It's My Party Too: How The Radical Right Is Undermining America

Rating:
Summary: Finally, someone's talking sense
Review: As a lifelong moderate Republican, I've been increasingly dismayed at the rightward lurch of the party -- and especially by the intolerance of some on the right of those of us in the center. This book speaks clearly to the frustration moderates have felt over the past few years. Using compelling examples from her own career, Gov. Whitman shows how the party can succeed by reclaiming the sensible center. She does a nice job telling stories about her own long history in the party (she's attended every GOP convention since 1956), and is able to use that history to advance her argument. I hope she succeeds in starting a national discussion that helps the Republican Party realize that there's much to be gained by reclaiming it traditional roots. An important message and a great read!

Rating:
Summary: Loyalty to GOP versus to her Country
Review: Christine Todd Whitman like Colin Powel and John McCain don't really believe where the GOP is going but are more loyal to it than they are to thier values and to our country. She even ran Pres. Bush's reelection campaign in New Jersey after quiting her Cabinet position because of how little she agreed with her boss. She has her priorities screwed up and her party and her country are the losers for it.

To speak out now is just a way to try to get over the guilt of helping put a moderate face on extremist policies. One thing America doesn't need is more cowards like these.



Rating:
Summary: Stephen King, move over! THIS is a scary book!
Review: Christine Todd Whitman's sober but eminently readable short book is a clarion call to moderates and true Republican conservatives alike, and, as such, should be warmly welcomed by liberals as well. In genial, accessible and melifluous prose, Governor Whitman reveals her experiences as a life-long Republican, both in the Governor's office in New Jersey, and as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency during much of President Baby Bush's first term in office. And much of what she has to say is truly chilling. Is this a scary book? You bet it is. If you have any interest in modern American politics, put down your Stephen King and read Whitman's assessment of her party's descent into kowtowing to the hard right wing. It's a whole lot more frightening.

Take, for example, her chapter on abortion, entitled The Party Within The Party. As she delinates her real position, as opposed to the position on the issue ascribed to her by the hard right wing of her political party, she offers a great deal of information about the drift rightward of her party, and the growing influence of the hard-liners, who have, she contends, left any connection with the bedrock values of the party to which they're laying claim, indulging instead in intrusive, and unconstitutional, legislation in order to further their social agenda. She says: "Frankly, it seemed to me at the time (and still does today) that their failure to take the path I had laid out suggested that they were more interested in having an issue than in saving the lives of unborn children." (p.87)

There is a bit of Queen Elizabeth I of England's political realism in Whimans's restrained and balanced approach, and I suspect that as distasteful to her as is the hard right's ideology, its lack of political flexibility and unwillingness to bend in the interests of getting the job accomplished are equally unappealing to her.

The intent of her book is to reunify her party along the lines that historically bound it: smaller, and accountable, government, strong defense, less intrusion into people's lives by governmental legislation and lower taxes. There has been criticism from the left about her unwillingness to tell all, and her reluctance to condemn the worst aspects of her party, the current President in particular. As a life-long liberal, and the child of children of Democrats, while I sympathize wholeheartly with that perspective, I also understand that the point of her book is not to 'tell all' in the vein of Andrew Morton's biography of Princess Diana. The point here is to educate, elucidate and illuminate, not sink to trashing the people who made her political experiences unpleasant.

I respect her reluctance to come across as a crybaby, which would have pleased my liberal friends, no doubt, but would not have accomplished her intent, which is to call her party back from the nether regions into which it has sunk. She is asking for political moderation so that in concert with other moderates across party lines, she, and others like her, can accomplish something good for the country, based on respect for the people who cast the ballots. Right now, that respect for the American people is sadly lacking in the party in power in Washington. She says as much, in chapter after chapter. I wish her luck in her efforts to swing her party back to sanity. It would be of benefit to us all if she and other moderate Republicans like her were successful.



Rating:
Summary: A voice from the inside
Review: Criticism holds more weight when it's internally derived, and is from a credible source. That's true in sports, business, and politics. Consequently, Whitman's claims are worthy of consideration and evaluation.

One of her principal claims is, "The numbers show that while the president certainly did energize his political base, the red state/blue state map changed barely at all -- suggesting that he had missed an opportunity to significantly broaden his support in the most populous areas of the country," This is likely a valid criticism, one that goes beyond party lines as it applies to both red states and blue states alike.

Whitman was often at odds with the White House on issues such as setting limits on air pollutants, power plant emissions and global warming. Her tenure was marked by complaints from conservatives that she was too liberal. I wish her book had included specifics regarding her proposals, including the costs to businesses and the benefits to the environment. In short, a cost/benefit analysis would have been helpful in determining the merit of what she was fighting for.

One thing that struck me is how much of the book appeared to be the antithesis of Zel Miller's. For instance, she writes, "A clear and present danger Republicans face today is that the party will now move so far to the right that it ends up alienating centrist voters and marginalizing itself," I wonder if she read Miller's book?

Whitman writes, "It is time for Republican moderates to assert forcefully and plainly that this is our party, too, that we not only have a place but a voice, and not just a voice but a vision that is true to the historic principles of our party and our nation, not one tied to an extremist agenda," Were those same moderate Republicans happy with a Bush victory, or were they hoping for a Bush loss?

Certainly, Whitman was a bit of a misfit in the Bush Cabinet, coming in as an abortion supporter, and taking a job that is not a quick route to popularity in a GOP administration. Regarding diversity in the differing parties, the thing I began to wonder about is the number of pro-life candidates considered for the same role in the Clinton administration. Doesn't Bush's appointing Whitman to this position demonstrate his willingness to reach out to such Republicans? If so - and Bush is now maligned by such a book, how willing will he be to make similar concessions in the future? Maybe the carrot approach (praising the good) would have been better for Whitman to use instead of using the stick (criticizing the bad)?



Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: It's My Party, Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America is a very honest book by a great woman, Christine Todd Whitman.

Very interesting and a great read.

Rating:
Summary: Well writen and understandable
Review: My father comes from Whitmans wing of the Republican Party which is why he voted for the Democratic ticket this time around because Bush and Cheney are just way neo-conservative.

Governor Whitman writes with a clear understanding of the issues and a true argument for her party. She offers her ideas about what the Republican Party was and how it needs to find its moderate roots again. She is someone who was a good governor for New Jersey and someone who has fought for a more moderate/centrist agenda for her party.

I would push anyone to read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Little Miss Namby Pamby Writes A Book!
Review: Poor Christine Todd Whitman - she ran EPA for Bush & Company for four years, and was continuously set-up, undercut and humiliated by the very same folks who'd hired her. Yet she just can't bring herself to declare that the Emperor has no clothes! Is she too polite? Too ambitious? At this late date, who cares? Her book records at great length her own fiddling while Rome burned - a dowdy and dispiriting read. Look for it soon on remainder tables everywhere!

Rating:
Summary: Living under a rock
Review: The Democrats lost this election, and do not have a majority in either house, because real Americans are disgusted by the direction our country is taking on moral issues such as abortion. Ms. Whitman's argument is that the republican party would do even better if they more resembled the Democrats, who are more liberal on social issues.

So lets see. Take a successful party that just won a major election during a difficult war, and retained both houses, and make them resemble the losing side? Smart? Not very.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!
Review: Tood Whtiman has made an important plea to the Republican party to truly be the "big tent" it purports to be.