In Brief . - 2 - Review - book review

National Review, May 14, 2001 by Kathryn Jean Lopez

Absolute Power: The Legacy of Corruption in the Clinton-Reno Justice Department, by David Limbaugh (Regnery, 385 pp., $27.95)

David Limbaugh's bestseller Absolute Power seems to be doing what it set out to do-making sure scandal-fatigued Americans remember what the Clinton years were all about. Limbaugh, brother of Rush and a lawyer and syndicated columnist, meticulously chronicles the subversion of the rule of law during the past eight years, when, under Janet Reno, the infamous "war room" mentality of Clinton's campaigns took over law enforcement in the United States. In covering the various abuses of executive power by the White House, from Waco to Elian, with the foreign-money scandals, the defamation of Ken Starr, and the war on tobacco in between, he emphasizes the complicity of Reno's Justice Department. Limbaugh accuses Reno of compromising national security by ignoring her deputies, refusing to appoint an independent counsel to probe the numerous campaign-finance scandals, directing the INS to change its immigration policy to accommodate the administration during the Elian Gonzalez affair, assisting the White House in framing travel- office employees, and refusing to cooperate with Congress during Monicagate. Absolute Power is one more nail in Bill Clinton's political coffin.