Scandal: How "Gotcha" Politics Is Destroying America [Hardcover]

Lanny Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 2006

For more than four decades, polarized politics in America has been driven by a vicious scandal machine comprised of partisan politicians, extremists on the left and right, and a sensationalist media energized by bringing public officials down. In this sorely needed book Lanny Davis, who has been in the belly of the beast as Special Counsel to the Clinton White House, explains--starting with historical scandals like Alexander Hamilton's extramarital affairs and moving on to the unsurpassable Watergate and beyond--how we reached this sorry state. Davis tells us how this poisonous atmosphere is damaging not just politics but American society as a whole. Davis also offers hope by revealing how a coalition of centrist politicians focusing on core policies that appeal to the frustrated electorate marooned in the middle can pull us back from the brink.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In this polarized nation of 280 million souls, Lanny Davis is one of a select few who maintains a personal affection for both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. If you read this book you'll know why this is true--and why we're all diminished because it's so rare. Lanny's exposé of 'gotcha' politics is not just a lament about the lack of civility in American public discourse. It's a compelling call for a truce in our 'war room' style of perpetual campaigning."
--Carl M. Cannon, White House Correspondent, National Journal

"Lanny Davis has shown he understands the dangers from the left and right of the politics of personal destruction."

--Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT)
"This book could not come at a more appropriate time in American political life. Whether it's a debate on the war, judges, taxes, or almost anything else, the ability of Americans to engage each other with respect and dignity is being lost. Lanny Davis has been on the front lines of some of the sharpest political debates in our nation's history. We should listen and learn from his experience and observations."

--Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

"Davis is that rare insider who is capable of being fair to all sides.  He is willing to cast blame on his own party, his own candidates and even his own self, along with those on the other side who deserve blame. This perceptive look into the Washington world of equal opportunity scandal mongering must be read by Democrats and Republicans alike--and by all fair minded people who want to end the politics of mutually assured destruction."

--Professor Alan M. Dershowitz, Harvard Law School

"To many conservatives, Lanny Davis is a cherished anomaly: a thoughtful liberal, a decent guy, and a fair-minded Democratic operative who loves his country even more than he loves his party. This challenging book offers a road map for helping America climb out of the current mosh pit of ugly, partisan mud wrestling and to substitute constructive competition for today's mutually assured destruction."

-- Michael Medved, nationally syndicated conservative talk show host and author of Right Turns 
"My friend Lanny Davis and I disagree on nearly everything political, but he is an opponent conservatives respect because he argues with sincerity, passion, and great intellect."
--Richard A. Viguerie, author of the forthcoming book, Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause 
"For those who applauded the demise of the Independent Counsel Statute, Lanny Davis's book is a fitting funereal tribute. It is required reading for anyone who even dares to think such a law would be wise public policy in the future."
--Joseph E. diGenova, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and former Independent Counsel

"Lanny's book shows us how the public debate moved from a question of right and wrong to a question of good and bad.  It is a call to arms for Americans who want a true debate of ideas for moving our country forward."
--Governor Bill Richardson, New Mexico

"I am confident that Lanny Davis speaks for most Americans when he decries the coarsening of our political discourse and the dysfunction it has created in Washington. Hopefully, his work will serve as a wake-up call and prompt a better, more productive kind of national political leadership." 
--Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN)

 "Lanny Davis's important new book documents the growing number of Americans who want to take the country back from the ideological purists and haters on the left and right. Davis sees a new center majority of fiscal conservatism, social liberalism and cultural moderation and toleration--an ideological mix that happens to be where most Americans are and want their leaders to be. This book should be required reading for every presidential candidate from both parties in 2008."
--Al From, Founder & CEO, Democratic Leadership Council

About the Author

Lanny Davis served as Special Counsel to President Bill Clinton from 1996-98. In 2005, President Bush appointed Mr. Davis to serve on the five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. Davis has appeard on The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes, MSNBC, CNN, and his writings have appeared in The New York Times. He is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and author of Truth to Tell (1999).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; annotated edition edition (September 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403974950
• ISBN-13: 978-1403974952
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,236,765 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

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A review of abuses on both sides for political advantage, October 24, 2006

By 

Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scandal: How "Gotcha" Politics Is Destroying America (Hardcover)

Lanny Davis is certainly a partisan Democrat. And that is just fine. His political leanings are more centrist than leftist. That is, he is more like Bill Clinton (whom he served and still defends tenaciously) than the MoveOn wing of the party. One of the goals of this book is to spark a centrist realignment of the parties into a "Purple Nation" and freeze out the extreme wings of both parties. Davis is not the only person with that fantasy, which is almost certainly going to remain unrealized.

