With Reagan: The Inside Story.

• Author: Corn, David

I never thought I would be nostalgic for Edwin Meese III, but the attorneys general succeeding him have lacked both his bumbling flair and symbolic poses. Who in the Bush years could inspire so memorable a slogan as "Meese Is a Pig"? (Remember the messenger whom security guards barred from entering the Justice Department because his T-shirt was emblazoned with that catchy statement?) VicePresident Dan QuayIe comes close to filling this role, but until he gains real power, it's tough to take him seriously. Meese, on the other hand, was the nation's top law enforcement officer. And no cabinet member since has so embodied the administration he served.

After the curtain fell on the Reagan era, Meese high-tailed it to a post at the Heritage Foundation and snagged a contract from a major New York publisher to write about his Reagan days. But when he refused to kiss and tell, the house quite wisely lost interest. Meese took his business to conservative publisher Regnery Gateway, and the result is With Reagan: The Inside Story. *

Meese is slavishly devoted to Ronald Reagan. According to the author, Reagan singlehandedly ushered in a golden age for America and the world. Through force of will and firm adherence to his conservative ideology, Meese's boss engineered a historic economic boom and the end of communism. And what's more, Reagan came on the scene just in the nick of time, because, as Meese sees it, America in 1980 was teetering on a precipice. Its "citizens, allies, and security interests seemed everywhere in danger," and the economy was just a step or two shy of doom.

In addition to portraying Reagan as America's savior, Meese's main task is to prove that Reagan was in control--that he was not an out-of-touch figurehead vulnerable to manipulation. Reagan was, Meese obsessively insists, a strong leader who knew his own mind.

I am prepared to accept that Reagan was in charge --even though he needed scripts for his photo ops with Girl Scouts. Meese obviously believes that an in-control Reagan deserves nothing but laurels for all that occurred during his administration. What of the errors and failures? Conveniently, Meese cannot recall many, and when he does, he is quick to assign culpability to those who would not let Reagan be Reagan. In other words, Reagan the decisive leader was not fully responsible when mistakes were made.

Reagan's biggest domestic achievement, Meese argues, was cutting taxes his first year in office. He has little to...