While I am offering precisely what the industry expects here, I will also be revisiting this text when it is fitting – given the headlines I see daily, that will be fairly often. This is not such an odd arrangement – MSNBC daily refers to tidbits of political trivia from one book.

Pure Goldwater by John W. Dean and Barry M. Goldwater, Jr. is a compilation of the private journals Senator Barry Goldwater left for his children, as well as selected correspondence with others throughout his career. It can be considered a natural history of the GOP during Goldwater’s tenure in public office as well as a selected biography. Goldwater’s political history has been a well-spring for GOP members for years, however they typically call his legislative and public speaking history. While all of that is the content of his life, this book is the context – the story of the man, not the politician.

One passage I continually turn to is from September 1949:

“Now I must put down, first of all, my philosophy that politics can be clean. I want to put that down now because maybe I will have to change my mind. I think, however, that politics can be governed by the same set of laws or rules that govern our actions towards each other. I believe that things can be done outright and not on the sly cloak and dagger treatment politics have always carried. I think that people who work under [city] politicians, the clerks, the police, the engineers and all the others, they will work for men and women that they admire and trust much better than for those they fear and distrust. Well that’s down, now we will see what will happen.”

Goldwater stated those words before his name was officially on any ballot, just previous to his first leap in the world of politics. It was previous to his run with childhood friend Harry Rosenzweig for Phoenix City Council. A year later, while working as campaign manager for Howard Pyle’s gubernatorial race, Goldwater again managed to mention something well worth noting:

“It is a rich reward to me as Howard Pyle’s campaign manager and as an Arizonian, an American, and a Republican – and I’m proud of being all three. In this spontaneous action of the Republican Party of Arizona we may well be witnessing the start of a movement that will sweep America: A movement that will return morality to politics. A movement that will return honor and stature to the service of one’s state and country. The government of this nation and of this state was formed on the concept that honor was a holy thing. Our founders pledged their lives, their fortunes but most important of all they pledged their sacred honor. Today, because of the almost total ignoring of those basic concepts, we find our nation treading on the threshold of socialism. Our government’s being run by peoploe who think one way and act another. Whose fault is this? It is yours and mine – the people of this state and nation. Plato once said, ‘The penalty that people pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by people worse than themselves.’ Now hasn’t that come true?”

The irony that words spoken 60 years ago about this nation ring just as true today is testament to the problem that societies rarely learn from their own histories. Apathy remains the enemy, as does a lack of honor. Morality is bandied about as a buzz word, stripped of the meaning and weight Goldwater gave it all those years ago. Barry Goldwater, Jr. has given the public a great gift in allowing what was first set aside for his consumption to be published in the first place. It is true that his father’s memory is rarely called upon these days in the GOP – when mentioned, it is typically by the not-so-vocal moderates that probably remain a majority in the party, but have been generally silenced by the radical right-wing fringe. Yes, Goldwater has words about the hijacking of the party (or at least the splintering of it) by questionable elements within the ranks.

Pure Goldwater should be considered required reading for at the very least, any person that is or wants to be a registered Republican. It should be peddled on every page within the GOP official website, if for no other reason, because within its pages is the wisdom of a man that will perpetually be considered a leader of men within the party, and his experiences mirror the situations the party faces today. Otherwise, it provides the opportunity for Americans to learn from their history, and hopefully avoid past mistakes.

Pure Goldwater on Amazon.com

If you are looking for a relatively comprehensive biography of Blagojevich, then this is the book for you. From his childhood through the scandal, he covers just about everything of note in his rise in Chicago politics. It can be assumed that he has annoyed at least a few in the “Chicagoland” political machine with this text, but as for what really happened with the scandal – that remains couched in a rather convoluted story that will satisfy few. Honestly, one needs a scorecard to keep track of who is doing what and for whom by the time Blagojevich gets into the meat of the scandal, and it would honestly be unfair to even attempt to summarize that here.

Readers must also wade their way through repetitive claims of innocence embellished with historical references. Blagojevich continually claims that he doesn’t wish to be compared with statesmen like Teddy Roosevelt, but repeatedly compares himself to them. He also states his distaste for his father-in-law’s habit of airing the family’s dirty laundry in the press, but then goes on to enumerate his problems with the elder politician in the book. Both of these circumstances lend a hypocritical tone to the entire text.

However, there is something to be gained from reading The Governor, particularly for students of political science, and anyone with aspirations in the world political consulting. Blagojevich obviously wrote this with little or no assistance from political consultants, and as such, it can be considered an excellent reference text for political campaign managers seeking to prevent a candidate from speaking too candidly to the public and others with similar needs. It is worth reading if one is highly interested in the entire situation, but it is not for the faint of heart nor for anyone accustomed to highly polished memoirs.

And after reading his book, I know I was right.

