In "Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush," John Dean discusses the wall of darkness and deceit the Bush Administration operates behind. From shutting off public access to documents, to Cheney's shadow National Security Council, to opposing a 9/11 Commission investigation, the Bush White House has tried to keep the public and even Congress out of the loop. I was a little surprised that a Nixon Administration official comes across so anti-Bush. With one notable exception, many of Dean's comparisons to Watergate itself strike me as more marketing than substance. Bush is a whole new kind of political criminal.

The first part of the book rehashes crimes and misdemeanors covered in many texts. Stock fraud while Bush was a director of Harken Energy, his profits from the Texas Rangers that were completely underwritten by tax dollars. Halliburton's sales of equipment to Iraq during sanctions, and Cheney's continuing paychecks as the US government awarded no-bid contracts to Halliburton. [FYI: In 2005 I heard Bush talk about eliminating asbestos lawsuits, the liability from which is the main drag on Halliburton stock].

Shortly after 9/11 Bush signed an executive order effectively repealing the 1978 Presidential Records Act. He did so just in time to prevent the release of Reagan era documents. Back then, I remember thinking he was trying to hide connections between the Reagan-Bush White House and the people who later formed Al Qaeda and the Taliban. This action was one of the last nails in the coffin of my support for Bush. To be fair, Dean talks about how Governor Bush tried to seal all his executive records when he left Texas, establishing a history of keeping the public in the dark.

No discussion of government working in secret would be complete without talk of Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force. The mysterious cabal who formulated a blatantly pro-oil energy policy. Recently, a judge ruled that Cheney did not have to release the names of those who participated. I'll have to assume that Cheney met with Al Qaeda to coordinate the 9/11 attacks as part of an overall strategy to raise oil prices. Prove me wrong Mr. Cheney, release the names!

The one angle that does legitimately tie into Watergate is the impeachable offense of deceiving Congress. In addition to the text, the first appendix provides a particularly concise summary of lies in Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, in which he all but announced the Iraq War. I remember hearing the growing rhetoric in 2002-03 about the "imminent threat" Iraq allegedly presented. First it was chemical weapons, then biological, and finally nuclear weapons that could kill US troops in Kuwait within the hour. As each threat failed to get the desired public support, the Administration escalated their talking points until they played the nuclear card. This worked fine with people who never payed attention to the news or had short memories. But I remember how we had inspectors (including US citizens) in Iraq during the mid 90's, destroying chemical and biological weapons and equipment. In addition, those inspectors did not find a nuclear program. I also knew that Iraq was a secular government, in stark contrast to the conservative religious government in Iran. Al Qaeda represented a threat to Saddam's power, not a possible ally. [It was not until after the US invasion that Al Qaeda entered Iraq. Thank You George W. Bush!].

With the exception of sealing presidential papers, much of the material in "Worse than Watergate" has been covered elsewhere. Dean looks at things from a different angle, but personally I have reached my saturation point on Bush Administration wrongdoings. If you've already read "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy," "The Price of Loyalty," and "Had Enough?," you can probably pass. If you haven't, or if you want to hear this information from a former Republican administration source, then the book is a quick read.