Off with Their Heads: Traitors, Crooks & Obstructionists in American Politics, Media & Business [Hardcover]

Dick Morris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 2003

What happened to the unity that so blessed America after 9/11? Where did our sense of determination go?

Our political, journalistic, and cultural leaders have mounted a campaign to oppose and impede the war on terror that seemed so vital in that rare moment of clarity. This book is my personal cri du coeur about deception in politics, journalism, and business -- especially when it stops us from following through on the work 9/11 has left for us all to do.

This book takes on some pretty sacred cows, but it's about time they became fair game.

--from the Introduction

Are you appalled by the antiwar tone the news media has taken since the war on terror began -- especially "objective" news outlets like the New York Times and the network news?

Are you wondering when liberal celebrities like Barbara Streisand, Sean Penn, and Susan Sarandon suddenly became geopolitical oracles whose advice we're supposed to value above the wisdom of tenured experts?

Are you at a loss to decide who has betrayed us more outrageously: the French who abandoned us in our time of need, or our own elected officials, who tapped our 401(k) savings and the tobacco-settlement windfall with equal abandon?

In Off with Their Heads, syndicated columnist and Fox News Cannel political analyst Dick Morris points an accusing finger at the many ways the public has been lied to and misled, pickpocketed and endangered. Whether it's Bill Clinton, who ignored mounting evidence of impending terrorist catastrophe throughout the 1990s, or the members of Congress, who quietly sold our democracy down the river in exchange for lifetime incumbency, Morris rips the cover off the cowardly and duplicitous figures who have sacrificed America's interests for their own.

From private corruption to public treachery, even longtime political buffs will marvel at the astonishing behavior Morris reveals at every level of society -- and at how it threatens to compromise the American way of life.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Dick Morris is on a tirade in Off With Their Heads--and that’s good news. For as an experienced political consultant who has worked with both Democrats and Republicans at the highest levels of government, he knows what he’s talking about. As a result, there is much to learn from this detailed book, regardless of whether one may agree with his conclusions. Morris begins by railing against the established news media for showing blatant liberal bias and for irresponsibly undermining the war on terror as the Bush administration is waging it. With good reason, as he illustrates in many examples, he advises citizens to rely on a wider variety of sources for information and to approach the media in general with far more skepticism. (Presumably this includes his current employer, the Fox News Channel.)

Morris’ hit list is extensive, and he spares nothing in his attacks. There is a particularly fascinating chapter on Bill Clinton in which he declares that "All our terrorist problems were born during the Clinton years." Though he praises the former President’s achievements on many domestic issues, he accuses him of utter negligence in terms of national security and foreign policy. In explaining exactly why, he also offers fascinating insights into Clinton’s character and approach to policy-making that only an insider could supply. He also targets outspoken leftist Hollywood elites and crooked CEOs. Other chapters deal with the realignment of political districts and the power it affords incumbents, governors who failed to use the massive tobacco settlement for the slated purpose of funding anti-smoking campaigns, and the plight of 3.5 million nursing home residents. He saves special venom for his assessment of France.

Morris does not accuse his opponents of treason or even a lack of patriotism, only of being wrong and misguided. He is aggressive without being vicious and he backs up every claim he makes--two things that put him ahead of most other political analysts in the media (in addition to his work on Fox News, he is also a columnist for the New York Post. A well-informed and thoughtfully argued book delivered with force. --Shawn Carkonen

From Publishers Weekly

Morris is mad as hell: liberals, led by the New York Times (which is as biased as Radio Moscow, he says), are trying to prevent the Bush administration from effectively fighting the war on terror. Morris's targets are broad, his charges simplistic: the Times, under the now-departed Howell Raines, slanted coverage, spouting left-wing "propaganda," moaning about civil liberties and the economy in order to distract Americans from the main event. Bill Clinton "just didn't get" the terrorism problem and never took Morris's sage advice about it; worse, Morris charges, he deliberately failed to take action against al-Qaida out of political self-interest. As for the denizens of the "rogue state of Hollywood," "barely educated" celebrities should keep their mouths shut, and the French are appeasement-loving backstabbers. A tone of hysteria reigns throughout, and Morris's arguments have some logical gaps. After pages and pages demonstrating how the Times manipulates poll results, polls subsequently cited in support of Morris's ideas can only be viewed with skepticism. Writing of "Hollywood apologists," he lumps together all antiwar voices, from Barbra Streisand to Noam Chomsky, and engages in needless ridicule. And while taking on various antiwar arguments, Morris doesn't address religious pacifism: he mocks Richard Gere without acknowledging his Buddhist beliefs. The book finally loses all focus in its final chapters, as Morris takes potshots at Congress, the tobacco industry and nursing-home managers, straining to equate them all with terrorists as "evildoers" threatening our democracy. Morris would have done better to either stick to the single issue of terrorism or take time to develop a more comprehensive line of reasoning.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1 edition (June 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060559284
• ISBN-13: 978-0060559281
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,522,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dick Morris served as Bill Clinton's political consultant for twenty years. A regular political commentator on Fox News and other networks, he is the author of six New York Times bestsellers (all with Eileen McGann) and one Washington Post bestseller.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not about ideology, everything about politics., August 20, 2003

