Truth and Consequences Review

In his introduction to the book, Olbermann discusses the origins of his Special Comments and the reasons why it is not a regular feature of his program.  All 24 of these Comments are due to some incident or quote from, mostly, the current administration.  Olbermann's passion, fury and anger at the mistakes and abuses of the Bush Administration are not to be taken lightly.  He makes powerful points in calling our leadership to task.  Olbermann is no Bush apologist.  And we really don't need any more apologists for George W. Bush.  Bush and his cohorts have done an excellent job is silencing their critics.

The collection starts with Olbermann's first Special Comment (dated September 5, 2005) on the administration's handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans and ends with one (dated September 4, 2007) on Bush's false promise of troop withdrawals in Iraq spurred by Robert Draper's book, Dead Certain.  Along the way, he rails against the administration's comparison of dissenters to Nazi appeasers, the repeated use of 9/11 to invoke terror in Americans for political purposes, the lying to America about the reasons for the Iraqi War, the ambushing of a former president by Chris Matthews, the loss of civil liberties, and the weakness of Democrats in not taking Bush to task.

Each of the pieces is preceded by a short introduction by Olbermann explaining what incident prompted the Special Comment.  The book is relatively short (about 175 pages, in all) and a very quick read.  Olbermann's Special Comments provide food for thought for us all.  However, clearly the points are more in line with Democrats and liberals than conservatives and Bush supporters.  As such, it will probably appeal to a narrow audience of people who agree already with Olbermann.  That's too bad, as it is worth our while to have a broader view of our leaders.  But I certainly understand the biases and philosophies we all bring to what we read.  It's much easier to read what we agree and are comfortable with.  I appreciated Olbermann's passion in his Comments.  In some ways, they remind me of Dennis Miller's Rants on his HBO show from several years ago.  I easily recommend the book, especially for those looking for further criticism of the current administration.  The Comments are well-written, very reflective and reactionary to the incidents they are meant as a response to.