Rough Edges

July 1, 2004
Raised by a single mom on welfare and food stamps, the author of this colorful and engaging autobiography dropped out of high school and misspent his youth hanging out with druggie friends and touring the fleshpots of L.A. as a bartender and porn theater bouncer. Perhaps not surprisingly, given his penchant for busting up inappropriate public trysts, he wound up a conservative Republican Congressman prosecuting Bill Clinton's impeachment case. The byproduct of this surprising career trajectory is that rare politician's memoir rife with sentences like"Fleabag...whipped out a switchblade, clicked it open and lunged at me" and"Joanne placidly complied with this vague request by raising her tank top and thrusting forth her bare breasts." There is, of course, a political subtext that occasionally surfaces as glib Republican boilerplate. Along with the funny, profane anecdotes about fending off angry biker chicks and selling vacuum cleaners in whorehouses, Rogan slips in parables about the evils of drugs, unions and campus radicals, as well as the social benefits of concealed firearms. In describing his political journey from youthful admirer of Hubert Humphrey to Reaganite conservative, he invokes his street cred as a scion of the working class to justify right-wing policy nostrums on welfare reform and school vouchers. But he mostly keeps the ideology in the background and his outrageous stories and warm, self-deprecating authorial voice up front. Rogan writes like a P.J. O'Rourke with a Capra-esque streak of political optimism, and this hilarious, crowd-pleasing memoir will probably make him a major conservative media celebrity. Photos not seen by PW.

July 5, 2004
Raised by a single mom on welfare and food stamps, the author of this colorful and engaging autobiography dropped out of high school and misspent his youth hanging out with druggie friends and touring the fleshpots of L.A. as a bartender and porn theater bouncer. Perhaps not surprisingly, given his penchant for busting up inappropriate public trysts, he wound up a conservative Republican Congressman prosecuting Bill Clinton's impeachment case. The byproduct of this surprising career trajectory is that rare politician's memoir rife with sentences like"Fleabag...whipped out a switchblade, clicked it open and lunged at me" and"Joanne placidly complied with this vague request by raising her tank top and thrusting forth her bare breasts." There is, of course, a political subtext that occasionally surfaces as glib Republican boilerplate. Along with the funny, profane anecdotes about fending off angry biker chicks and selling vacuum cleaners in whorehouses, Rogan slips in parables about the evils of drugs, unions and campus radicals, as well as the social benefits of concealed firearms. In describing his political journey from youthful admirer of Hubert Humphrey to Reaganite conservative, he invokes his street cred as a scion of the working class to justify right-wing policy nostrums on welfare reform and school vouchers. But he mostly keeps the ideology in the background and his outrageous stories and warm, self-deprecating authorial voice up front. Rogan writes like a P.J. O'Rourke with a Capra-esque streak of political optimism, and this hilarious, crowd-pleasing memoir will probably make him a major conservative media celebrity. Photos not seen by PW.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2004
In 1998 Rogan served on the House Judiciary Committee, prosecuting the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. It was a particularly poignant experience for Rogan because two decades earlier it was Clinton, then attorney general for Arkansas, who encouraged Rogan to get a law degree and enter politics. Citing other similarities between himself and Clinton (growing up without fathers; mothers who married and eventually divorced alcoholics), Rogan details his personal journey into politics, a switch from Democrat to Republican, and election as a congressman from California. Rogan is blunt and engaging in recollections of his rough childhood in the Mission District of San Francisco and of the allure of politics at the age of nine. He was so compelled by politics and personal conviction that he enlisted Harry S Truman for help with his homework. Stints as a bartender and a bouncer were as formative of Rogan's eventual political skills as his study of the law. Defeated in his reelection bid in 2001, Rogan offers a frank, refreshing look at politics and political personalities.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)