THE RIGHT BOOKS

All tidied up for his formal appearance in print, James G. Watt bears small resemblance to Big-Foot-in-Mouth, the Wild Man from Wyoming, who, in the role of Secretary of the Interior, was at no pains to disguise his opinion that the Garden of Eden was, after all, an unaffordable preservationist luxury, and who made unguarded remarks concerning blacks, cripples, and Jews. Since that time he has apparently attended dancing school, having become ever so careful never to step on his partner’s feet: always remembering to add “or her” after “his,” never writing “church” without following immediately with “or synagogue,” and even placing “Jew” before “Christian” in a given series, exactly as if Judaism were the majority, rather than a minority, religion in the United States. Perhaps it is owing, then, to this over-elaborate and highly self-conscious etiquette that The Courage of a Conservative (Simon & Schuster, $15.95), “by” James Watt “with” Doug Wead, is such an ineffably dull book; though, come to think of it, it isn’t long on substance either. Hiring Wead to help pull the thing was somewhat on the order of hitching a Clydesdale to draw a baby carriage.

If Watt had been content to write an account of his days, trials, and tribulations at the Interior Department, even then he might have produced a useful and historically interesting book. Instead, he had to try and rival Barry Goldwater (whom he does not in the least resemble), marshaling the troops for parade while reserving scenes of past glories in office for slide-show projections cast now and then on a screen behind him as he stands saluting in fervent review. The Courage of a Conservative, its publisher tells us, echoes Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative: It will be to conservatives of the Eighties what the other was to those of the Sixties; it is a modern “conservative manifesto.” But sinking stones make no sound.

CW

About the Author

Chilton Williamson Jr.

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All tidied up for his formal appearance in print, James G. Watt bears small resemblance to Big-Foot-in-Mouth, the Wild Man from Wyoming, who, in the role of Secretary of the Interior, was at no pains to disguise his opinion that the Garden of Eden was, after all, an unaffordable preservationist luxury, and who made unguarded remarks concerning blacks, cripples, and Jews. Since that time he has apparently attended dancing school, having become ever so careful never to step on his partner’s feet: always remembering to add “or her” after “his,” never writing “church” without following immediately with “or synagogue,” and even placing “Jew” before “Christian” in a given series, exactly as if Judaism were the majority, rather than a minority, religion in the United States. Perhaps it is owing, then, to this over-elaborate and highly self-conscious etiquette that The Courage of a Conservative (Simon & Schuster, $15.95), “by” James Watt “with” Doug Wead, is such an ineffably dull book; though, come to think of it, it isn’t long on substance either. Hiring Wead to help pull the thing was somewhat on the order of hitching a Clydesdale to draw a baby carriage.

If Watt had been content to write an account of his days, trials, and tribulations at the Interior Department, even then he might have produced a useful and historically interesting book. Instead, he had to try and rival Barry Goldwater (whom he does not in the least resemble), marshaling the troops for parade while reserving scenes of past glories in office for slide-show projections cast now and then on a screen behind him as he stands saluting in fervent review. The Courage of a Conservative, its publisher tells us, echoes Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative: It will be to conservatives of the Eighties what the other was to those of the Sixties; it is a modern “conservative manifesto.” But sinking stones make no sound.