Editor-in-chief of Tin House
magazine, McCormack catalogues over 100 cases of sexual misconduct and criminality committed by Republican officials and supporters in an entertaining effort to expose the hypocrisy of America's self-professed “family values party.” Readers hungry for a helping of schadenfreude will relish the A–Z illustrated collection of misdeeds featuring prominent GOP personalities involved in bestiality, pedophilia, incest, autoerotic asphyxiation and lengthier musings on the exploits of Republican heavyweights including Newt Gingrich, Bill O'Reilly and George W. Bush. Along the way, the author raises unintended questions; his crime blotter seems to speak less about GOP failings and more about the moral decline of American society at large. Indeed, the book's sample is so large that the evidence suggests something awry in the polis, not just the party. And while reading about Rev. Ted Haggard's methamphetamine-fueled romp with a male prostitute is hardly dull reading, the book's most compelling section is its introduction, where McCormack invokes Adorno and social science research to link repressed sexuality to authoritarianism in a fascinating argument that leaves the reader eager for additional analysis that sadly never materializes. (Aug.)
