Equal Opportunity Reviewer Bashing

I am similarly displeased by this review from the left of another "What's the matter with the Democrats" book, "The Argument" by Matt Bai. A few points:

1) Michiko reviews far, far too many contemporary political books. And her "reviews" are rarely more than summaries of the key points from the books with a few illustrative quotes, followed by some like-minded piling on against the Bush Administration.

2) I'm very tired (as has previously been documented, as my friend Ted knows) of the self-serving reviews within the Times of books by NY Times writers or which have previously appeared in a different form in the Times. These books should appear in a "Noted for your Information" column, as the Times has shown no ability to conduct reviews for these books which are either fair or useful for their readers.

3) I haven't read Bai's book, but I've read almost all of his NY Times Magazine pieces, and this book is so clearly a compilation of the past 4 years of this reportage. Maybe Bai is hoping that no one has noticed, but the political world has changed just a bit since 2003. How can any serious reviewer can not point out how dated the book is? This is yesterday's first draft of history, which isn't too different from what is lining today's litter box.

BTW, the Salon review of the book includes this great quote.

One of my favorite stories in "The Argument" features Democratic Congressional Campaign chairman Rahm Emanuel, another ambiguous figure -- Bai seems to like him, even though he's a message-agnostic, win-at-any-cost pol from Chicago -- blowing up after having to sit through a work session on crafting a coherent Democratic appeal. Told that it's not enough to simply attack the Republican Congress (which is the whole point of Bai's book), Emanuel snarls: "I have my knee on their vertebrae, and I'm not going to let up on the pressure until I hear the vertebrae snap."

I don't know the date of this quote, but it could be anytime from 2006 until now. Emanuel is right and wrong at the same time. We'll find out in Nov. 2008 if he was more right than wrong. (It's a little bit like the difference between Hillary and Obama. BTW, I would love to sit in on the uncensored conversations that he and Obama have. Same city, same generation, and seemingly such a different approach to politics. Would be fascinating.)