Rating:

Sadly, yes to all three, according to Joe Scarborough in his recent Washington expose “Rome Wasn’t Burned in a Day”. As one of the maverick Republicans who stormed Congress in 1994 with an aggressive agenda or welfare reform, tax and spending cuts, and general accountability, he’s in a position to know. It’s tough in there, he tells his dismayed readership, sprinkling the narrative of his experience with anecdotes about Congressional waste and corruption as amusing as they are alarming.

Here are some of the specifics: %500K for swine waste management, $175K to study desert plants, 5M for “at risk” fisherman. And there are more. And these, moreover, emanating from that same Republican Congress who rode in ten years ago to save the day from such folly. Power corrupts, Scarborough shows us, as we take a trip with him through the looking glass during his tenure in Congress. Through internecine squabbles, floor battles, and nasty personal piques, we see how the Republican liberators have emerged as the new tyrants, complete with uassailable House seats and enabled by a pliant Republican president.

Ah, the pity of it. Unfortunately, none of it is really news, and the fate of the Republican mavericks could have been foretold from the outset. They did accomplish some real change before they flared out, but Scarborough lingers mostly on their failures, all the time minimizing his own role in their downfall. And he did play one.

He presents himself as the prototypical Mr. Smith, tough and unflappable in defending the basic limited government principles he believes in. But Mr. Scarborough must be savvy enough to know that politics is a war game, that he played the game in a certain way, won a few battles, and lost his right flank. This is life. But things will go on without him. The war for basic libertarian priniciples did not end with the goverment shutdown in 1995 and the mutiny against Newt Gingrich.

The book has a lot of strengths–its down home writing style, simple presentation of the complex nuances of the political game, and Joe Scarborough’s own compelling story of triumph and disillusionment. The problem is that Scarborough seems more interested in blaming everyone for the state of the system now rather than looking forward to new possibilities. Terms limits, campaign finance reform, more disclosure–his remedial suggestions seem like an afterthought, old and moldy reform concepts that either haven’t been tried or haven’t worked. Scarborough insists, over and over, that he quit Congress in order to be a better father. Perhpas. But it seems likely that he, like any number of clever operators in Congress, knew how to cut and run when the running was good.

Rating:

We have a corrupt duopoly that stacks the deck against anybody and everybody who gets in the way: third-party candidates, taxpayers, voters, even the right wing religious faction who supported the GOP on the basis of its “values.”

Values? Even as a lifelong Republican I have never been able to grasp why we hide our heads in the sand as they pick our pockets and those of our kids and grandkids. The government giveaways are criminal, yet no accountability is demanded.

It is too bad that Joe and his maverick “Class of `94″ couldn’t or didn’t stay long enough to clean it up, but then again, when the sewage gets too deep it is better to do a complete excavation. And that appears to be the only thing that will fix congress; a complete turnover of US representatives and senators. That over 90% of them instead got reelected in 2004 demonstrates that we voters are simply disconnected.

Joe provides some excellent recommendations on the fixes, but only a new congress will get them passed. This is a must read, but then some activism on the part of the reader is in order.

Rating:

He makes it quite clear that the Republican Party is no longer standing by its own ideological beliefs, but rather is spending astronomical amounts of money to fund programs which are not truly benefitting the American public. Too much pork-barreling is happening, as well as too much backscratching. Scarborough was one man who tried to make a difference, but the numbers clearly overpowered him. The lobbyists, the powerhouses on the Hill, and all those affiliated with special interest groups are the ones really running America.

We need more Joe Scarboroughs in Congress. The more people we can get, who recognize and live up to their duties as legislators, then perhaps the better a chance we stand in turning our country around for the better.

It’s actually quite scary, to not really know what back door deals are being brokered in the congresspeople’s self-interest of being re-elected. I think all of our legislators need to read this book, and as a supplement, watch “Mr. Smith goes to Washington” as a refresher for being a honest and admirable public servant.

Rating:

As a regular viewer of his show, I looked forward to reading the gory details of the circus in Washington. Scarborough shows early and often what his deepest, most passionate hatred is about Washington: wastful, irresponsible pork barrel spending. The examples of wastful spending in Congress is apalling. The bribes, payoffs and hypocracy and corruption is enraging. His story of how he got into Congress is inspiring for anyone thinking of running for a House Seat. His accounts of what Washington is like just screams reform. And his suggestions are lucid and practical and should go into practice.

The detailed blame he puts on his own party for the astronomical and dangerous deficits accumulated over the past 4 years of GOP-controlled Washington is shocking. The two-faced, self serving image he paints on most people in Washington would make almost anyone vote their congressman and senator OUT of office.

Great book for reform advocates and honest people. We are not alone. Joe is on OUR side.

About the only drawback in my opinion is the partisanship tainted throughout the book. Although he’s mad at his party leaders, he still aplogizes for his party by saying where it should be. Angry, honest Democrats and Liberals could say the same thing. His dismissal of Dem’s as inherently bad and critique of Repub’s as acting like Dem’s is biased. Fiscal responsibility is not a Rebublican trait as he can’t help but point out. Bottomline is that when given control of the federal checkbook for the first time in 40 years, the Republicans have proven no better than Democrats.

He puts equal blame on Bush because he’s done nothing to stop the spending spree. “The buck” still stops at the White House, Joe points out. In fact, he grudgingly points out that Clinton’s numbers and record on spending and expansion of government are better than Bush’s. This means a lot coming from a self-proclaimed Clinton-hater.

The unpartisan message however is not lost: Once in Congress, most politicians act dishonorably and dishonestly. Lobbyists, another evil that he points out, have more pull in affecting laws than we do. This needs to change. And this horrid spending and blatant corruption will not end until WE change it by holding our congressmen and senators accountable with real checks and control by the people. Good job, Joe.

Rating:

He laments that Republicans are not the party of Reagan anymore. Both major parties demand allegiance to their platforms before their principles. Government grows at the expense of citizen’s wallets and personal freedoms. These and other pithy statements fill this book.

He explains how, after Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, party leaders eventually “began buying votes and building a patronage system by spending other people’s money – specifically yours and mine.” Sending pork home was one of the best ways to insure reelection.

Scarborough is especially shocked and saddened that “while New York and Washington were still burning, congressmen and senators added pork projects for their home districts onto an emergency spending bill aimed at September 11th relief needs.”

While he is critical of Democrats and Republicans, he reminds the reader that most Democrats never promised to cut spending and taxes. Most Republicans did, making their sell-out even more offensive.

Beside the massive spending spree, the book discusses such moral efforts as defense of marriage and character education in schools. Adding federally mandated student testing, Scarborough asks the “conservative moralists” if they “really believe Republicans will run the White House forever? Or do they simply plan to resume their assaults on the socialization of education when Democrats retake the White House?”

The book was obviously written and edited quickly to come out before the November elections. That aside, anyone interested in a frank inside-baseball view of what really goes on in Washington should read this book. It is a somber reminder that Lord Acton was right, power really does corrupt.