Author and radio personality Laura Flanders' new book, Bushwomen, tells the story that no one else has bothered to tell: That Bush surrounds himself with extreme right-wing whomen who are allowed to get away with the most radical political savagery. Why? Because they are women, and--in a couple of cases--minorities, so a picture of "diversity" is painted for the lazy and ignorant news media.

It's Clarence Thomas all over again. Karen Hughes, Condoleezza Rice, Elain Chao and their peers all came into power largely because of feminism and the civil rights movement, yet they have dedicated their lives to destroying those movements. These women, born of privilege, pose as ordinary citizens or "immigrants" who rose to the top through sheer hard work and willpower, and then preach that genuinely oppressed groups can do the same thing, despite rampant bigotry in the U.S.

There are six profiles and a couple of bonus chapters. The profiles are of Rice, Hughes, Chao, Ann Veneman, Gale Norton and Chrisine Todd Whitman. There is also a chapter on Laura Bush and Lynne Cheney, and an excellent introductory chapter that sets forth Flanders' spot-on theory: That if the media took women seriously, its members would long ago have exposed the vicious, unethical, unprincipled, extremist behaviors of the women in question. Instead, even the most prestigious and "liberal" media outlets talked about the women's clothes, jewelry and family lives, while devoting almost no space or time to their political agendas.

This is a very thoroughly researched book, and the contents are not pretty. From Norton's lifelong quest to abolish the environmental movement, to Chao's similar ambition to quash fair labor standards, to Whitman's enormous financial conflicts of interest while she was a governor, to Hughes' one-woman poison campaign against Governor Ann Richards--Bushwomen shows the White House for what it is. Be prepared for some ugly revelations.