U.S. Presidency

New York Times columnist Frank Rich's new book is The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina. Rich has been with the Times since 1980, when he was named chief theater critic.

Charlie Savage is based in Washington for the Boston Globe and recently wrote an investigative piece about the civil rights section of the Department of Justice, where he found that staffers with legal expertise are being replaced by conservatives with little experience but who promote right wing Christian values.

Thomas Ricks, senior Pentagon correspondent for The Washington Post, talks about his new book, Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, Ricks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, takes a hard look at the American military invasion and occupation of Iraq.

For 17 years, former Vice President Al Gore has been on the forefront of warning against global warming. But in his new documentary, The Inconvenient Truth, he says that he "failed to get the message out." He's now getting the message out with his documentary and new book of the same name. The Washington Post calls the book "downright chilling." The documentary has been critically acclaimed.

The popular NBC White House drama The West Wing wraps up seven years on the air on Sunday night with a final episode. Our TV critic has a retrospective of the series, and we feature previous interviews with some of the actors.

This past week marked the 26th anniversary of the failed rescue attempt of hostages held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran for 444 days. We talks with journalist Mark Bowden, author of Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam.

After seven years on TV, NBC's White House drama The West Wing comes to an end next month. Our television critic says he doesn’t want to wait until then to discuss the show, because lately it’s simply been too good to ignore.

Hughes was counselor to President George W. Bush until she stepped down to spend more time with her family. She also ran his presidential campaign and was his communications director during his stint as governor of Texas. Now she's back advising the president on his re-election campaign. Hughes has written the new memoir, Ten Minutes from Normal.

President Bush is an enigmatic leader who uses an insurgent approach in reshaping policy and politics. That idea is central to Rebel in Chief, the new book by political writer Fred Barnes. Barnes is the executive editor of conservative magazine The Weekly Standard.

Despite what his supporters say, President Bush has far more in common with Richard Nixon than Ronald Reagan. That's the idea put forth in economist and syndicated columnist Bruce Bartlett's new book, Impostor.

Critic at large John Powers reviews the two-DVD edition of the 1939 classic film Young Mr. Lincoln, directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda.

The Bush administration misused intelligence to justify decisions like going to war in Iraq, according to former senior CIA official Paul Pillar. From 2000 to 2005, Pillar was the CIA's national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia.

Sen. Joe Biden has been in the spotlight lately because of his work on two panels: the Judiciary Committee, which questioned new Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and the Foreign Relations Committee, on which Biden is the top Democrat.

In December, New York Times and Eric Lichtblau broke the news that the Bush administration had authorized a domestic eavesdropping program. Risen's new book is State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration.

In his new book, Character Is Destiny Sen. John McCain passes along the stories of heroes — both famous and obscure — whose values exemplify the best of the human spirit.

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's new book is Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Goodwin, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her previous book, No Ordinary Time, recounts the life and work of our 16th president, as well as the work of the principal characters of his administration.

On the upcoming live episode of NBC's The West Wing, Congressman Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Senator Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) will meet in a one-hour presidential debate. Sunday evening, their conflict will be aired live.

Blurring the line between church and state threatens civil liberties and privacy, says former president Jimmy Carter. That's the case he makes in his new book, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis.

Time magazine's Mike Allen has co-authored a new investigative article on how the Bush administration appoints the officials who run vital government agencies. The article, spurred by complaints about ousted FEMA head Mike Brown, is "How Many More Mike Browns Are Out There?"

British journalist Michael Smith writes about defense issues for the Sunday Times of London. He's the journalist to whom the so-called Downing Street memo was leaked. The memo -- the minutes of a July 23, 2002, meeting of Britain's War Cabinet -- reveals that President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair began the war on the Iraq before Bush received congressional approval and before a U.N. vote.