Book Recommendation: Culture of Corruption

Culture of Corruption by Michelle Malkin

I first became aware of Michelle Malkin about a decade ago when I saw her columns printed in the newspaper. I was impressed by her thoughtful critique of the political left and continued to follow her writings from time-to-time since then. She has become something of a media sensation in the past few years with her frequent appearances on several Fox News programs as a contributor (and filling in for Bill O'Reilly on occasion), but her biggest splash has come this year with her latest book, Culture of Corruption.

What is most remarkable about this book is how quickly she was able to document and produce this book about the "corruptocrats" and cronies that populate the Obama Administration. Nancy Pelosi made the phrase "culture of corruption" a household phrase directed at Republicans in the 2006 election, but whatever ethical issues that Republicans had at that time pale in comparison with Obama's very short time in public office.

Before Glenn Beck ever brought Van Jones or Anita Dunn to the forefront of American politics, Michelle Malkin was calling out O on his corrupt picks he was making: Timothy Geithner (Secretary of Treasury, tax cheat), Bill Richardson (proposed head of Commerce department, confirmed that he has lied about his own biography and as governor of New Mexico, made a habit of handing out jobs based on cronyism), Tom Daschle (proposed head of HHS, tax cheat).

Malkin has chapters devoted to Michelle Obama (Barack's "Bitter Half") and Joe Biden, detailing their histories--histories that are not nearly as clean and pure as the media would have you believe. In the Michelle chapter, we are introduced to Valerie Jarrett, who it turns out is getting more exposed to the spotlight these days as the Obama family godmother.

If there is any failing in this book, I would say it's the massive amount of facts piled on the reader. Not that the facts are bad (well, they are for Obama, but...so what!), but there are so many of them it is hard to keep up and remember everything. The twists and turns of the filthy, corrupt life-long politicians and Marxists that Obama has surrounded himself with are just mind-boggling. The book has about 290 pages of actual reading material, followed by almost 80 pages of endnotes.

It is also interesting to note that by the time this book was published, Malkin could have easily started work on a sequel that could be out before Christmas...there are that many evil people populating this administration and that many more are coming to light on an almost daily basis. Will there be a sequel? I wouldn't bet against it.