Because American politics is tends to be somewhere close to 51-49, people on the losing side tend to see those just across the divide as possible allies. Davis thinks that the middle should get together and form a party of compromise without all the harsh "politics of personal destruction" that we are all heartily sick of.

I have to give Davis a lot of credit. He is the first Democrat or Republican of recent times that is willing to recount the abuses of the other side by his side (of course, while recounting the abuses of his side by the other side). Here he admits that Walsh did bad things. That Meese, Donovan, and Ted Olsen were all abused (as were, Davis says, Hamilton Jordon, Bert Lance, and Jim Wright). OK, I hear you starting to choke. Let me say again, that depending on where you stand, the more Davis is going to seem either partisan or too kind to the GOP. And that is one of Davis' points.

Our politics has become so fixed in partisanship for the sake of partisanship that we have a hard time granting any credit at all to the other side. And this is a fine point that needed to be made. I thank Lanny Davis for making it. Anyone reading this book with an open mind will be given food for thought about this serious issue in our current political scene even without agreeing with all the points Mr. Davis makes.

Where I think Mr. Davis goes off the rails is why these personal attacks are used in our current political system. In my view, it has two principal sources. The first is that the Congress has long abdicated dealing with the hot political topics of the day. They only want to deal with it when they have to. Otherwise they stall and fob it off on agencies full of unelected bureaucrats. To be at the front of a political fight is to get noticed and if the politics shift, you lose your office. And since getting elected is the real purpose of being in office nowadays (and we let them get away with it), they don't want to take the risk of giving their opponents any ammunition or finding themselves standing on the plank out over the water.

The second issue flows from this first one. It is the way the judiciary has stepped in to "fix" social problems with rulings from the bench without any actual basis in law. They simply make it up and assert it, and we buy it. So, to protect these phony rulings the extremists get further and further out on the lever (on both sides) and so only the extremists end up with power.

So, in reality, to realize his dream, Davis is going to have to also argue that Representatives in Congress should begin again to actually represent their constituents and make laws that are relevant to our times rather than focusing only fund raising for re-election. And he is going to have to advocate the judges stick to judging on the laws that actually exist. I am not sure he is willing to do either.

The other flaw in this book, or virtue depending on your take, is its secondary purpose as part of the rehabilitation of the reputation and legacy of Bill and Hillary Clinton. I am sure most of this is because Mr. Davis honestly believes what he advocates. However, I personally believe it has to do with strengthening the memory of the Clinton Presidency and his service there. And I wouldn't be surprised if it were also in part about getting these scandals out of the way for Hillary's run on 2008.

Nevertheless, this is an interesting book and a contribution to our present political debate.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Watergate to modern times, the scandal machine has revved up, November 5, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Scandal: How "Gotcha" Politics Is Destroying America (Hardcover)

In the late 90s the author was special Counsel to President Clinton and was offered a ringside seat to the inner sanctum of the political process: SCANDAL: HOW 'GOTCHA' POLITICS IS DESTROYING AMERICA offers damning details on all parties as it surveys the evolving 'scandal culture' affecting political elections and decisions. From Watergate to modern times, the scandal machine has revved up: SCANDAL documents exactly how it has evolved, the ideas underlying party manipulation of the political system, and different paradigms of change.

Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch

0 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lanny Davis is a Highly Paid Mercenary Propagandist, August 7, 2009

By 

William W. Litsch - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scandal: How "Gotcha" Politics Is Destroying America (Paperback)

Before anybody reads this book they should do a little research on the life of Mr. Lanny. His career is a long list of selling his counsel and his public support to the highest bidder, with few if any exceptions. He spreads lies for businessmen clients in Honduras, as is evidenced by his poorly argued interview on Democracy Now, in which he provides no material support for his opinions and instead only evinces belligerent personal attacks on its host. He is a corporate lawyer and is wholeheartedly in bed with any corporation willing to screw the little guy if it pays him well enough. He is connected to the Clinton Oligarchy from way back and has and will bend the facts to support them in any way he can. He supports the racist Israeli government in whatever endeavor against human rights and common decency it sees fit to perpetrate. All of Lanny's books should be seen through this lens. He will mix certain interesting and accepted facts with illusory details that help his clients and his well placed friends. I'm sure his is popular at parties. Walking around cleaning up the messes of those more powerful than himself. Spraying perfume on all the turds they leave behind, while he bemoans all the suffering they have to endure by all the stupid people that desperately want their leaders and "representatives" to actually represent the best of them, in both their characters and their governance.