How the Bushes' resolve, connections built a dynasty

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THE BUSHES: PORTRAIT OF A DYNASTY

By Peter and Rochelle Schweizer

Doubleday, $27.95, 592 pages, illus.

REVIEWED BY LYN NOFZIGER

Every fourth year in these United States, two things having to do with the presidency occur. First, we elect or reelect a president. Second, we are flooded with books about would-be presidents, most of which are puff pieces written to make those who seek the office look better than they really are.

Some of these books, however, are published primarily to take advantage of the fact that, in election years, Americans pay more attention to politics and the men and women who dominate the political scene.

This year is no exception. And one family that is going to have a lot written about it, both good and bad, both pro- and anti-, is the family that includes the current president George Walker Bush. The rise of the Bush family and their development into a political dynasty has been chronicled pretty thoroughly in a new book by Peter and Rochelle Schweizer, appropriately titled "The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty."

Peter Schweizer, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, is also the author of "Reagan's War," which credits Ronald Reagan with winning the Cold War. Given the author's background one might expect "The Bushes" to be one of those books that presidential candidates often pay someone to write, and someone else to publish, for the sole purpose of making them look good.

Not so in this case. In fact, "The Bushes" is only incidentally a political book. True, it gives the most space to the Bushes who have held or now hold high political office. But it also talks about the history of the clan, who its members are, and how the family reached its present prominence.