Jay Cost has a book out now called A Republic No More: Big Government and the Rise of American Political Corruption, which is of course a cookbook… well, obviously not. It’s a book about Big Government, and the rise of American political corruption, and how this is both a historical and, unfortunately, a very bipartisan problem.

I had the opportunity last week to cut a phone interview with Jay about his book. We talked about both it in general, and how it related to the corruption story of the day (which is to say, Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber of Oregon’s spectacular implosion).  I must say: Jay either has a good bit of luck in having a major corruption scandal erupt at the same time his book came out, or else his publisher (Encounter Books) has one heck of a PR team.  Then again, if corruption in American politics wasn’t a chronic problem then there’d probably be no need for the book in the first place…

The audio of the interview is below.

Moe Lane