Hostile makeover

Jeff Birnbaum "reviews" Sirotta's new book and pans it for being too partisan.

"Hostile Takeover" is a vicious and sometimes ugly apologia for pro-labor, pro-trial-lawyer Democrats, which its publisher obviously hopes will capitalize on the current lobbying scandals.[...]

I only wish that the world were so simple! My job as a reporter and a columnist would be a snap. Unfortunately, federal policy and politics is a complicated game.[...]

Sirota's black-and-white Washington allows no shade in between, a fact that deprives the reader of a much more interesting and credible story. Surely many people will be helped by Medicare's new prescription drug program. And low income-tax rates do have some positive impact on economic growth, which, in turn, assists people who need jobs. Yet those positions are hard to find in Sirota's rendition.

What a hoser. A book is supposed to have a POV and the reviewer isn't supposed to use the forum to espouse his own counterpoint without the bother of backing it up with any facts. If I want his opinions on the subject, I'll ask for them. I'd love to hear how people like him learn to take in oxygen while their nose is firmly buried in the administration's butt.

Maybe it's too much to wish away the public's desire for easy solutions to complicated problems. But it's not too much to expect books on federal policy to color their analyses with at least a little doubt.

Well, when he writes his own damn book, we'll see just how skeptical Birnbaum is of addled-brained lawmakers and the lobbyists who support them and his grade B excuse for journalism. The putz.