Inside the White House: The Hidden Lives of the Modern Presidents and the Secrets of the World's Most Powerful Institution

In this tabloid-sounding account, Kessler (The FBI) has aimed very low, armed with ``inside information'' provided by presidential aides, servants, staff members and Secret Service agents that has the ring of backstairs gossip. He shows Lyndon Johnson as a vulgar megalomaniac, Nixon as almost pathologically shut in, Carter as a petty nitpicker, Reagan as dominated by his icy wife, Bush as barely able to tolerate people en masse and Clinton as such a compulsive womanizer as to make Jack Kennedy seem celibate. From the chief executive on down, virtually everyone at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., he concludes, falls victim to ``presidentitis'' and abuses power. The only question left unanswered is, what's new here? (Feb.)