The Rehnquist Choice

A (mostly) fascinating book

Reading the history of Nixon's selection of US Supreme Court justices with the benefit of transcripts from his taped conversations is fascinating. The author's attempts to place himself prominently within that history, and his strained efforts to attack Rehnquist is distracting and annoying, and it does not reflect well on the author. Ironically, in telling this story, John Dean relies heavily on his own recollections of numerous personal conversations, purporting to relate them verbatim. But then he seeks to undermine Rehnquist's credibility by focusing on Rehnquist's portrayal of events that occurred nearly twenty years earlier. If you have any interest in the Nixon administration and how he operated in the White House, I recommend that you read this book. I also recommend that you don't waste your time reading the portion of the book containing Dean's unconvincing attack on Rehnquist.