CATEGORY

L.A. Weekly editor/columnist John Powers surveys the landscape of George W. Bush's America and finds it littered with frothing liberals, sneering conservatives, sluggish reporters, and mindless commentators. From reality TV to the "embedded media," Powers dissects the post-9/11 milieu with something bordering on glee. Brooks can't help but be repulsed by journalists who are as incompetent and slothful as they are ideologically driven. True, our leaders are failing us at our time of greatest need. But, hey, he gets to write about this stuff! With sharp, snappy, self-confident prose, Powers delights in devastating the likes of Ann Coulter (engaging in debate with the strident right-winger "can only make you dumber"), Bill O'Reilly (pegged as a man who pens "short books with very large print"), and "serial bigot" Michael Savage. Not that the left escapes unscathed. The progressive mag The Nation is "profoundly dreary" and Fox's opposition voice Alan Colmes is dismissed as a "quasiliberal munchkin." Still, it's the incessantly wronged right (despite holding the White House, Congress, Supreme Court) that defines this era of "sore winners"--and for them the sometime NPR commentator reserves his bitterest bon mots. Powers is an adept essayist who, in contrast to, say, David Brooks, is as surefooted writing about culture as he is about politics. His breadth of interests and store of on-target epithets make for provocative reading for those on both sides of the great divide. --Steven Stolder