Are You Tough Enough? - Hardcover

Burford, Anne; Greenya, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 007008940X ISBN 13: 9780070089402

Publisher: McGraw-Hill, 1986

Synopsis

The candid story of the outspoken former head of the Environmental Protection Agency reveals the inside story of political power struggles in Washington and the controversy that led her to resign

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

While insisting that she is not bitter about her negative treatment by the press, and that her two-year stint as President Reagan's first director of the Environmental Protection Administration was "fun," Burford blasts her critics in this lively inside account. A conservative Republican legislator in Colorado when asked to join Reagan's transition team in 1980, Burford portrays herself as an EPA head who favored enforcement of environmental laws and sought to make a bloated, backlogged agency "efficient and effective." During 22 controversial months in office, however, she found herself hampered constantly by what she considers unfair news media, environmental "extremists" and Machiavellian maneuvering by White House staffers. Burford covers at length the Rita Lavelle controversy and the complex events (centering on her refusal to give documents to Congress) leading to her own forced resignation. She concludes by charging that Reagan, a longtime political hero, "doesn't care about the environment." Photos not seen by PW. December 16
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

The controversial former EPA administrator of the early Reagan years has produced an insider apologia with little but criticism for members of the White House staff such as James Baker and David Stockman, or for Edwin Meese, among others, in the Justice Department. Likewise, Burford recounts with evident anger the problems she encountered with ``pack journalism'' and the insensitivity of the ``liberal'' press (which evidently included all of those who covered her) for its disregard for the privacy of its ``victims'' (those reported upon). She spends quite a bit of time defending her actions, sometimes through quotations from documents and other times via accounts of conversations with subordinates such as Rita Lavelle. Even President Reagan is viewed as a well-meaning but bumbling captive of his staff. Of some interest as part of the historical record. Frank Kess ler, Political Science Dept., Missouri Western State Coll., St. Joseph
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 007008940X
• ISBN 13: 9780070089402
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 291