Since the 1940s, Texas politicians from Lyndon Johnson through George W. Bush have dominated government largely because of their special relationship with the oil, gas, and construction industries, argues Bryce (Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron) in this sobering expos? of greed-driven politics in the Lone Star State. The significant players here-President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, former President George H.W. Bush, and former Secretary of State James Baker-have profited from what the author calls "the-leave-no-billionaire-behind tax cut." Public-be-damned deregulation led to the 1980s and 1990s Savings and Loan debacle, in which half of the bailout money rescued Texas S&Ls. Bryce claims that George W. Bush was awarded the 2000 presidential election because wealthy Texans ran a costly recount campaign that Vice President Al Gore could not match. Further, he concludes that the 2003 Iraqi invasion was launched chiefly to protect oil interests and not because of Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction and his unproven link to al-Qaeda. Bryce at times lapses into a dull recital of details, but this book is recommended for public libraries.-Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Investigative reporter Bryce, who made mincemeat of Enron executives' perfidy in Pipe Dreams (2002), gives an equal shellacking to the old-boy, business-government network long established in Texas. "Texas dominates America because energy--Texas energy--dominates America. And the men who have dominated Texas energy have been extraordinarily successful at putting their politicians into power." That's the nutshell, and Bryce proceeds to prize every bit of rotten meat from the nut for readers to gaze upon. Cronyism isn't exclusive to Texas, he admits, but Texas cronyism is Texas-sized, and its principals sound like a law firm: Bush Bush Cheney Baker Lay and Hunt, with satellite offices of Halliburton and Brown & Root. To and fro between Texas and Washington flow the goods; as former Texas senator Phil Gramm said, "I'm carrying so much pork, I'm beginning to get trichinosis." From legal mechanisms like oil depletion allowances and import quotas to egregious sleaze like the S&L scandal, Texas reaps the profits. Bryce makes all the connections with the clarity of a simple mathematical equation, aided and abetted by the baldness of the brash Texas petro-political clique. His use of graphs, snapshot explanations, and timelines is especially helpful in unraveling the web of associations that bind every energy personage and corporation into a creepily incestuous, collaborative, and coercive band of pillagers. Bryce also draws the shameful picture of Texas's social stratification: energy and business generate huge private profits for the few, while Texas can also boast first place in the number of its citizens incarcerated and executed, the percentage without health insurance, the overall number of deaths by firearms, and the amount of toxic dumping. It's virtually a plague state, and the author sees no cure, so entrenched are the vested interests. A well-told tale whose sheer, documented scope of corruption and backslapping in a pernicious and virulent strain of cronyism will have readers agog--until the steam starts shooting from their ears. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Journalist Bryce, whose previous book, Pipe Dreams, chronicled the rise and fall of Enron, now recounts how Texas rose over the past 60 years on a tide of oil to become the pre-eminent focus of American economic and political power. Bryce quickly sketches the emergence of the modern energy industry with the discovery of huge oil deposits in East Texas. He then turns to his central story, how Texas-based business empires like Exxon Mobil, Hunt Oil, Halliburton, and Baker Botts, the firm of James Baker III, have heavily promoted the careers of favored politicians going back to Lyndon Johnson. In return, Bryce shows, the oil industry and its tributaries have received lucrative government contracts, favorable tax treatment and kid-glove regulatory policies. Although Bryce devotes chapters to LBJ and his prot?g?, Democrat-turned-Republican John Connally, he reserves his special wrath for conservative Republicans like Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay, James Baker and especially the Bushes. He contends that the market-shaping power of Texas oil inspired the creation of OPEC, and that generations of politicians, led by the Bushes, have tailored U.S. foreign policy to cater to Arab dictators and the Texas firms that serve them. There's little in Bryce's book that is freshly revelatory, and his prose is sometimes awkward, sometimes clich?d ("lap of luxury," "spending money like a drunken sailor," etc.). But in this election year, partisans looking for evidence of Republican corruption will find plenty of tidbits here. Agent, Dan Green at POM Inc. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved