"David Brock - Blinded By The Right" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brock David)

"I'm not much interested in David Brock," says commentator Ann Coulter.

Radio host Laura Ingraham declines to discuss Brock.

Internet gossip Matt Drudge says no comment.

Says Wlady Pleszczynski, the Spectator's former managing editor: "I don't know who would be interested in his book beyond a few fanatics on the left and those of us who knew him and worked with him. It's such a sad slide. I don't know what he really believes in anymore."

Which raises the unavoidable question: Can Brock rehabilitate himself by denouncing those who helped him to prominence?

Clasping a mug of coffee in his fabulously furnished living room, Brock looks away. "I guess I ultimately decided the betrayal that's involved here is the betrayal of politics, as opposed to the betrayal of personal friendships or loyalties," he says slowly. "I was pretty restrained, given what one could have done."

What will he do now? Brock finally seems comfortable in his personal life, sharing the home with his partner, James Alefantis, and a large gray poodle. But his career prospects are unclear.

"I have no plan at the moment," Brock says. He's not sure if he can still practice journalism. He remains a symbol of a nasty era in American politics, a sinner seeking forgiveness, surrounded by the wreckage of his own ambition.





Brooklyn, NY : How influenced do you think the current president and administration are by the right-wing clique you describe in your book?

David Brock: Many of the characters in the book who helped put Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court and were the leaders of the anti-Clinton movement are currently serving in this administation. The top legal talent in the White House and several cabinet departments is drawn from the Federalist Society, the powerful network of right-wing lawyers that I discuss in the book. They are really influential in decisions ranging from judicial selection to regulatory matters.

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Pasadena, CA : How has the radical right movement you discuss in your book adapted and changed during the Bush 2 administration?

David Brock: The main change is that the influence of the right wing is now much more hidden. The Christian Coalition, for example, kept a low profile at the Republican convention in 2000, yet spent more money supporting Bush than they had any other president. Bush has tried to put a more moderate face on the same conservative policies that the party has pursued since Reagan, and Bush is the most popular president in the conservative movement of any president since I've been in Washington in the last 16 years.

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Sally Miller : What needs to be done to make it where this dirt in politics will cease and civility be returned to politics and to the American voter. Or do you see it continuing.....or getting worse?

David Brock: I think it has abated for the moment, but it hasn't gone away. Since the Republicans have come to office and control the government, Washington has become a more civil place, because the conservative attack machine is happy, and therefore dormant.

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Sally Miller, Albertson, NC : Do you feel you need to apologize to the Clintons, or have you already done so? and why do you think the right wants to use "such hate" and character assasinations to destroy their opponents?

David Brock: Yes, I publically apologized to President Clinton in 1998 when impeachment was in the air as a way not only of expressing my regrets to him, but also as a way of highlighting the dangers of impeachment to the country.

If you look at modern history, conservatism is fueled by hate, because conservatism only thrives when it has an enemy. For years, the enemy was the Soviet Union, but when the Soviet Union collapsed the Republicans began a witchhunt against domestic political enemies. This is what the Clintons got caught up in.

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Richardson TX : What is it about Clinton that the right Wing Hate?

David Brock: It's a complex phenomenon. One reason is that Clinton was the most threatening Democrat to come along in at least 2 decades. Another is that the Clintons seem to stand for progressive social values that the right wing despises - for example, Hillary Clinton was the first First Lady to have had her own career before coming to the White House. The Arkansas Clinton-haters hated Clinton because of his views on racial relations. And then I think for some who are accusing the Clintons of doing the very things they themselves were doing, the hatred was a case of psychological projection - an orgy of self-hatred.