Dubose, Lou 1948- (Louis H. Dubose)

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Dubose, Lou 1948- (Louis H. Dubose)

PERSONAL:

Born March 3, 1948; married Jeanne Goka. Education: Earned a master's degree in Latin American studies.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Austin, TX. Office—Texas Observer, 307 West 7th St., Austin, TX 78701.

CAREER:

Journalist, editor, and writer. Austin Chronicle, Austin, TX, politics editor; Texas Observer, Austin, editor, 1987—.

WRITINGS:

(With Molly Ivins) Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush, Random House (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Molly Ivins) Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America, Random House (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Jan Reid and Carl Cannon) Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Brains behind the Remarkable Political Triumph of George W. Bush, PublicAffairs (New York, NY), 2003, reprinted as Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Architect of George W. Bush's Remarkable Political Triumphs, Public Affairs (New York, NY), 2005.

(With Jan Reid) The Hammer, PublicAffairs (New York, NY), 2004.

(With Jake Bernstein) Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency, Random House (New York, NY), 2006.

(With Molly Ivins) Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch's Assault on America's Fundamental Rights, Random House (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including Nation, Texas Monthly, Washington Post, Globe and Mail, Liberty, Texas, and Vindicator.

SIDELIGHTS:

A longtime editor at the Texas Observer, which covers the Texas state legislature, Lou Dubose had a front row seat to observe the rise of George W. Bush. He has parlayed that into studies of Bush's performance, both as governor and president, and a biography of his chief political strategist Karl Rove. Later Dubose turned his attention to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, another Texan who drove much of the national agenda of the Republican Party.

At the start of the 2000 presidential campaign, Dubose teamed up with well-known liberal columnist Molly Ivins to write Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush. While many Americans at least knew Bush's name, thanks to his father, few were aware of his record as governor of Texas, and the authors set out to correct this, focusing on Bush's legislative proposals and administrative regulations in areas such as pollution control, educational reform, and worker safety. As political scientist Brendan O'Connor explained in the Australian Journal of Politics and History, "It is this concern for the details of governing that is the driving force behind Ivins and Dubose's Shrub. They suggest the best way to judge a politician is by closely examining their record. This is underdone in much current political journalism." Both Ivins and Dubose are proud liberals, and like political biographies throughout history, this one drew divergent reactions from different sides of the political spectrum. For John Nichols, writing in the liberal Progressive, "Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose have written the best damn book of the 2000 election season." Nichols went on to write in the same review: "This tale of the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee's political foibles is so thoroughly reported, so well written, and so consistently convincing that a casual reading could turn even the most radical critic of the Vice President into a rabid Al Gore partisan." In contrast, Charlotte Hays concluded in the conservative National Review that "the book is so predictable that it doesn't really lay a glove on Bush.

Indeed, ambivalent conservatives will find it a convincing brief for Bush." A more neutral view came from Booklist contributor Mary Carroll, who wrote, "No tabloid-style revelations here; just solid (though partisan) analysis of governance issues that should become important as campaign 2000 continues."

Dubose and Ivins followed up with a study of Bush's first years as president: Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America. This time, the authors interspersed stories of ordinary Americans with a look at the policies of the Bush administration, showing the impact of the latter on the former. "Using an old journalistic tactic, Ivins and Dubose cut repeatedly between descriptions of the rich, cosseted men in the Bush circle—born into vast wealth—and the straightforward, irrefutable stories of poor people hammered yet further since Bush came to power," noted New Statesman contributor Johann Hari. Booklist contributor Ilene Cooper commented that "unlike some partisan books on both sides … these authors have another agenda." Cooper went on to write that "they show what the Bush domestic program has meant to individual citizens in particular and the populace in general."

While policy lies at the heart of Shrub and Bushwhacked, pure politics is the theme of Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Brains behind the Remarkable Political Triumph of George W. Bush, which Dubose wrote in conjunction with Jan Reid and Carl Cannon. The authors "offer smart political judgments and lovely anecdotes, particularly in their appropriately irreverent chapters on Texas' political wackiness," according to veteran political journalist E.J. Dionne in the American Prospect. However, that is not all. They also offer a portrait of a uniquely talented political consultant, who saw Bush's potential long before the future president himself did and who has done much to shape the fortunes of the Republican Party and the entire national agenda. Dionne noted later in that same review that "what makes Rove interesting is not his ruthlessness but rather his strategic vision and ability to execute. When Rove began plying his trade in Texas, it was a Democratic state. When he left for Washington in 2000, Republicans, most of them former clients of Rove's firm, controlled almost everything." Boy Genius describes, according to the authors, the curious, but highly effective, partnership between Rove, a self-described nerd and political wonk, and Bush, the intellectually lazy frat boy with the famous name and outgoing personality. While Rove engineered the hardball tactics and political dirty tricks, Bush largely stayed above the fray. Their partnership has continued into the White House, where Rove has the kind of power rarely given to political operatives, a not entirely benign state of affairs, according to Dubose and his fellow authors.

