Speech-less tells an all-too-familiar tale—an idealistic twenty-something comes to DC to work for the government and ends up disillusioned.  Matt Latimer grew up in a humble town in Michigan, the son of two committed liberal Democrats.  He caught the fever for conservatism, which included a philia for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson.

A clever chap, Latimer got an M.S. in journalism at Columbia University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan.  Latimer began public service in the office of one of his home state senators (Spencer Abraham), then moved through the offices of two more congressmen before landing speechwriting gigs at the Department of Defense and the White House.  It was quite a ride, and the reader can’t help but enjoy watching Latimer live the conservative political geek’s version of the American Dream.  Hanging with Donald Rumsfeld…  Writing speeches for George W. Bush… What could be better?!

As a political scientist, my eyes were popped at the amount of power that speechwriters wield.  Yes, their drafts must be approved by higher-up appointees and the speakers themselves, but as Latimer depicts it, he and other young wordsmiths with little substantive knowledge of issues often made public policy by inserting doctrines into speeches.  That’s a little scary.

Alas, for all its inspiring Horatio Algerism and biting humor, Speech-less is a lamentation.  By Latimer’s judgment, few of the politicians and his fellow appointees are up to snuff.  Latimer is a movement Republican, one of those conservatives who loves to invoke Ronald Reagan but who actually stands at least one large step to his right.  Latimer displays little patience for those who do not share his convictions and pursue them relentlessly.

Speech-less, then, falls into another common genre—the DC memoir/revenge knife-job.   Latimer sheds buckets of blood, and by the end of the book comes off as a bit of a jerk and an ingrate.

Perhaps the tragedy of Latimer’s DC experience is not that he found politicians all-too-human, but that he grew little from the experience.  He had many opportunities to develop a substantive knowledge in policy and policymaking. Yet, Latimer does not appear to know much more about government than when he arrived.  Rather than recognizing that politics necessarily requires bargaining amongst diverse parties, Latimer continues to cling to his youthful, purist view in which conservatism is righteous and compromise is a dirty word.  Anyone needing substantiation of this characterization need only visit his website.  It includes hyperlinks to some of the most strident right-wing  websites (e.g., RedState.com) and bloviators (e.g., Ann Coulter), and it exudes a weirdly puerile feel, what with the fawning images of Reagan (“The Great Communicator”) and Margaret Thatcher (“The Iron Lady”) and its mocking of Jimmy Carter as “History’s Greatest Monster.”

And so it is that Latimer, whose future once seemed so bright, now may be doomed to join the ranks of the noisome who make their living from trashing people with different politics.  Our republic scarcely needs more people like these. Having burnt so many bridges on the right, one hopes that Latimer has a dog who will be his friend.