Customer Reviews

The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty

5 star:		(119)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(71)

 

 

This book is MUCH better than I thought it would be. I particularly enjoyed Ms. Kelley's thorough grasp of the history of the 60's and 70's and her insight into the Nixon years.

For anyone who is interested in the history of the Texas Air National Guard Documents, Kelley has covered this exhaustively and well. When you read her careful research into this entire situation, you will wonder no more.

Also included is a very clear look at Bush's most closely held political beliefs as recalled by fellow students at Harvard and others who knew him well before he decided to go into politics.

There are 38 pages of citations included in the book-it is extensively and carefully documented.

I recommend it!

I've been burning through this book (unlike many who have "reviewed" it without, I'm sure, even picking it up.) It's awesome. Try as they might to besmirch the author's reputation, the critics can't knock the central truth of the book: that the Bushes have used and abused their wealth and privilege for their own benefit. Sure, they can quibble with this or that fact, but the big picture holds up. It's incredibly well-researched and well-sourced. Score one for the right to free speech -- although, with the way the Bush monarchy has been behaving, we will probably lose that freedom soon too.

I agree with Ed's review below (The Bush Dynasty...an Aaron Spelling Production) in that if you want to get a clear picture of the current Bush administration there are many excellent books out there that will expertly and accurately take you on a tour of their bizarre political machinations.

However, this book doesn't aim--or claim--to be a political expose. It's a gossipy, amusing and no doubt mostly accurate piece of muck raking on the personal lives and character of the major players in the Bush clan. A great number of the reviewers below have spit two lined, vitriolic and grammatically challenged 'one star' denunciations of the book. And from the content of the reviews I'm going to be cynical and guess that the majority of them have not even read it (I smell the Heritage foundation and Christian coalition at work here). Sadly, this semi literate rabble seems to make up the majority of the political base for the current junta.

As many reviewers have pointed out, most of this information is not terribly new. Is anyone really surprised that Kelly shows the current president as an intellectual dwarf that got where is by political graft and the largess of daddy's friends? Is anyone really shocked to discover that Mama Bush is a spiteful and domineering battle-axe. Is anyone surprised that George senior was referred to by Nixon as "The kind of man you appoint to things" (read: not fit for elective office)?

Anyone who thinks that this book is "vile", "trash" and "unfair" definitely hasn't been on the receiving end of the Bushes vindictiveness. And for anyone who thinks that this kind of attack is unfair in an election year- just keep in mind that George W. has made character and morality a center of his campaign. It just goes to show you that if you live in a glass house, you shouldn't throw stones.

First off, I'd like to say right off that I have beef with the way Bush treats vets so I may not be the most objective voice. But I did vote Republican in other elections, and was proud to do so, that is, until Bush came along. This book manages to finally lift the curtain and makes him out to be who he is: an elitist rich boy who's daddy managed to get him into the National Guard, who didn't even complete his service, a stuggling alcoholic, a guy who was still using cocaine at Camp David while his dad was president, and a man who has cheated on and maybe even abused his wife. That's a good Republican? Not only that, he's used marijuana (with Laura), had his mistresses, and the Bush machine, apparently with a lot of friends, uses mafia-like tactics to cover a lot of this stuff up.

Is it all accurate? I'm sure there are some exaggerations in there, but the bottom line is most of it has to be true, else the Bush family, with all it's money, would no doubt be suing the author for libel, maybe even before the book came out. When have the Bushes ever not used the courts to get what they wanted? The 2000 election mess in Florida with the Supreme Court comes to mind.

The book goes a long way in explaining the "logic" at work behind the "Bush dynasty." The guy has never had to work for anything, plays the common man for saps, and has no respect for the military, it's no wonder our national debt is out of control and he's gotten our soldiers into this God awful mess in Iraq.

Finally, some truths about George W. Bush. The guy is the ultimate hypocrite, yet we have to wait until 4 years into his presidency before a book will talk about the way he paid his girlfriend Robin Lowman Garner to abort his baby in the early 1970s. The hypocrisy and greed of George W. Bush and his family members is mind-boggling. This book will provide you with an overview before you move on to the serious books and news stories that are finally dissecting Bush's inadequate National Guard record. Memos or not, detail upon detail is building a picture of extreme dishonesty. What kind of man, wanting his superiors to know where he is, fills out forms using his OLD addresses? Bush, of course.

Anyone's who's visited thesmokinggun.com and has seen the police reports on Jeb Bush's kids (the crack, the stalking, the gettin' nasty in the parking lot) has got to wonder if "family values" is anything more than a useful catch-phrase to the Bush family. Kitty Kelly's book provides a definitive answer. No. It isn't. Not at all.

