The Mafia, CIA and George Bush: The Untold Story of America’s Greatest Financial Debacle – Pete Brewton

The Mafia, CIA and George Bush: The Untold Story of America’s Greatest Financial Debacle – Pete Brewton, S.P.I. Books (1992) 418pp. (S) ***

This book is mistitled. Since its central focus is the Savings and Loans bank scandals of the 1980s, a more apt title would have been to simply use the second part of the title (The Untold Story of America’s Greatest Financial Debacle) as the main and only title. By throwing in the “Mafia, CIA and George Bush,” the unsuspecting reader is much more inclined to be drawn to a book that for the most part has very little to do with George H. W. Bush. Sure, there are passing mentions of Bush, but more ink seems to have been devoted to his son, Neil, who served as a director on the board of Silverado Savings and Loans, that eventually went bust. There is also brief citations of George W. and Jeb Bush.
Clearly Brewton has done a tremendous amount of research for this book. To the average reader, the myriad and plethora of names and relationships is truly mind boggling, which often left this reader overwhelmed. What appears to be a more central figure in Brewton’s story is a Houston business tycoon named Walter Mischer, a character who gets far more mention than Bush. For those looking for a work where Bush Sr. is the central figure, they would do far better to consult Russell Bowen’s The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family Exposed.

The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty – Kitty Kelley

The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty – Kitty Kelley, Doubleday/Random House, Inc. (2004) 705pp. (S) ***

This voluminous work by Kelley seeks to dig up the dirt on the Bush family dynasty. However, one of the most striking details is not George W. Bush’s notorious cocaine use, but how the politics of his grandfather, Prescott Bush, differed with that of his own and his father’s. According to Kelley, Senator Prescott Bush (Republican from Connecticut) voted to censure Senator Joseph McCarthy, voted against energy deregulation despite strong pressure to do otherwise by his son in the oil business, George H. W. Bush, and in 1956 Prescott Bush even campaigned in favor of civil rights. (However, what Kelley fails to mention is how a bank, Union Banking Corporation, under which Prescott Bush was a director, was cited in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy act for its business dealings with Nazi Germany.)
The progressive values of patrician Bush differ sharply with those of son George H. W. Bush who Kelley describes thusly: “His core beliefs were irrelevant. All that mattered was winning.”(p.515) This moral ambiguity comes into stark relief when one considers that as a U.S. Representative, George H. W. Bush was a supporter of family planning, a stance he quickly abandoned when he became Ronald Reagan’s running mate in 1980. This political expediency seems to have been not just the hallmark of George H. W., but of his son as well. The latter generation Bushes also have become known for ruthless and dirty campaign practices, whether it be George Sr.’s “Willie Horton” television advertisement, or the slandering of Senator John McCain in the 2000 Republican primary in South Carolina by front groups and PACs so as to ensure “plausible deniability” for Bush Jr. These lowball tactics from the Atwater/Rove school of dirty politics, unfortunately have again and again proven their effectiveness. When will the American electorate wake up and start seeing through the smoke?

Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy – John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney

Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy – John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney, W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. (2005) 211pp. (S) ***

In the closing pages of their book, Nichols and McChesney cite a twenty-first century truism (actually a truism that was probably applicable in other times as well): “Campaign finance reform is a first cousin to media reform.”(p.187) In other words, those with the bigger war chest are at a distinct advantage to flood the airwaves with mendacious mud, thus increasing the likelihood that it will stick. Candidate and president George W. Bush is as striking an example of this phenomenon as anyone. Given his poor oratory and penchant to misspeak, one would think that the media would have a field day with such a public figure. But Bush, as the candidate who has consistently outspent his opponents, seems oddly immune from such criticism, further using his resources as hush money to quiet potential negative media coverage. According to Nichols and McChesney, who cite Bob Woodward as their source, Howard Dean was the candidate who Karl Rove most feared (ostensibly because of his unbending opposition to the Iraq invasion and occupation). But Dean, who received a deferment during the Vietnam war, would seem like a ripe target for Rove’s hyper-nationalist mud machine, especially given how Senator John Kerry, a decorated combat veteran, was so outrageously slandered. With respect to Kerry, the authors write, “John Kerry was uniquely ill-suited to be the presidential nominee of a major party in 2004.”(p.125) This reviewer must strongly disagree with this statement. John Kerry’s record as combat veteran, the only one among all the Democratic candidates, was the strongest card to show up the inadequacy of a chickenhawk/deserter president. Again, we come back to the money, money to buy slanderous adds by the “Swift Boat Veterans” and the ludicrous “Stolen Honor” “documentary.” Other measures may have had smaller budgets, but nonetheless clearly demonstrated the desperation of the right. Consider that during the 2004 Republican national convention in New York City, band-aids with miniature purple hearts on them were being distributed, apparently in a mocking gesture towards all those who have been wounded in combat. Such puerile and shameless ignorance is really quite astonishing – indeed, far beyond the pale.
One instance not cited by the authors where a big checkbook played a significant role, is in the period immediately following the 2004 presidential election. Instead of hearing about the many voting “irregularities” of the election just passed, the public’s attention was absurdly derailed by the corporate media to focus on the projected 2008 race with conjecture that Hillary Clinton might head the Democratic ticket. It was if the RNC itself had nominated Clinton, knowing how much of a lightening rod she is for many American voters. Whatever the case, it was a classic diversionary tactic, with the corporate media dutifully taking its cues from Republican “talking points.”
Perhaps the most egregious example of media abuse is the “Dean scream.” Surprisingly, the authors write, “we are not objecting to the media being tough on Dean.”(p.124) Does “being tough” include incessantly re-running a two-second clip in a twenty-four news cycle, of an unglamorous moment in order to ridicule a candidate and torpedo any chances of him gaining the nomination? Again, the big money was talking. Dean was perceived as being too far outside Washington’s narrow margins, so his campaign had to be effectively halted. Indeed, campaign finance reform must be the first priority.