In this searing indictment of current administration policy,
Charles Tiefer, a distinguished scholar of national legal
affairs and former solicitor of the House of Representatives,
argues that President George W. Bush methodically manipulates
the law to promote right-wing causes. The beneficiaries of
these machinations range from frontline pro-weapon and anti-
women's rights groups to major industries that profit from lax
environmental standards and military intervention in resource-
rich regions. Accessibly written, legally rigorous, and
meticulously documented, Veering Right demonstrates how the
administration's already-ample arsenal for accomplishing
ideological goals was expanded with weapons such as Attorney
General John Ashcroft's social crusades and the polarizing 2004
election campaign. Tiefer lays out a compelling case for how
the administration consistently erects barriers to media and
congressional oversight that might expose covert motivations
to public scrutiny. With an eye on the future, the White House
is building a durable and potentially dominant machine for
pursuing ideological goals by awarding lifetime judgeships
and by exchanging favors for campaign funding. This book
presents eye-opening evidence that ultra-conservatives could
achieve previously unimaginable successes during a second Bush
term. Veering Right Documents How * President Bush's secrecy
and deception undermined the democratic process by misleading
Congress and the public about international and domestic
matters ranging from doctored Iraq weapons intelligence to
covered-up drugmaker subsidies paid for by seniors .

- Bush's first term lays the groundwork for even more extreme
right wing policies if he is re-elected. This agenda includes
tilting the nation's tax structure against the middle class
in Democratic states, weakening traditional Medicare by
concentrating rising costs on poorer and sicker seniors,
and exporting jobs via the trade fast track

- John Ashcroft used religiosity and race-baiting to build his
political career and, after 9/11, blocked questioning of his
abuses-ranging from concealed undermining of the Bill of
Rights to promoting the intolerance of the religious right-by
labeling it as suspicious and even treasonous

- Bush turned the public's reaction after 9/11 away from the
logical Saudi suspects and against Iraq in a spectacular
double-play to push his agenda in the world's oil patch

- Secretary of the Interior Gail Norton and her crew of lawyer-
lobbyists ran the public's resources and its pollution controls
like a candy store for pariah industries

- Bush's domestic legal gambits around big money paid off in
2004 with a historical gross campaign war chest as a quid
pro quo for favors rendered * The Bush Administration dismantled
international legal regimes ranging from arms control and women's
rights to global climate control and international tobacco regulation

- Bush's unilateralist alienation of potential support abroad hobbled
both the Iraq occupation and the effort against terrorism
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