By 

W. Lee "Bontakun" (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Off with Their Heads: Traitors, Crooks & Obstructionists in American Politics, Media & Business (Hardcover)

I find this book very fascinating and factually-backed in many respects. Whether you agree with his analysis and conclusion(s) or not, the facts are there, and we (the reading) will draw our own conclusions. One can elude or ignore the facts of events, but that would be a disservice to oneself and is intellectually disingenuous. Again, anyone can question his motives to right such a book, but thats not issues, the facts are there and they a backed-up. Considering Dick Morris's past experiences (good and bad), this book is hardly ideologically driven of the usually liberal or conservative bashing, especially from someone who has worked for both Democratics and Republicans. Whether you like Dick Morris or not, any and every clear-thinking person(s) should applaud for exposing the "political skeletons" that our elected leaders have been hiding from the public, and in many cases, backstabbing the very people who voted for them. I applaud Dick Morris not only for exposing a lot of truths behind people of power, but also doing so without being vicious or ad homen about it.

50 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful and Occasionally Eye-Opening, August 22, 2003

By 

Paul McGrath (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Off with Their Heads: Traitors, Crooks & Obstructionists in American Politics, Media & Business (Hardcover)

For those who make an effort to keep abreast of the current domestic and foreign political scene, there is really not much in here that you don?t already know. Nevertheless, in that it is well-documented and written by a Clinton insider, it is a very useful resource to have around in order to continue to combat the never ending onslaught of left-wing mendacity.

The book is not really vitriolic as the title would seem to indicate, and as screaming leftist editorials will tell you that it is. There is a little anger here and there but it is mostly written in a pretty even-handed way and is often humorous. It touches on many subjects: left-wing bias in the press especially in the New York Times; the failure of the media to accurately report the Iraq conflict; the paralyzation of the Clinton administration in the face of the burgeoning terrorist threat; the loony left in Hollywood; French perfidy; and various other political issues large and small in contemporary America.

The left will also mewlingly accuse the author of sloppy research but there is no way they can refute his extremely detailed study. The New York Times chapter, for example, is primarily based on a day-to-day study of the front pages of this formerly respectable paper for an entire year or so following 9-11. Clearly, on this evidence alone, there can be no denying that the New York Times, under the leadership of editor Howell Raines, attempted to shape public opinion through the use of fraudulently weighted polling, slanted reporting, and the failure to report news unfavorable to their own political position. It is depressingly familiar.

Other chapters are as well-researched, and again, based on not much more than a careful reading of the news available to each and every one of us on a daily basis. You may disagree with the author?s conclusions, but you cannot disagree with the facts on which he bases them.

The best bits of the book, though, are the author?s personal recollections of his days as an advisor to President Clinton in the mid-nineties. Some of this is nothing less than astonishing. For example, Clinton, politically fearful and terrified of leaks, instructed the author to bring up foreign-policy issues with him only when they were alone. ?When Sandy Berger, wise to my habits, sought to stay longer to keep me away from Clinton, the president instructed me to pretend to leave the building, then wait downstairs for his all-clear signal so that we could begin our foreign-policy conversation.?

Read the above quote again. Think about it. President Clinton, the leader of the free world, felt compelled to play little hide-and-seek games with his advisors rather than simply tell them to get out of the room. Remarkable, and sadly, entirely believable.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great food for thought, March 26, 2004

By 

zionred "zionred" (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Off with Their Heads: Traitors, Crooks & Obstructionists in American Politics, Media & Business (Hardcover)

Former Clinton advisor and current Fox News Channel political analyst, Dick Morris, doesn't let anyone "off the hook" in this very well written and thoroughly documented book. He offers detailed insights to the current events of the day that are shaping America. From the obvious left-wing major media bias to the sub-par care in America's nursing homes, Morris not only offers historical reference to the problems that faces Amercia, but also commonsense suggestions on how to correct them.

Topics he covers include:

*The ridiculous and obvious media bias so prevailent in major media today that dares to call itself real journalism.
*The media credibility gap with the Iraq War.
*How Clinton left "ticking terror time bombs" for Bush to discover and how the actions taken in Afghanastin and Iraq by the Bush Administration are very necessary and should be supported by all Amercians.
*How the Hollywood apologists' lame retorts seek to divide America and how they have no idea what they are really talking about and how political activists such as Noam Chomsky are well-meaning but very misguided.
*The history of America's relationship with France and why France has stabbed us in the back concerning our fight against terrorism and how France has for so long been in the "back pocket" of Iraq.
*How both republicans and democrats took the lead in promoting laws that protect crooked companies such as Enron to defraud its investors with imputnity.
*How both democrats and republicans are guilty of gerrymandering in their districts so they have very little competition in their re-election efforts.
*The attack on our kids by the tobacco companies and how many state governors used the settlement money to their own benefits instead of using it toward anti-smoking campaigns which is what it was for.
*The terrible care in America's nursing homes.

This is a very good book full of information and backed up with very detailed facts that everyone should read whether or not you may agree with Morris' outcomes. I, myself, don't necessarily agree with everything that Morris proposes. However, it will defninetly make you look at some things in a "different light." I especially enjoyed the section on France. I now have a much clearer understanding on why France continually "thumbs it's nose" at America and why we should no longer pay them any heed until they get their act together.