Ken Blackwell & Jerome Corsi: Even Libraries Aren't Buying

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The 255-page tome outgoing Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell co-authored with Sen. John Kerry's 2004 Swiftboat nemesis, Jerome Corsi, appears to be such a clunker that public libraries have avoided it. There are not any copies of Rebuilding America in the Cincinnati-Hamilton County library system in Blackwell's hometown, and nothing shows up around the state in Ohio's online catalog. There is no such thing as a 'worst seller" list, but the March 2006 book seems to be a candidate if anybody starts one.

On Amazon.com, the 1.12 pound shipping weight volume shows up at No. 650,310. It has Blackwell's picture on the cover, and his name gets top billing over Corsi's on the front. Curiously, the Barnes and Noble version of the book has a different cover -- a giant hammer that is getting ready to pound a nail. Blackwell is completely out of the picture.

The book came out during the GOP primary season, when Blackwell's hopes of becoming Ohio's governor were riding high and his conservative Republican principles were going to be his strongest selling point. He lost big in November to Democrat Ted Strickland. Blackwell turned things ugly as he and co-author Corsi tried to gay-bait in the last weeks of the campaign, but the smarm sank like their book.

Blackwell is listed as co-author with Jack Kemp on a 1999 book about IRS reform. Eight libraries in Ohio have that one stocked on their shelves, and it looks like there are 100 other sites across the nation where it can be checked out. The full title of the Blackwell-Corsi book is Rebuilding America: A Prescription for Creating Strong Families, Building the Wealth of Working People and Ending Welfare and there are a handful on reviews on Amazon, where new copies are going for $18.96. The reviews range from "great book" to "bilge."