Dubose collaborated with Jan Reid to write The Hammer, a book about Tom DeLay, who was the majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives. The biography of the right-wing DeLay is unflattering, and Dubose reveals his sentiments toward DeLay in an interview with Michael King for the Austin Chronicle. Dubose told King: "In the words of that great American public intellectual Wavy Gravy, ‘This guy sucks.’ Or at least his public policy and politics suck. I mean, is this what we want in terms of the most powerful person in the House?" Following DeLay's career from state legislator to a powerful position in the federal government, Dubose and Reid investigate DeLay's beliefs about government and his ability to manipulate both lobbyists and his colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives. "The book offers an excellent primer on the evolution of political fund-raising," wrote Jill Ortner in the Library Journal. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted: "All the major episodes of DeLay's career are vividly covered."

Dubose and his coauthor Jake Bernstein take a look at the man who may have become the most powerful U.S. vice president in history. Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency examines the life and political philosophies of President George W. Bush's second in command. The authors delve into Cheney's loyalty to the energy industry, namely the big oil and gas companies, and how this relationship has influenced government policies. In the process, they detail Cheney's obsession with secrecy and his ability to get around laws concerning openness in government, all the while undermining media investigations into his governance and blocking congressional oversight. "Dubose and Bernstein also ponder the implications of Cheney's actions for the future of the U.S. government," wrote Vanessa Bush in Booklist. Tom Frewen wrote in New Zealand Management that "readers … [will] find themselves plunged straight into the middle of a fiendishly complicated plot with a cast of hundreds."

In Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch's Assault on America's Fundamental Rights, Dubose and coauthor, the late Molly Ivins, write about what they see as attacks on the Bill of Rights by the administration of President George W. Bush. In addition, they chronicle various citizens and citizen groups' efforts to fight back. For example, the authors write of a lawsuit in Crawford, Texas, opposing the policy of allowing demonstrations of dissent to take place only in a "free-speech zone" approved by the government. Other issues the authors address include the separation of church and state, and fundamentalist religion's efforts to have creationism taught as science in schools. "Readers who have missed Ivins' voice of common sense and those concerned with the erosion of our basic rights will appreciate this" book, wrote Vanessa Bush in Booklist.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Prospect, July 17, 2000, Jeff Danziger, review of Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America, p. 46; April, 2003, E.J. Dionne, Jr., review of Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Brains behind the Remarkable Political Triumph of George W. Bush, p. 52; December, 2004, Sam Rosenfeld, "Then Came the Hammer," review of The Hammer, p. 51.

Austin Chronicle, October 19, 2004, Michael King, "He's Forked Himself," interview with author.

Australian Journal of Politics and History, December, 2001, Brendan O'Connor, review of Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush, p. 594.

Booklist, February 15, 2000, Mary Carroll, review of Shrub, p. 1050; October 1, 2000, Candace Smith, review of Shrub, p. 367; August, 2003, Ilene Cooper, review of Bushwhacked, p. 1923; November 1, 2006, Vanessa Bush, review of Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency, p. 9; October 1, 2007, Vanessa Bush, review of Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch's Assault on America's Fundamental Rights, p. 4.

Bookwatch, December, 2005, review of The Hammer.

Business Week, March 13, 2000, "Company Man?," book review.

Campaigns & Elections, December, 2006, review of Vice, p. 110.

Economist, February 22, 2003, "The Limits of Spin; American Politics."

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2003, review of Bushwhacked, p. 1004.

Library Journal, March 1, 2000, Michael A. Genovese, review of Shrub, p. 110; October 15, 2000, Sally G. Waters, review of Shrub, p. 125; October 15, 2004, Jill Ortner, review of The Hammer, p. 76.

Mother Jones, September-October, 2003, Colleen O'Brien, review of Bushwhacked, p. 96.

National Review, April 17, 2000, Charlotte Hays, "This Bush Has Thorns."

New Statesman, January 12, 2004, Johann Hari, review of Bushwhacked, p. 55.

New York Review of Books, February 24, 2000, Lars-Erik Nelson, "Legacy," p. 4; May 1, 2003, Elizabeth Drew, "The Enforcer," p. 14.

New York Times, February 18, 2000, Michiko Kakutani, "Books of the Times; A Texas-Style Bashing: Double-Teaming ‘Dubya,’" p. 53.

New York Times Book Review, March 5, 2000, Peter Applebome, "Heir Apparent?," p. 30; October 10, 2004, John J. Miller, "Master House Mechanic," review of The Hammer, p. 11.

New Zealand Management, December, 2006, Tom Frewen, review of Vice, p. 25.

Progressive, May, 2000, John Nichols, review of Shrub, p. 41.

Publishers Weekly, February 7, 2000, review of Shrub, p. 79; August 4, 2003, review of Bushwhacked, p. 68; September 13, 2004, review of The Hammer, p. 71; September 17, 2007, review of Bill of Wrongs, p. 48.

Reference & Research Book News, May, 2005, review of The Hammer, p. 71.

Spectator, February 21, 2004, George Osborne, "A Clear Case of ‘Misunderestimation,’" p. 33.

Times Literary Supplement, November 3, 2000, James Bowman, "Not as Thick as He Pretends?"