Days of whine and poses; John Tower's lament - and what it misses.

• Author: Waldman, Steven

Steven Waldman is a Washington correspondent for Newsweek and a contributing editor of the Washington Monthly.

* Consequences: A Personal and Political Memoir. John G. Tower. Little, Brown, $22.95.

John Tower's lament--and and what it misses

John Tower still seems a little bitter. The media that covered his confirmation is described in his memoirs as a "lynch mob ... waiting beside a rickety wooden tumbrel to take me off to the guillotine." Other accusers were "old political enemies ... publicity seekers, crackpots, and busybodies." And Senator Sam Nunn, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee? Let's just say Tower shouldn't sit next to Nunn at the next Military-Industrial Complex Christmas party. Nunn is the man who "was piling up the kindling at my feet" before Tower was "burned at the stake." Tower can barely go a page without hissing at Nunn, using that same tone of voice the Wicked Witch of the West used as she was melting. Nunn was "blinded by ambition"; a coward who becomes "frightened" in political battle; a war-wimp whose military service "was limited to six months of active duty in the Coast Guard, teaching swimming and physical training"; and even a sourpuss. "There is no place for levity in Sam Nunn's office," writes Tower, not known himself as Senator Laugh-a-minute.

If you come to this book* having only a vague memory of Tower as that nasty little man with black-lacquered hair, you will leave with a clearer impression of his nastiness. John Tower is not easy to like, and his memoirs are filled with ugly bursts of hypocrisy. For example, he spends much time criticizing the media for basing stories on unsubstantiated rumors about his drinking-and then attacks James Exon for having "a reputation" as one of the most excessive regular boozers in the Senate."

It hurts, therefore, to admit that as Tower angrily flails at various targets, he scores some impressive direct hits, particularly against the media and a few of his fellow senators. The Tower nomination battle combined elements of several previous media controversies, including intoxicants (a la Judge Douglas Ginsburg); women (Gary Hart); the revolving door (Michael Deaver); and a politicized confirmation process (poor Robert Bork). Tower's book, an attempt at personal vindication and score-settling, is not exactly a dispassionate analysis of the shifting standards of ethics. But he makes some incisive points and provides a good vehicle for figuring out when the character cops busted down the door without a warrant and when they were being fair.

At the time of the nomination flap, critics of the media's "new morality" often decried the obsessive...