Naked Republicans: A Full-Frontal Exposure of Right-Wing Hypocrisy and Greed

No need to avert your eyes-there's no photos of Karl Rove's bare ass here, but there are plenty of swift kicks to it. Uninhibited and unapologetic, the co-creator of liberal talk-radio network Air America unleashes a barrage of scorn-from grave accusations of high crime to ultra-personal mudslinging-on a rogue's gallery of Republicans, selected from the crop currently in power and the Contract with America revolutionaries of the 1990s. Short profiles of more than 50 Republicans, broken down into categories such as ""The Wackos,"" ""The Weasels"" and ""The Warmongers,"" feature a conversational roundup of offenses that reads much like partisan talk radio sounds: loud, jokey and very self-assured. For that reason, Lewis is at her best when she's at her nastiest, as in her expose of the entire Bush family: ""In no time Barbara was spawning a series of barely literate offspring who, tragically, would become leaders with actual responsibilities."" Lewis isn't looking to make a sophisticated case, but rather to condense much of what her audience already knows (or suspects) into a handy reference book, and she succeeds, backed by plenty of references to government reports, the mainstream media and independent watchdog groups. Though the jokes can get thin, and interludes into the trickier and stranger aspects of the Republican elite-like a breakdown of the Jack Abramoff scandal and steamy excerpts from the novels of Lewis ""Scooter"" Libby, Newt Gingrich and Lynne Cheney-are much too brief, this makes a fine primer for the angry Left-winger.