Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy

This was something; it will feed any interest in constitutional law with its concise coverage of how the Bush Administration punched out checks and balances. This is only a survey, however, but the bibliography will lead the interested to deeper study. This book also covers the machinery of federal bureaucracy. Those with an interest of the precise nature of political decisions, and how business and government interact (only touched upon lightly in regard to 9/11 and Cheney's Energy Task Force) need to look elsewhere.

But I loved this book.

Horrible. Disgusting. I was filled with repulsion to the depths of my being, in reading this book.

Savage makes an exquisite case. He goes through, point by point, in excellently written prose, showing all the ways that Bush and Cheney have subverted the constitution. He doesn't do this just referring to obscure aspects. He doesn't just present opinions. He looks at the core of the constitution, at the Separation of Powers, and how Bush Cheney et.al. have worked to remove that from the basis of our country. Savage gives a huge amount of meticulous evidence, albeit written in a style that makes it feel like a story.

But it is a story worthy of the great Shakespearean or Greek tragedies. This is not a case where Cheney made a mistake, or misunderstood something. He has been working since his time under Nixon to expand the power of the President. It's not just a case where there's a disagreement on the interpretation of the constitution. He truly believes that Congress should have no oversight over the President, that the President should make laws, and that this was what the Founding Fathers intended. Far worse, over the last seven years, he's enacted his beliefs, so that they are now the custom of the land.

And then it got worse. This belief on the independence of the President, the "Unitary Presidential Theory", is believed by only a small minority of scholars. Most think it only slightly better than the gift your dog gives you when you take it on a walk. (I'm sorry. That was unfair. Dogs leave behind far higher quality.) But now, two Supreme Court Justices were found to believe this idea as well. So Busheney have worked to undermine the future of our country as well, inserting their viscous beliefs into the very top of our court system, that they might slowly win others to their cult of power.

A friend counseled me not to read this book, for it would just make me angry. He was right. But I think we need to be aware of what's going on. Where we once had a country built on the rule of law, with at the time the finest document devoted to freedom and equality in history, we now have only tattered cloth and shattered dreams. We have two men ruling us, devoted to power and control, with no compassion within them. And we have decades ahead of us, to work to correct the destruction they have wrought on our country and the world. I do not believe in my life I have seen a greater example of what it means to be a traitor. If you can stomach it, read this book, to see the work ahead of us, and the shame we now collectively own. For I do not believe in my life I will see us truly healed from these past seven years.

An excellent look at the expansion of executive power under Bush-Cheney. However, it is also a nice history of executive power since Nixon, and a good introduction to the development of the Unified Executive Theory. It will make you mad, and it should scare you.

Excellent, really excellent. He manages to take an issue and lay out the facts in a way that is rather hard to dispute. Obviously, he has his opinion, and occasionally you'll see it get the best of him, but for the most part, this book just lays out Cheney and the notion of the Unitary Executive System. If you support the idea, you'll read this and say "so?" If you support any concept of Checks and Balances, this book will document a host of ideas that will disturb you greatly.

Fantastic- and by fantastic I mean I was fuming the entire time I read this. Savage has a remarkable knack for digging beneath the press releases and mainstream headlines to deliver an accurate assessment of the current state of our government. The checks and balances we grew up learning about in Civics class are dead.

Interesting read, concentrates on the rise of executive power, through the Bush/Cheney administration. Although the book concentrates on the Bush administration, he brings in examples from previous presidents when dealing with presidential power. Definitely worth reading.

The story that this Pulitzer-winning author unpacks is mind-boggling and sickening. It reveals how the Bush-Cheney administration have systematically insulated the Executive Branch from due process, oversight, checks and balances, and the rule of law. And they have done it all by mendaciously asserting and boldly implementing two legal theories that are viewed as dubious and ill-founded by the vast majority of the legal community.
On the one-hand there is the idea of the "Unitary Executive". This theory maintains that the executive branch, and in particular its chief executive the President, has an exclusive remit over all powers that the Constitution grants it. In other words, the President is the sole and unchallengable arbiter of all executive powers and he can not be restrained, checked, or balanced in his judgement and performance of these powers by either the Judicial or Executive Branch.
This would be bad enough. But the Bush-Cheney administration has also maintained the most extreme position on the idea of the President's inherent powers. This crux of this position is that the President holds power that the constitution does NOT specifically enumerate, but that inherently acrue to him with his/her Constitutional role of Commander-in-Chief and as head of the Executive Branch.
Taken together these ideas remove constraints upon the actions of the Executive and grant the President almost logically unlimited power to do what he or she sees fit, particularly in areas that can be construed as affecting national security in any way.

Both of these theories, in substance and spirit, contradict the plain meaning of the Constitution and the moral, intellectual, and philosophical ethos of the Founding Fathers who opposed nothing more in government that unchecked and unrestrained executive power.

Nevertheless, the Bush-Cheney administration have been remarkably successful in putting these combined theories into action, establishing them in precedents, AND - most stunningly - shielding them from rigorous judicial scrutiny with ever more audacious tactics.

Despite the views of the administration that their position was in fact the correct reading of the Constitution and therefore lawful, it has never been upfront with the American people about its theories and the way it has methodically sought to permanently alter and undermine the separation of powers and the traditionally understood Republican ideals of the American system of government. Elected and appointed officials have duplicitously minced their words when speaking in public whilst aggressively acting toward their goals in private.

Yet another astonishing aspect of all this is that the intellectual and bureaucratic energy behind this bold agenda came not from the President, but from Vice-President Dick Cheney and his most important aide David Addington.

This is a startling and frightening book that emerges from a highly-respected journalist; this is is not a partisan attack. Most sadly of all, as yet there is no sign yet that the Candidates for the office of the Presidency have grasped the scope of this takeover. Nor have they appreciated the urgency of the need that it begins to be dismantled before it is thoroughly enshrined in practice and precedence. This needs to be done for the sake of the republic, its most fundamental values, and the men and women from across the world who rely on that Great Republic and its values to cherish and safeguard their most basic human dignity.

Read this book. And then lend it to someone else.

Every American should read this book, if only to realize the full extent of what we and our lawmakers have allowed the presidency to become. Republican or Democrat, the changes to the presidency over the past 8 years have been dramatic and sweeping, and they have grave implications for the future of this country. Savage tries hard not to come across as biased, pointing out things Democratic presidents have done to expand presidential power, but there's no denying that the focus of this book is on the Bush administration. For the most part, Savage avoids making judgments about whether or not expansion of power is good or bad, but the tone is hardly approving....

Really Interesting but a lot of information at once
you read a page but then after you inish you ave to go back and read it again because you really weren't paying attention
but there were some cool facts
and it made me not hate republicans so much, just the bush administration

Great read on our current presidency, and exposes truths every American needs to know on how our democracy should be working.