For two and a half years, Ari Fleischer served as the official liaison between the White House and members of the press, acting as the voice of President George W. Bush.
In Taking Heat, Fleischer goes behind-the-scenes in the West Wing, giving his perspectives on:
September 11, 2001, its aftermath, and the anthrax scare • The pressure-filled buildup to the war in Iraq and the President's thoughts as the war began • The White House press corps, who they are, and how they report the news.
Fleischer believes that the press has a bias in Washington - It's not a question of partisanship or press driven ideology. It's a focus on conflict they can attach to the President. The White House press corps are masters of the devil's advocate. Fleischer's job was to calmly field their questions, no matter how pointed. He calls the press a tough, sharp, skeptical group. They call him tight-lipped and secretive. But at the end of the day, they had a bond.
Taking Heat is an introspective and analytical exploration of the major political events in the first half of the Bush administration, as well as the candid observations of a professional who stood in the bright lights of the world stage.
The listener's perspective of Fleischer's memoir will most likely be shaped by his or her political views. Supporters of President Bush will describe the book as a candid memoir of Fleischer's years as press secretary; on the other hand, President Bush's detractors will view the book as a paean to a president who divided the country while using people like Fleischer to lie to the American people. While the reality is probably somewhere in between, the title offers no new insights into President Bush or the events of his first term. Fleischer reads with the same sense of confidence/smugness that characterized his contentious relationship with the press, a style as polarizing in audio as in the White House. D.J.S. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
...
