cover image 101 People Who Are Really Screwing Up America and Bernard Goldberg is #73

101 People Who Are Really Screwing Up America and Bernard Goldberg is #73

Jack Huberman, . . Nation, $14.95 (331pp) ISBN 978-1-56025-875-9

More than a mere hit list of America's most despicable individuals, corporations, affinity groups and think tanks, this droll and acerbic refresher course on the issues confronting the 21st-century United States marks Huberman's (The Bush-Hater's Handbook ) latest foray into the dark side. Starting with the premise that right-wing pundit Ann Coulter is an evil alien manipulated by crypto-fascist Scientologists, he occasionally gets carried away with his modus operandi, becoming just as inanely self-righteous as the reactionaries he's decrying. Entry 67, about SUV buyers, offers some chilling statistics about the vehicles. But to argue that all SUV owners are antisocial misfits meriting utter contempt, when many a suburban soccer mom is simply trying to protect her family from being obliterated by a three-ton behemoth on the way to Disney World, is self-defeating. Though Huberman takes his readers' sympathies for granted, the unabashedly left-wing bias and sheer breadth of this frontal assault on Republican politics and culture are factually convincing. Some early entries (J.K. Rowling, Dan Brown, Candace Bushnell) may raise a few eyebrows, but overall Huberman serves up a frothy indictment to warm liberal innards. (July)