[.ca] Crazy Rhythm: From Brooklyn and Jazz to Nixon's White ... (ISBN 0306810824)

Amazon.com Review:
Leonard Garment, a current mainstay of the unelected elite who all but run Washington, was a close friend and adviser to Richard Nixon for 30 years. Indeed, at the height of Watergate, he was Nixon's lawyer. The part of this book that covers those White House years is elevated above the norm by Garment's honest, human presence--after all, this is the guy who advised Nixon not to destroy the Oval Office tapes. His humanity comes to the fore in the parts that cover his non-Watergate political forays, his pre-law career as a professional jazz musician, and his personal psychological difficulties. Yet, in his account of his life as a Washington fixer, the mark of Milhous is still visible. When he describes being the lawyer for a Reagan administration official who routinely taped phone calls without the knowledge of those on the other end of the line, Garment pooh-poohs the laws banning this practice and is a little too gleeful about the course of action he had his client take: destroying the tapes.

Some of the questions are answered in a very human story.:
Garment shines a little light on some of the more puzzling questions of the Nixon administration and on Iran/contra. He writes as he speaks, conversational and wandering. That's the book's salvation, however: finally here's the human side of some of the darker moments in Republican government. We see how the three branches, press and other groups play off each other to achieve their goals. Like any good serial author, he leaves us hungry for the next book, which will "tell all" about Watergate. I can't wait

Not Just Another Nixon Book...:
I was enticed by this book from the moment I read about Garment's lively performance of "Tiptoe through the Tulips" at age 7 in his father's dress making factory. Having read several Watergate books, I felt that this one was different for one specific reason; Garment makes Nixon into a human being, and helps to bring Nixon's several positive qualities to life (such as his wonderful foreign policy) that many Watergate-related authors have falied to acknowledge. I especially loved the ending of the book at his daughter Annie's Bat-Mitzvah; it was a wonderful conclusion to to a nostalgic story. I am left with only one question...when will the movie be out?