Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How the Holy-Rollers and the Neo-Cons Destroyed the GOP [Hardcover]

Victor Gold (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 19, 2007

After four decades as a Republican insider, Victor Gold reveals how the holy-rollers and the Neo-Cons have destroyed the GOP. Now he's fighting to get his party back.

As a man who served as press aide to Barry Goldwater and speechwriter and senior advisor to George H. W. Bush (in addition to coauthoring his autobiography), Victor Gold is absolutely furious that the Neo-Cons and their strange bedfellows, the Evangelical Right, have stolen his party from him. Now he is bringing the fight to them.

Invasion of the Party Snatchers is a blistering critique not only of the Bush-Cheney administration but also of the Republican Congress. Gold is ready to tell all about the war being waged for the soul of the GOP, including the elder Bush's opinion of his son's work domestically and abroad, the significance of the newly elected Congress, and how Goldwater would have reacted to it all. Gold reveals, among other explosive disclosures, how George W. has been manipulated by his vice president and secretary of defense to become, in Lenin's famous phrase, a "useful idiot" for Neo-Conservative warmongers and Theo-Conservative religious fanatics.

Although there have been other books by dissident Republicans attacking the Bush-Cheney administration's betrayal of conservative principles, none have been by an insider whose political credentials include inner-circle status with Barry Goldwater and George H. W. Bush.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. 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, are 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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Inside Flap

Victor Gold wants his party back.
Gold is the former press aide to Barry Goldwater, the founder of the conservative movement, as well as the former speechwriter and senior advisor for George H. W. Bush. And he is incensed that the Neo-Cons and their strange bedfellows, the Evangelical Right, have stolen his party and betrayed the ideals of the conservative cause. Now heís fighting back.

After four decades as a Republican insider, Gold is ready to tell all about the war being waged for the soul of the GOP, including the elder Bushís opinion of his sonís work domestically and abroad, the significance of the newly elected Congress, and how Goldwater would have reacted to it all.

In this critique of the Bush administration, Gold reveals, among other explosive disclosures, how George W. has been used and manipulated by the vice president. His detailing of the presidentís puppet-like role amongst Neo- and Theo-Conservatives is utterly chilling.

?Victor Gold served as deputy press secretary to Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential campaign, press secretary to Vice President Spiro Agnew from 1970 to 1974, and speechwriter and senior advisor to George H. W. Bush in the 1980s. He is a personal friend of the Bush family and many other prominent politicians. He collaborated with George H. W. on his autobiography Looking Forward, coauthored a work of satirical fiction, The Body Politic, with Lynne Cheney, and is a national correspondent for Washingtonian magazine. He lives with his wife Dale and two contrarian conservative cats in Fairfax, Virginia.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.; 1 edition (April 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402208413
• ISBN-13: 978-1402208416
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,183,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sharp Read, April 23, 2007

By 

John Nelson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How the Holy-Rollers and the Neo-Cons Destroyed the GOP (Hardcover)

funny but also appalling. Over the past few years, I've been upset at various issues and events (including, of course, the news about the war in Iraq). The author's involvement in recent history (going back to Goldwater) means this book gives valuable historical context that makes me even more upset at what's been going on. The book is a good read, and a good way to learn the story behind the story in recent GOP (and Democratic, for that matter) American politics, and I wish some of these events had made bigger news when they happened.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vic Gold Has The Right Rx for the GOP, April 23, 2007

By 

Sean D. Kennedy - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How the Holy-Rollers and the Neo-Cons Destroyed the GOP (Hardcover)

Vic Gold has seen it all and is the eternal truth teller. Washington has become the court of Louis XIV--decadent, depraved, disgusting and the GOP had been led by the nose into this sordid culture.

The once honorable party of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, whose organizing principle was less government and more freedom is now dominated by soulless, gutless access sellers who call principled conservatives "sexists and elitists" but whose main job is to convince Republican lawmakers to do un-Republican things. The party is dominated now by these feather merchants and screaming blonde bimbos.

The Republican Party has reached its "thermidor", Gold is right. The only way to save this village is to destroy it. Gold's book is a landmark, and a must-read for all-principled Conservatives. Gold's book is not for those who should recognize themselves in its pages, the unthinking and uncritical--incapable of the necessary introspection to right this ship.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars what took him so long?, May 16, 2007

By 

Agnostic "-one" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How the Holy-Rollers and the Neo-Cons Destroyed the GOP (Hardcover)

Between anger, laughter, and more than a few, "Damn, I knew that" type of feelings, it is nice to see an original, thinking GOPer (perhaps that is an insult) Conservative (that works better) see the Bush administration and their neoconmen for what they truly are. As more and more rational thinkers were pushed out of the GOP by a small group of war-mongerers, intent on mis-using religion as a sword, and attacking anyone who disagreed with them as traitors, Gold's conversion is welcome, although somewhat late. His insights are interesting and informative, even though much of the story has already been ignored by MSM. His viewpoint of some well known facts makes this book a worthy addition to anyone's library collection of the upcoming demise and possible impeachment of the GOP and the neocon movement.