of trade deficits under his gloablzied "free trade" arrangements (which he wants to expand still further!), record numbers (and a record increase-of-pace) of jobs lost to overseas sweatshops, and deficits caused by tax cuts that will extend into the senior age of our children.

And so on.

The book is plainly written, not dull, and not "catty." It just lays it right out there. Unfortunately, I suspect that any Bush "fan" would simply stop reading it after the first chapter, rather than confront the information offered. I predict you will see very few, if any, reviews that oppose this book by rebutting its facts; watch carefully and guage the balance between people who actually tackle what this books says, and those who slough it off with lazy and cowardly phrases like "more liberal [insert cliche dismissive term here.]"

Go, Molly!

128 of 137 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny For A Few Seconds Til You Remember Its True!, October 20, 2003

By 

Daniel J. Maloney "Daniel J. Maloney" (Saint Paul, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America (Hardcover)

Molly Ivins is a very funny woman. She has clearly made many enemies with her outspokenness. And with Bushwhacked, Ivins outdoes herself with her comedic approach. There are some laugh out loud lines that are just entirely brilliant in Bushwhacked.

At the very same time, Iver's humor is focused on a very real situation: the current administration of our country. To that extent, Bushwhacked is a serious examination of some very compelling political and constitutional issues.

While Bushwhacked can easily be attacked as left wing pabulum by the conservative readers who believe they are benefiting by the approach of the current administration, the issues it deals with are all too real and all too well corroborated in the media and in observations made by average people throughout our nation.

I know that humor is supposed to cushion the hard and often cruel truth. And for a while, the humor in Bushwhacked works very well. Yet, at the end of this book, I just came away sad and somewhat anxious about the state of our nation.

Vitally important issues, cleverly presented. Yet, as a reader, my concluding emotions on the issues addressed in the book were ones of genuine discomfort and a sense of powerlessness that I all too often hear echoed in the voices of many American as they discuss their views of how the country stands politically at this juncture in history.

A recommended read. Some serious issues for all Americans to consider with an open and nonpartisan mind!


Daniel J. Maloney
Saint Paul, Minnesota USA

427 of 475 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful and depressing indictment of Bush's policies, September 23, 2003

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America (Hardcover)

Of the growing spate of liberal books to appear in the past few months, BUSHWHACKED by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose is my favorite of the bunch. It also holds the odd distinction of being one of the most thoroughly depressing books I have ever read. No matter how low one's opinion of George W. Bush, it will be lowered through reading this book.

Many of the recent books on Bush and the Right have focused on the habit and strategy of intentionally misrepresenting positions held by those on the right. They are, in effect, apologias for liberalism and honesty in politics. This book is instead a direct examination of George W. Bush's policies and plans, and what they see scares them and me. As they write near the end of the book, "The six most fatal words in the language are rapidly becoming `The Bush administration has a plan . . . " (p. 295).

Ivins and Dubose don't discuss the Bush policies in abstract, but in terms of how they affect real live human beings. They argue "this country no longer works for the benefit of most of the people in it" (p. 293) and they are determined to explain precisely why. What is most informative about the book is not just the discussion of the more familiar failures of the Bush administration, but overlooked or under considered facets of their policies. For instance, in Texas they have already undergone school reform of the kind promoted by Bush in the No Child Left Behind act. In fact, as they demonstrate, it is a perfect recipe for leaving vast numbers of children behind, as high schools out of self-protection refuse to promote underachieving students past ninth grade, in many instances keeping them there until they turn eighteen and are no expected to stay in school. Or consider the vast number of students in Texas who now graduate by taking the G.E.D as a way of avoiding the exams. All education in Texas is now focused on preparing those students who have a fighting chance of passing the major exam, and shunting those with no prayer of doing so off to the side. The result, in other words, of the No Child Left Behind equivalent has been disastrous, and now this is national policy as well. As they demonstrate, with a minimal financial investment in schools, the federal government has maximum input, and not in a constructive way. I found this chapter to be one of the scariest in the book.

The book is an unrelenting recitation of horrors. 500,000 poor Americans who Bush cut off from the federal program providing some support in paying heating bills in the winter. Instituting faith based programs as a means of allowing religious institutions that would otherwise fail credentialing requirements to offer their services to individuals whose needs they are poorly equipped to meet. Consistently sending ideologues instead of public policy experts to every imaginable international meeting. In one such conference, the September 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, the U.S. delegates attempted to strike language that "would have included female genital mutilation, forced child marriage, and `honor' killings as human-rights violations" (p. 262). Ivins and Dubose go on to cover the effects of his court policies, the Patriot Acts, his naked espousal of fundamentalist religion, his tax policies, his environmental policy, the EPA, his unilateralist foreign policy, his food policy . . . the list goes on and on and on, a veritable parade of horrors.

My assessment of President Bush before reading this book is that he could very well be considered one of the very worst presidents in American history. Now, thanks to Ivins and Dubose, I think he is not only our worst president ever, but that one could make a powerful case for his being arguably the most destructive American to ever live. I consider this book to be essential reading, but working through it won't be much fun.