compounding the problem

"Other recent favorites Bush has cited fall into this same, self-justifying category, including Natan Sharansky's The Case for Democracy and Mark Steyn's America Alone. Are we sure we want a president who spends so much time reading? The leader who loves books that tell him he is great and right may be worse than the leader who does not love books at all."

Jacob Weisberg reviews Bush-favorite Andrew Roberts's A History of the English-Speaking Peoples since 1900 and finds it shallow, error-filled, and generally sycophantic. No wonder Cheney's been carrying around a copy.

What can we say about a book whose section on civil rights begins: "Although the ill-treatment of the Black American has long been held to represent an indelible blot on the escutcheon of the English-speaking peoples … " "Although" indeed! What kind of ill-tempered people would have reached that conclusion?