Books in Brief: The Accountability of Power

The Accountability of Power: Toward a Responsible Presidency, by Senator Walter F. Mondale (McKay, 284 pp., $12.50).

Fritz Mondale terminated his presidential candidacy late in 1974, well before most of the current contenders had even announced theirs. The Minnesota Democrat said that his campaign seemed to be making little headway—most people still supposed “Mondale” was a suburb of Los Angeles—and that anyway he just didn’t have the burning desire for the long push to the White House. If he had only added that he also lacks the intellectual weight to the job once elected, it would have saved everyone the tedium of this embarrassingly shallow book. There may be genuine documentary value in Mondale’s treatment of his first topic—a long personal essay on what our grueling presidential selection process feels like from the inside. One need not agree with the reforms he suggests in this area to find the Senator quite a likable man and his comments relatively free from liberal cant. Of that commodity there is, however, unfortunately no shortage in the rest of the book. Every one-dimensional, Manichean interpretation of the Vietnam and Watergate experiences that we’ve heard before is run up the flagpole again with appropriate handwringing. The simplistic remedies proposed to render Presidents once again “accountable” and “responsible” betray an assumption that the polity is a tinkerable mechanism rather than a living organism. The general level of subtlety of thought and elegance of expression are well captured in Mondale’s bully warning that “Congress’ days as a doormat are over.” Give the Senator an A in judgment for quitting the race, a C in composition, and a D in poli sci.

JA

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John K. Andrews Jr.

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Presidential Election

The Accountability of Power: Toward a Responsible Presidency, by Senator Walter F. Mondale (McKay, 284 pp., $12.50).

Fritz Mondale terminated his presidential candidacy late in 1974, well before most of the current contenders had even announced theirs. The Minnesota Democrat said that his campaign seemed to be making little headway—most people still supposed “Mondale” was a suburb of Los Angeles—and that anyway he just didn’t have the burning desire for the long push to the White House. If he had only added that he also lacks the intellectual weight to the job once elected, it would have saved everyone the tedium of this embarrassingly shallow book. There may be genuine documentary value in Mondale’s treatment of his first topic—a long personal essay on what our grueling presidential selection process feels like from the inside. One need not agree with the reforms he suggests in this area to find the Senator quite a likable man and his comments relatively free from liberal cant. Of that commodity there is, however, unfortunately no shortage in the rest of the book. Every one-dimensional, Manichean interpretation of the Vietnam and Watergate experiences that we’ve heard before is run up the flagpole again with appropriate handwringing. The simplistic remedies proposed to render Presidents once again “accountable” and “responsible” betray an assumption that the polity is a tinkerable mechanism rather than a living organism. The general level of subtlety of thought and elegance of expression are well captured in Mondale’s bully warning that “Congress’ days as a doormat are over.” Give the Senator an A in judgment for quitting the race, a C in composition, and a D in poli sci.