It’s difficult to discern the motive of former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman’s new memoir about her lifelong involvement in the Republican Party and her short tenure in President Bush’s Cabinet. Mrs. Whitman is a self-described political moderate who abhors what she perceives as the hijacking of the GOP by “social fundamentalists,” and per haps “It’s My Party Too” (Penguin Press, 247 pages, $24.95) is merely a vehicle to let off steam against those who deride her “Rockefeller Republican” beliefs. But it’s possible the book is a bid for publicity for an upcoming coming Senate race in her native New Jersey (should Senator Corzine win this fall’s gubernatorial contest in that state and vacate his seat).

Democratic partisans will undoubtedly trumpet “It’s My Party Too” as the work of yet another disaffected Bush official. But in reality Mrs. Whitman’s book is fairly thin gruel. In fact, the former New Jersey governor – the first woman to hold that post, the reader is reminded time and again – seems fond of Mr. Bush, implying he’s a decent man who’s just been led astray by more sinister subordinates and corporate schemers. (Just two weeks before last November’s election, Mrs. Whitman gave Laura Bush a puppy to go along with Barney, the dog she presented to the Bush family four years ago.)

The truth is, there’s little of interest in “It’s My Party Too” unless you’re inordinately consumed by politics and wish to read the biography of a minor Republican public servant whose most notable achievement was nearly defeating Senator Bradley in 1990. Mrs. Whitman begins her book with this utterly bland statement: “We stand at a historic juncture in American politics, a critical crossroads for both the Republican Party and the nation.” She fears that if “extreme” Republicans refuse to soften their views on embryonic stem-cell research, abortion, and gay marriage, for example, the party might shortly find itself in the “political wilderness.”

Mrs. Whitman, who finished the book after the 2004 presidential election, is either naive or solipsistic in analyzing the results. While she admits Mr. Bush made gains in the “blue” states that both Al Gore and John Kerry won, it’s her view that, had the Republican campaign had a more moderate tone, it could’ve added states like New Jersey and Hawaii to the “red” column. Never mind that Mr. Bush not only collected the most votes in American history but also was the first incumbent since FDR to also increase his Congressional majority. Mrs. Whitman also chooses to ignore the obvious conclusion that had the President presented a more “moderate” stance on social issues, he might well have lost a number of closely contested states.

The author spends a great deal of her book recalling her affluent childhood, citing her parents, both of whom were active in the New Jersey’s Republican party, as the catalyst for her career choices. A generation ago, Mrs. Whitman writes, politics was more genteel, without the polarization of today, and the GOP didn’t impose strict “litmus tests” on its candidates. She quotes her father as saying long ago, “If you don’t participate [in elections], you lose your right to complain.” The former governor then adds, in a schoolgirl tone, “When you’re a child that makes quite an impression – the last thing you want to do is lose your right to complain.”

It’s surprising that a figure like Mrs. Whitman has such a garbled comprehension of recent political history. For example, she bitterly remembers Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign of 1964 as one that appealed solely to the “crudest instincts of the electorate – fear, anger and division.” An unabashed admirer of Ronald Reagan – as are many of the “social fundamentalists” she now excoriates – she says that even the late president’s historic paid advertisement for Goldwater in the last week of the campaign “was not enough to rescue the Republican ticket.”

No kidding: Is there anyone who remembers that election who believes that, not even a year after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, any Republican could have defeated President Lyndon Johnson? Mrs. Whitman also downplays the enormous influence Goldwater’s effort exerted in galvanizing grassroots Republicans for future elections. Likewise, she blames right-wing Republicans for George H.W. Bush’s 1992 loss to Bill Clinton, claiming they fatally alienated the electorate. Mrs. Whitman doesn’t even mention Ross Perot’s role in that campaign – he won 19% of the vote – or that it was former President Bush’s broken promise about raising taxes, as well as his lackluster campaign skills, that helped lead to Mr. Clinton’s victory.

Although Mrs. Whitman seems like a friendly person who’s genuinely concerned about the difficult issues facing Americans today, she doesn’t suffer from a lack of ego. In reading “It’s My Party Too,” you’d think that she was not only New Jersey’s first female governor, but its first black governor as well. Mrs. Whitman applauds her administration’s record on racial profiling, and speaks of defusing a potential crisis – after consultant Ed Rollins bragged about helping to suppress the black vote in her 1993 win – by meeting with “leaders” like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. That Mrs. Whitman saw Mr. Sharpton as a “leader,” especially a decade ago, when he was still embroiled in the Tawana Brawley controversy, doesn’t recommend her as a discerning judge of character.

As for her 30-month stint as a Bush Cabinet member, Mrs. Whitman believes she was betrayed by the president’s advisers and the conservative media in her efforts to present a strong environmental stance for the administration. Sounding like Mr. Kerry, Mrs. Whitman believes that Mr. Bush wounded himself diplomatically by rejecting the Kyoto Protocol, even as French, British, and German citizens “sat around their kitchen tables” worrying about global warming. She also believed he erred by invading Iraq before “completing the job we had started in Afghanistan.”

While acknowledging her patrician background, Mrs. Whitman attempts to portray herself as a woman who understands “regular people” – much as Mr. Kerry did last year. Writing about the New Jersey home she shares with her family, Mrs. Whitman says: “August is also the time of year when we can live for the entire month off the produce and meat we raise. John [her husband] always says we could eat every night of the year in the most expensive New York restaurant for what it costs us to raise everything, but no meal I’ve ever had in the finest restaurant equals those August dinners at the farm.”

Mrs. Whitman complains that the Republican Party – which she has no plans to leave – has little use for people like her and Senator Specter, particularly given her pro-choice views. Perhaps it’s a function of rushed, or simply bad, writing, but the impression she leaves is that Mr. Bush’s supporters in 2004 were nearly all homophobic, intolerant, greedy, racist, and paranoid. Obviously, if that were true, the President wouldn’t have received more than 60 million votes.

Mrs. Whitman understandably pines for the days when “moderate” Republicans such as herself were more popular within the party, but she completely overstates her case that “social fundamentalists” now mastermind every policy decision that comes from the White House and Congress.

Mr. Smith last wrote for these pages on the American ballad.