Having been successful in writing nonfiction books and recognizing I have zero talent for fiction, I found my writing niche at Regnery Press.  As a proud Regnery bestselling author, I fully supported Marji Ross's shunning of the NYT bestseller list as a metric of authorial success.  President Ross was on solid ground.

Here is the letter I received as an author who has published a bestseller on the New York Times list.

Dear Regnery Author,

I am writing to inform you of an important decision we have made here at Regnery Publishing.  After many years of using the New York Times' bestseller list despite what we believe to be a clear bias against conservative books and authors and an underreporting of the bestseller rankings of those books and authors, we have concluded that we cannot in good conscience endorse this list any longer[.]

I know the difference between fiction and non-fiction, which brings me to a book written by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, Yale School of Medicine, who has decided with moral certitude, I guess because she is also an M.Div., Yale Divinity School '95, to violate "the Goldwater Rule" by diagnosing President Trump from secondhand observations.

A dozen lawmakers from the House and Senate received a briefing from Yale psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee on Capitol Hill in early December about President Donald Trump's fitness to be president – and Lee has been asked to speak with additional lawmakers, worried about the [p]resident's mental state, later this month. ...

Lee's public comments are highly unusual given protocols from medical professional organizations – including the 37,000-member American Psychiatric Association – banning psychiatrists from diagnosing patients without a formal examination.

Section 7, which appeared in the first edition of the APA's Principles of Medical Ethics in 1973 and is still in effect as of 2017, says:

On occasion psychiatrists are asked for an opinion about an individual who is in the light of public attention or who has disclosed information about himself ... through public media.  In such circumstances, a psychiatrist may share with the public his ... expertise about psychiatric issues in general.  However, it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion unless he ... has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement[.]

Even discussing such a breach of established medical guidelines and ethics puts Dr. Lee more in play than she deserves.  Also, shame on any congressional enablers.

In addressing this latest attack on President Trump by a medical professional who should have known better, I want to say: Two can diagnose.

As a former USMC fighter pilot, I have actually seen mentally deficient enemies who acted on their own version of zealotry – call it "moral certitude."  The Khmer Rouge and Castro's Cuba come to mind.

So Dr. Lee, who, by reputation, I am sure, successfully and ethically treats those afflicted with significant mental health problems, should know better.  By her own secondhand derivative standards, I also have every right by my life experiences to diagnose her actions as at least ethically compromised.  

Two D.C. rules come to mind – if you are explaining, you are losing, and never repeat a negative – so this is the last I will mention of Dr. Bandy Lee and what she is doing.  Except there is one additional point in the hothouse world of U.S. publishing: often my fellow Regnery authors have been attacked simply for being right-wing.

This ignores two additional points.  The first is that the rule for good writing is to "show, not tell," and the second is that the truth is the truth.  Dr Lee ignoring the Goldwater Rule violates both those principles.

I will not mention her book title, but as far as the publisher, Thomas Dunne Books, is concerned, here is its publishing record claim to fame.  I truly commend those fellow authors who are most fortunate to have the great gift of writing good fiction:

Thomas Dunne Books produces approximately 175 titles each year, covering a range of genres including commercial and literary fiction, mysteries, thrillers, biography, politics, history, sports, and popular science.  The imprint is the leading mysteries publisher.  In its nearly 30-year history, Thomas Dunne Books has published numerous New York Times bestsellers including Dan Brown's first novel Digital Fortress, over 20 books by international sensation Rosamunde Pilcher, a series of Walking Dead novels written by series creator Robert Kirkman, A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowden, the Meg Langslow mysteries by Donna Andrews ...

...and their claim to infamy:

The imprint signed David Irving, a scholar, for a Joseph Goebbels biography in 1996 but had to drop the book when it was found out that Irving was a Holocaust-denier, having links to Institute for Historical Review, "the literary center of the United States Holocaust[] denial movement."

In October 1999, St. Martin's Press recalled a Dunne book, Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President, and destroyed copies after various incidents about the author, J.H. Hatfield, surfaced.  The incidents were that he had served prison time for a car-bombing attempt on his former boss's life and that he included an anonymous accusation about Bush.  A St. Martin's executive editor resigned in protest over the publication.  In November, Dunne editors stopped attending St. Martin editorial meetings and started their own.