Friday, December 29, 2006


I Me Me Mine
I love history. It was one of my majors in college. My love stems from the wonderful teachers I had in middle and high school. They made the past vivid with their reflection of the lives of individuals whose decisions, passions, and actions influenced how things have evolved. And I suppose my love of history sparked my parallel interests in literature along with a fascination with human behavior. And when history, literature, and human behavior are combined the result is something I perhaps enjoy more than anything: a good story.

Nobody tells a better story than Bob Woodward. The first book that I read of his he co-authored with Scott Armstrong, “The Brethren” which describes from an insider’s perspective the machinations of the Supreme Court for several of its terms after Warren Burger became Chief Justice. I remember buying the book for my father as a gift at a not long after it was first published. As a judge, I thought it was an appropriate gift although it was like giving a gift you really wanted for yourself (you know, like a father who gives his daughter an Xbox for Christmas--can you imagine?)

Initially, it was an amazing book for me as it combined all the elements described earlier. After finishing it I remember asking my father how could Woodward write in such incredible insight about the inner workings of the court, especially the debates between the justices in conference (attended only by the nine Justices—no staff allowed) laced throughout with amazing quotes and insight into the thinking of each of the judges with so much responsibility and authority. I wanted to know how Woodward and Armstrong got such detailed information given how the deliberations in the conferences are strictly confidential and how no one was supposed to know the positions taken by the justices until after the decision was announced publicly.

Even though he hadn’t read the book my father suspected it was the combination from three sources: first, clerks and other employees may have talked to the authors about what the justices may have told them about how they and their colleagues viewed each of the cases, the justices themselves unintentionally (or purposely) may have revealed some bits and pieces to the writers, and, a lot of the material was made up and based upon the authors speculation based on the information they received from the other sources.

Oh how desperately I wanted the book to be accurate because it was such a good story. I did have to concede though that is all it was, just a good story. In reality there was no way to substantiate many of its tantalizing anecdotes and attribute several of its amazing quotes.

I am reminded of all of this by the recent reports of Woodward’s interviews with Gerald Ford about the former president’s perceptions on the War in Iraq and Richard Nixon. Here I can’t doubt Woodward reports of what Ford said on these and other topics. I heard for myself the taped interview on the Washington Post web site.

Instead my interest is over Woodward’s decision to release information when and how he did along with the commentary on these actions. I agree with those who are critical of the decision to release the interview even before the former president has been placed in the ground of his home in Grand Rapids. On its face is appears to be nothing more than a shameless attempt by Woodword to draw attention to himself in an effort to possibly be defined as the a super journalistic sleuth who was able to get the inside scoop among the powerful and mighty.

If left there and without any further analysis it could leave one cynical and skeptical. However the story that fascinates me is how someone like Woodward thrives so much on personal attention (negative as well as the positive), the incredible effort he goes to maintain his celebrated image, and how the rest of us (myself included) continue to reinforce (unknowingly and sometimes willingly) his narcissistic behavior despite our own revulsion of it, and how all of this influences our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

This is why I love history. And this is why I love a good story.

1 comment:

Tell Todd said...

Nice to see you blogging again. What do you think of the Zune?