Volume 46, Number 13 · August 12, 1999
Undemocratic Vistas
By Lars-Erik Nelson
The Corruption of American Politics: What Went Wrong and Why
by Elizabeth Drew
Birch Lane, 278 pp., $21.95
Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate
by Bob Woodward
Simon and Schuster, 592 pp., $27.50
Senator Fred Thompson (R) of Tennessee opened hearings into campaign finance abuses on July 8, 1997, with an uncharacteristic, and fatal, mistake. Thompson is an astute and levelheaded public servant and, though only in his first full term, a senator of unusual experience. As a young lawyer, he was Senator Howard Baker's chief minority counsel in the Senate Watergate hearings of 1973 and the interrogator who drew from President Richard Nixon's aide Alexander Butterfield the disclosure of the White House taping system. Now, a quarter-century later, his face looks, as was once said of Senator Everett Dirksen, as if he had slept in it. Before his election to the Senate he had made a successful second career in Hollywood playing make-believe Fred Thompsons—slow-spoken authority figures of imposing presence. Even his opponents readily concede that he is a serious man trying to serve the public good.
Review, 4501 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |