An investigation into how the Bush-Cheney administration has seized vast powers for the presidency to permanently alter the constitutional balance of American democracy.
In 1789, the Founders devised a system of checks and balances to keep kingly powers out of the hands of presidents. But in the 1970s and 80s, a faction of Republicans, outraged by the weakening of the presidency after Watergate and Vietnam, abandoned the traditional conservative suspicion of concentrated government power. These men hatched a plot that would allow the White House to wield enormous powers, operating behind a veil of secrecy and unchecked by Congress or the courts.Today's administration is bringing this project to fruition.
TAKEOVER reveals the machinations behind the headlines and lays bare a hidden agenda three decades in the making, one that links warrantless wiretapping and Bush's judicial nominees, torture and Cheney's energy task force, the faith-based initiative and the imprisonment of citizens without trial. It tells the story of how a group of true believers, led by Cheney, set out to establish near-monarchical executive powers that, in the words of one conservative critic, 'will lie around like a loaded weapon' for any future president.
One of the key texts of the Bush years...A masterful work of investigative journalism - SAN FRANCISCO Chronicle
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie Savage is a Washington Correspondent for The New York Times. His first book, Takeover, a bestselling and award-winning account of the Bush administration's efforts to expand presidential power, was named one of the best books of 2007 by The Washington Post, Slate, and Esquire.