Long ago I learned that what people didn’t say could be more important than what they said, particularly in politics. The Test of Our Times could be a textbook for a class on recognizing those situations. First and foremost, readers have to consider the book in context, with the realization that the author is a politician who actually tried to be honorable. His definition of honorable includes standing on the side of the “official” story from his superiors whenever he was not privy to what was going on behind closed doors. And finally, the personal is not political for Ridge – this is not a confessional book, and it is unlikely that anyone who doesn’t already know his personal views on homeland security (or anything else for that matter) will learn them.

Now, as long as readers approach this book in context, it is an excellent collection of snapshots of what it was like to start a new department in our Federal Government. Although Ridge never comes outright swinging at Bush, there is an edge to the narrative. It becomes abundantly clear from nearly the start, that while he respects Bush, Ridge was often confused about what was actually going through the mind of the President.

Contrary to what the public saw in the early days and months immediately following 9/11, there was a great deal of resistance within the government towards Ridge and his department – conflicts that apparently continue today, if to a lesser degree.

Not having any historical data to go by, or any real sense of what it would take, we nevertheless provided a rough estimate of $10 billion…Bill Parrish and I, along with former General Bruce Lawlor, my first chief of staff…went to the White House for a meeting with Andy Card, Karl Rove, representatives from OMB, and a few others. When I argued for the money, the others in attendance said it was “too much.” The push-back was focused on the reimbursement of state and local agencies. I said, “We can’t ask or expect governors to be able to pay for what we are asking that they do under Liberty Shield, which is, after all, a federal operation.” In the end OMB agreed to $6.8 billion.

The previous passage is a fair example of the resistance Ridge met regularly on all fronts. He chronicles tales of turf wars in the world of intelligence, and various arguments about money – everyone was for what needed to be done, but no one wanted to pay for it. The public saw the cleansed version of the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and were meant to believe that their leaders were all on the same page when it came to protecting them. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Ridge bore the brunt of the public ire over unpopular measures that had to be taken to increase security, but one can wonder how many would have complained had they known his standards.

A passing grade required a perfect score. Two out of three wasn’t good enough.

Will the new measure make us safer?
Will it be consistent with the Constitution and the rule of law?
Will it have good or bad economic consequences for our country?

And while we would be subject to scrutiny and criticism regardless of the perfect score, knowing that the measure had passed this test provided a comfort level about doing the right thing. However, we were accountable publicly for all security measures regardless of origin.

If taking responsibility for the actions of others doesn’t cause people to think twice about Ridge’s integrity, perhaps his thoughts on one of the least-liked policies of the time will.

Under no circumstances can we voluntarily surrender a constitutionally protected right. Thomas Jefferson and our Constitution describe these rights as “inalienable.” And as previously mentioned, Benjamin Franklin cautioned: “They who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

After I left the administration, the White House inquired if I could publicly support the President’s use of FISA. I said I could and would but felt it was imperative the White House work with Congress to amend the FISA statute to comport with the new electronic means of surveillance and the original congressional intent. At that point they lost interest in having this discussion. I never got a call to defend their use of FISA.

That is just one example of the differences of opinion that occurred between Ridge and the Bush administration, but is one reason why it does him a disservice to immediately lump him in with the true believers of that administration. Another surprise for readers may be on Iraq.

DHS was never involved in any of the decisions leading up to the invasion of Iraq…I never participated in any of the National Security Meetings prior to invading Iraq. That is not a complaint. It’s just a fact. I knew little more than what Secretary Colin Powell shared with the world in his speech to the United Nations. Powell’s statement coupled with my cynicism about the United Nations and its ability to offer little more than meaningless, unenforceable resolutions led to my conclusion that preemptive action was warranted.

Admittedly, the relationship between the Saddam regime, Al Qaeda, and 9/11 was tenuous, if at all. If our intelligence community had hard evidence of such a linkage, it would have been wise to share it, not only with me, but with the rest of the world.

It is always in what isn’t said. “If” remains one of the largest words, and in this case, it holds the possibility that our security as a nation was left in the hands of a man who wasn’t privy to some of the most important information our government had on terrorists and potential threats to our safety. In spite of this, Ridge has remained loyal to the men he served, and has not used his book to enumerate their shortcomings.

The Test of Our Times is arguably the best “tell-all” book on the Bush administration precisely because it does not tell all. It is not for the faint of heart, nor is it for readers with an unshakable preconceived notion that the author is nothing more than a fellow felon from the previous administration. Ridge should go down in history as the politician with the patience of Job, but more likely, he will be little more than a footnote. Regardless, at the time that we needed it most, he was the politician who left politics at the door when he went to work each day to protect the citizens of this country. That is more than can be said of many others from that administration, and it is frightening to consider where we would be if someone who played the partisan politics games had been in Ridge’s place instead at the beginning of DHS.