The Prince of Darkness

 https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/books/review/Shafer-t-2.html

Naturally, the NYT review is biased, though it does give a "liberal that don't know they are liberal" view of the book. 

A better short description of the book is "The story of a conservative reporters journey from being a moderate liberal the manner of Scoop Jackson to being a moderate conservative in the manner of Ronald Reagan". 

It is a "nice", though hard hitting remembrance of the times from the 1950's to the Obamanation end of America. It gives a view of American culture and daily life from the perspective of an actual journalist that knows he is biased, and has a decent handle on his biases. 

It covers more detail than necessary (understandable given his "involvement") on the "Plame Affair" ... Joe Wilson went to Niger because his wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame,  recommended him. Wilson brought back a non-committal report on Saddam attempting to get yellowcake (for nuclear purposes). Richard Armitage told Novack about it -- which he reported, including his wife's name -- wich was listed in "Who's Who In America" as Wilson's wife (so not a "secret"). 

The media, the Democrats and the Deep State (but I repeat myself) used this to claim that the "leaker" was Dick Cheney, possibly directed by Bush to "get back" at Wilson for his "report" that Saddam did not deal with Niger. 

Like much of our Fake News today, it was a totally a manufactured "scandal" -- a likely case is that it was manufactured by the CIA and blown out of all proportion by the media and the Democrats, but given what we know now about the media/deep state/Democrat effective singularity, it matters not. With the advantage of hindsight, we can see it was all fake. Like the Russia hoax. The message is "Republicans are EVIL" ... and when the hoax is outed, the media ceases reporting on it and never says "our bad" ... and then it is on to "Ukraine" or something else. 

I thought it read well, because I enjoyed his writing style and his chronicling of the massive drinking, smoking and general "hard" lifestyles of the late 50's and 60's.  

He matter of factly covers the vote fraud that "elected" Kennedy, and he used his being a registered Democrat and sneaky journalist skills to personally observe the massive voter fraud in Daley's Chicago. You know, the thing that never happens and you have to be a racist crazy to claim it does! 

If you are interested in an insider's view of American politics of the 50's to Obama, this is a good book. If you are a liberal, you will like the NYTs review which will naturally put a left spin on it.