"The Family" shows the Bushes for what they are: a dim, venial clan of thugs. Since bullying is about the only thing they seem to excel at--shooting the messenger being a particular specialty--we're sure to see plenty of savage attacks on Ms. Kelly. Indeed, taking their cues from the Thug-in-Chief, legions of Bush partisans who likely have not even touched the book are posting torrents of negative Amazon reviews. But for those of us how have read and could not put down "The Family", we know that it is credible, it jives with Bush's behavior, and that it's appalling that a man of such moral and intellectual vacuity could end up president.

I too am distressed that we are talking about such sordid stuff this election. We should be talking about, oh, the economy or Iraq. But since the Smearboat campaign, what choice has Bush left us?

Thanks Bush, thanks for changing the tone. And serioursly--thanks Ms. Kelly for stepping into the fray.

Forget about Fox News, this is a real story by someone who has been around George W Bush, all written in black and white. Kitty Kelley speaks out about the real George W Bush and how he snorted cocaine at Camp David, a felony, to go with his conviction for DWI that he lied about. Kelley has pieced together the actual truth of a person who is in the running to be reappointed to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Did Mr. Bush actually buck the system by using his family connections to avoid service in Vietnam and lie about it (to this day!) and then fail to meet his Guard service requirements going AWOL for months at a time, claiming to serve at places where no one remembers seeing him?

Bush's campaign has only exaggerated about himself being a "hero" when he never served anywhere close to a battlefield and could not even meet his weekend guard requirements. He had no regard for the lives of the hundreds he leap frogged over to get into the Guard or the thousands he has sent to Iraq based on lies, putting their lives at risk, and this is a guy running for president??? Why is his guard record full of holes, when he he expects those in the service to meet and exceed their committments today, with continual redeployments? This is why Bush will not allow his full military records to be released to the public. To me the public has a right to know, and if Bush wants to continue to be a public figure, certain things cannot be kept as a private matter, but already this book has unveiled everything and from those who have actually been with Bush unlike the Unswift Veterans for Lies.

Want to know the truth about Bush? Read this book and find out.

If you consider yourself a true american, a patriot, a true christian. You must read this book. Kitty Kelly is a hero. She has shown America and the World the reality of the Bush Family, and George W himself. We have been sold a bill of goods. They have been portrayed as the Cleavers and they are really the Sopranos. They are dirty.

George W was AWOL from the Guard, a cocaine addict, and a hell raiser. He has the IQ of a carrot. It also shows how the Bush family is bed with the Saudis. Our nation is at risk by what they have done. I have heard a lot of people criticize Kitty Kelley, but NOBODY is refuting the facts in her book. This book is a must read. It shows the true colors of George W. Bush, and shows why he must not remain our Puppet President

If you can only bear to hear positive things about GWB, obviously this is not the book for you. However, if you can stand criticism of the 41st and 43rd presidents, this is an interesting exploration of a strange family dynamic.

This is apparently a family that has no interest in policy, governing, or anyone outside of their own set. Despite their mediocre intellects and lack of experience, their family connections and intergenerational competition have driven them all the way to the White House.

Sen. Prescott Bush was a businessman who entered the Senate with a mild sense of noblese oblige after a successful career. He was a reasonably principled, moderate Republican with a surprisingly good civil rights record. His son, GHWB had a brief but successful business career thanks to family connections and some luck in oil exploration. He then gravitated to the upper echelons of government, never holding a position for more than a year. His political career was considerably less principled than his father's beginning with his opportunistic about face on abortion and ending with the Iran Contra scandal (ironically, this scandal was first brought to public attention by freshman Sen. John Kerry). The third generation was even less promising. Phi Beta Kappa Jeb Bush showed the most intellectual promise surrounded by brothers with learning disabilities, but it was his wastrel older brother who managed to be in the right place at the right time.

Kitty Kelley's writing style is interesting and lucid. The book is well researched and adequately footnoted. The charges from other "reviewers" of information from "unnamed sources" are false. It is not meant to be a scholarly examination of the the policies and the successes and failures of the Bush administrations. It is meant to be a popular biography of a family. I found it neither admiring nor overly critical. In fact, I might even be inclined to call it fair and balanced....

I just completed reading Ms. Kelley's book and I must admit I am very impressed! She combines a level of intrigue and humor with powerful events that have been thoroughly researched. I find her prose convincing and admirably non-partisan. I finished the book and felt I had finally "seen the wizard behind the curtain" and had a glimpse at a real people living the tragic lives of normal folks. Highly Recommended!