cover image The Constitution in Crisis: The High Crimes of the  Bush Administration and a Blueprint for Impeachment: Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, Illegal Surveillance, and Cover-Ups

The Constitution in Crisis: The High Crimes of the Bush Administration and a Blueprint for Impeachment: Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, Illegal Surveillance, and Cover-Ups

John C. Conyers, and Staff, . Skyhorse, $15 (302pp) ISBN 978-1-60239-009-6

T his report by Michigan Representative Conyers, senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and his staff aims to demonstrate a “persistent and disturbing pattern of conduct involving the Bush Administration” in the buildup to and handling of the Iraq War, as well as the domestic erosion of civil liberties—but comes too late to add much news. The authors draw on “tens of thousands” of sources in building their case, including government reports, legal decisions, newspapers, books, speeches, television broadcasts and online material, tallying just over 1,400 endnotes in a dense but manageable 320 pages. They also comprehensively cover the administration’s role in spreading the false claim of an Iraq–al-Qaeda connection, scandals involving the torture of Iraqi prisoners, and the leaking of former CIA-officer Valerie Plame-Wilson’s identity to the press. Since the bulk of the report was completed by May 2006, a brief addendum isn’t enough to bring some of the material up to date (most tellingly, the text continually refers to the Republican-controlled Congress). Most readers will be better served by the more journalistic books and articles the authors use as references. (June)