WALTER OLSON REVIEWS Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new book, Crimes Against Nature, and finds much to dislike:

There’s a rich market for Bush-bashing books these days, but Kennedy’s jackhammer style leaves one yearning for Michael Moore’s suavity, Molly Ivins’ balance and Paul Krugman’s lightness of touch. If you find it novel and illuminating to compare today’s highly placed Texans with Hitler and Mussolini, then RFK Jr.’s your man. . . .

The man’s lack of ironic self-awareness is a marvel. In his media-criticism chapter, he has the nerve to blast the press for its absorption with celebrity culture. Yet this book, like Kennedy’s entire career, is nothing if not an artifact of that culture. It would never have been acquired by a major publisher, or sent out in quantity to bookstores or reviewed in this newspaper today, if its author’s name were Robert F. Snicklethwaite, Jr.

Ouch. The Amazon reviews are considerably more positive.

UPDATE: Reader Ernest Gudath says that a book is going nowhere until the prolific Henry Raddick has reviewed it. Um, his tastes are certainly eclectic. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!