Finish Seymour Hersh’s Reporter four hours before it disappears from the iPad. Tighter than that sounds, as the last three of those hours we are out for Sunday lunch. Hersh is not an elegant writer, and there are times I’d like to tweak a phrase, but the material is fascinating, detailed, and frequently horrific. He made a specialty of careful research and revelation involving some of the dirtiest political secrets of the last sixty years, and that is the essence of the book. Few of the public figures come out looking good, although there are some admirable exceptions, mostly not from positions of real power. And the material is there for yet another book, a biography of Dick Cheney, if it can be made watertight and not betray vulnerable sources.
For example, almost all recent presidents seem to have approved political assassinations to deal with « enemy « foreign leaders, sometimes to an extent deplored by the CIA, not usually noted for reluctance to engage in violence and deceit. Nothing actionable from the presidential side, simply a little commentary along the old « will no one rid me of this troublesome priest « lines, and no direct orders needed. Elections and individuals frequently bought, foreign countries destabilised, official statements blatant lies. Not nearly as much as one might wish to choose between parties, either. Depressing really, as it’s so obvious that Trump is only less subtle, not more ethical than many of his predecessors - while the last days of Nixon were at least as bizarre. And JFK more sexually reckless and no more moral. If anything has changed, it is the perceived need to conceal such behaviour and the willingness of Congress to condone it. Leaving one with the bizarre feeling that there is something to be said for hypocrisy. It at least acknowledges that there is such a thing as behaviour too shameful to admit to.
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