The Latest Chapters On the War

In "The One Percent Doctrine," former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind revealed al-Qaeda planning for a cyanide attack in New York's subways, and reported that some CIA officials regarded Bush as little more than Cheney's puppet.

Suskind says book projects can break through an administration's "message discipline."

"What you can do in a book that gets around the daily battle over news cycles is you can say to subjects that they will be rendered in context," he says. "Sources often say, 'This is a complex situation.' I can say back to them, 'I've got plenty of time.' " In a newspaper, he adds, "you're probably not going to have space to write thousands of words on some philosophical debate or longstanding internecine conflict."

A striking number of these efforts have come from journalists at The Post, which has a lenient policy toward allowing staffers time off to write books. The Post's Rajiv Chandrasekaran, in his best-selling "Imperial Life in the Emerald City," reported that the Coalition Provisional Authority had hired a number of people who had conservative credentials but lacked vital skills and experience. Former secretary of state Colin Powell gave six lengthy interviews to The Post's Karen DeYoung for her biography "Soldier."

Books can also act as a catalyst. New York Times reporter James Risen planned to disclose the administration's domestic eavesdropping program in his book "State of War" after the paper held for a year the article he co-wrote on the subject. As the book neared publication, the Times ran the story after all. Times Executive Editor Bill Keller told New York magazine that the imminent release of the book was a "factor" in the discussions but not the principal reason for his decision.

Once books become fodder for the media machine, the carefully constructed 300-page arguments get boiled down to a handful of scooplets and anecdotes. But it is their accumulated detail and intellectual heft that embosses the books with credibility.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, starting with a slew of anti-Clinton books (against both Bill and Hillary), many of the publishing success stories seemed to be on the right. Ann Coulter's "Slander," Bernard Goldberg's "Bias" and volumes by Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage often topped the charts.

But now, with Bush struggling in Iraq and mired in low poll numbers, the books packing the greatest political punch seem to be those charging the administration with incompetence. And while they are mostly written by working reporters and editors, not commentators, liberal readers are surely fueling the surge in sales.

In one sign of the times, no fewer than three books ripping Coulter -- "Soulless" by Susan Estrich; "Brainless" by Joe Maguire; and "I Hate Ann Coulter" by "Unanimous" -- are all heading to bookshelves.

Tainted Series?

Kentucky's Lexington Herald-Leader yesterday launched an investigative series on Sen. Mitch McConnell pushing legislation for his affluent donors -- an effort originally paid for by a foundation that has financed several liberal groups that oppose the Republican lawmaker.

The paper's parent firm, McClatchy Co., decided last week to repay the $35,000 grant, which underwrote six months of salary and expenses for a Herald-Leader reporter on leave. The grant came from the respected Center for Investigative Reporting, which was passing on money provided by the St. Louis-based Deer Creek Foundation.

Deer Creek has funded a variety of liberal groups, including New York University law school's Brennan Center for Justice, which represented opponents of McConnell in a campaign-finance lawsuit that reached the Supreme Court.

"It's like the NRA funding a report about Sarah Brady," the gun-control advocate, says McConnell spokesman Don Stewart. "You've got to be somewhat leery about the objectivity."

McClatchy Vice President Howard Weaver says his company, which inherited the situation after buying the Herald-Leader, does not believe in such grants. "As a matter of practice, if we want some journalism done in our newsrooms, we pay for it," Weaver says. "But I've heard enough politicians explain why they gave back a campaign contribution to know it's not a perfect remedy."

Dan Noyes, acting director of the reporting center, says he paid for the series because the money went to the reporter, not the newspaper. Noyes sees no conflict because his group has an "arm's length relationship" with Deer Creek, and he says its $300,000 grant will fund campaign finance probes of both Democrats and Republicans.

One Really Long Article

Esquire is taking the strange step of making endorsements -- in all 504 congressional and gubernatorial races.

For the just-released issue, the magazine says it weighed such factors as effectiveness and hypocrisy, not Iraq or taxes, in an idiosyncratic process that wound up backing a majority of Democrats for the House and Senate.

"We didn't come at it from any ideological standpoint," says Executive Editor Mark Warren. "We endorsed Ted Kennedy and Trent Lott, because of a combination of how they serve their state and how they function in the Senate."