What might have been ...(An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal (Or How I Became the Most Hated Hispanic in America))(Book Review)

An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal (Or How I Became the Most Hated Hispanic in America) By Linda Chavez Basic Books, 255 pages, $26

In January 2002, Linda Chavez withdrew her nomination to serve as President Bush's secretary of labor. At her press conference--after which reporters described her as defiant, impenitent, narcissistic, and duplicitous--Chavez conceded that she should have disclosed to the Bush transition team that she had once harbored an illegal alien.

It was the public revelation of this fact (by Chavez's former neighbor, who happened to be a Democratic Party donor and the sister of ABC News correspondent Terry Moran) that eventually brought down the Chavez nomination and proved an early, embarrassing political setback to the Bush administration.

Chavez's account of this episode in her new book, An Unlikely Conservative, is surprisingly unapologetic. She maintains that knowingly housing an illegal immigrant should not disqualify anyone from serving as labor secretary. Chavez also chose not to defend her position. Instead, she blames a hostile press and political foes who would have used any excuse to sabotage her confirmation.

She is undoubtedly right on both counts. But her refusal to refute the merits of the case against her suggests that she believes there are none, which is either a slight aimed at her conservative critics, or a remarkable display of political naivete.

The same two possibilities are raised by Chavez's admission that she was asked early on by the Bush transition team whether she had a "nanny problem." Chavez cagily answered that she didn't--the Guatemalan houseguest in question was not a nanny--even though she knew that situation could be used against her in a confirmation battle. Chavez thought she could prevent such an outcome by asking her former neighbor to keep quiet, which is the incident that led to her downfall.

In contrast to her tortured account of the nomination fiasco, the chapters about Chavez's early career are truly inspiring. Even as a dedicated liberal Democrat, she advanced the conservative cause in many of the great political debates of the 1970s and '80s: affirmative action and racial quotas, the ...