The WaPo laments the sad state of the nation in
Conservative's Book on Supreme Court Is a Bestseller:
The Supreme Court is not often the stuff of bestsellers, but in recent weeks a conservative lawyer's full-throated attack on the court has been flying off the shelves, reaching as high as third place on the New York Times bestseller list.
The 288-page book, "Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America," by Mark R. Levin, arrived amid expectations of a pitched battle in Washington over a replacement for ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. It argues that the court's decisions in favor of abortion rights, gay rights, economic regulation and affirmative action have created "de facto judicial tyranny" and an economy "lurching toward socialism."
"The judiciary, operating outside its scope, is the greatest threat to representative government we face today," writes Levin, a former Reagan administration official turned talk-radio host.
With endorsements for the book from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and other conservative media icons, Levin has also reached millions through appearances on radio and television, providing his audience with intellectual ammunition for the impending struggle over the court's future.
Yet this publishing phenomenon has gone almost completely unnoticed outside conservative circles.
What they really mean is in limousine liberal circles as the rest of the article reveals.
Mark Tushnet, a liberal law professor at Georgetown University who clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, said he has watched the rise of Levin's book with some bemusement.
Tushnet's own book, "A Court Divided: The Rehnquist Court and the Future of Constitutional Law," was aimed at "the educated general public," he said. It argues that the court is a relatively moderate institution and chides writers who "cheer or boo" the court's rulings depending on their own ideology.
"A Court Divided" came out a week before "Men in Black"; it has been reviewed, mostly favorably, in the Los Angeles Times, The Post and the New Republic. Tushnet has been interviewed on National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" -- but not on conservative radio or television. Sales of "A Court Divided" have been respectable for a nonfiction book but still nowhere near "Men in Black's" numbers.
"This book is being sold just as would be expected for a serious, critically acclaimed, nonfiction book -- that is, under 10,000 copies," said Alane Mason, Tushnet's editor at the New York-based publisher Norton.
Asked about Tushnet's book at the reception for "Men in Black," Regnery's Carneal said he had not heard of it.
Tushnet said he has not read "Men in Black" and does not know anyone who has.
Perhaps Mark ought to broaden his horizons. And a
Freeper recalls the famous Pauline Kael line - "I simply don't understand McGovern's defeat -- I don't know anyone who voted for Nixon!"
