'Broken Government' by John W. Dean

Have you read this book? What do you think of it?

I just finished reading this newest book by John W. Dean, legal correspondent to the website FindLaw.com and former Presidential Counselor who was one of the White House insiders who served time in Federal prison due to the Watergate conspiracy.

It's very comprehensive, and Dean makes a strong case for why the U.S. Federal government is broken, and what can be done to fix it. It's definitely worth reading. Dean now considers himself to be a political independent, by the way.

There were two topics not included in this book that Dean should address in a future book or FindLaw column:

1) The beginnings of the Reagan-era Iran Contra scandal actually date back to the time period during President Reagan's recovery from being shot. That would be his Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush who actually got the ball rolling on Iran Contra. Reagan ultimately took responsibility for Iran Contra, but few people ever connected the dots between the time period the operation began and who the acting President actually was during that time period.

2) While Dean has closely followed the confirmation hearings and initial Supreme Court career of Chief Justice John Roberts, he has not yet scrutinized a key part of Roberts' Senate Judiciary committee confirmation hearing: Senator Patrick Leahy asked whether then-Judge Roberts believed in the U.S. Constitution's doctrine of separation of powers; Roberts testified under oath that he does believe in this doctrine. However, it has since been shown that the members of the U.S. Federalist Society, to which Roberts belongs, emphatically do not believe in the doctrine of the separation of powers.

...If it can be later be shown that Roberts lied under oath, then further official investigation may be appropriate.

[edit on 9/26/2007 by Uphill]

Two other good new books on related topics are:

Takeover, by Charlie Savage (he's the Boston Globe reporter who won the Pulitzer Prize this year for his series of reports on the use of Presidential Signing Statements). Here is a link to the N.Y. Times review of this book:

www.nytimes.com...


Terror Presidency, by Jack L. Goldsmith, the former U.S. Justice Department head of the Office of Legal Counsel. Here is a link to the Washington Post review of this book:

www.washingtonpost.com...