I recently read "The Tumult and the Shouting," the memoirs of famed sportswriter Grantland Rice, back to back with "Against All Enemies," the memoirs of former National Security Council aide Richard Clarke.

 The most striking stylistic difference between the two, I think, is that Howard Stern could read Rice's book, word for word, on the air, without being fired. Not so for Clarke's.

 Rice, who spent more than 50 years in the newspaper business, set his book mainly on playing fields, in clubhouses and in barrooms, often among pretty rough characters. But only once does Rice allude to one of his subjects using foul language -- it was Babe Ruth -- and even then Rice did so for good reason and with pointed effect.

 Clarke's story is mainly set in the White House and other seats of government power. His subjects are presidents, White House aides and high-powered policymakers. Yet, foul language flies from Clarke's pages, often gratuitously.

 If Clarke were to read many of his passages verbatim on TV, he could spark a bigger crisis at the FCC than Bono or Janet Jackson.

 Here's a bowdlerized sampling of how he variously employed one particular cuss word as a noun, pronoun, adjective and verb:

 Page 14: "You want this (expletive deleted) video to work, don't you?" (Attributed to a technician in the White House Situation Room.)

 Page 26: "Well, that's (expletive deleted) great." (Attributed to a National Security Council aide.)

 Page 48: "Don't just tell me we're losing, Clarke, tell me what the (expletive deleted) to do about it." (Attributed to a U.S. ambassador.)

 Page 49: "Well, (expletive deleted) the CIA!" (Attributed to a senior Defense Department official.)

 Page 87: "If anybody (expletive deleted) with us, we will respond massively." (Attributed to President Clinton.)

 Page 145: "(Expletive deleted) White House." (Attributed to a Green Beret.)

 Page 157: "(Expletive deleted.) They're in the phone book, on East 48th Street at Fifth." (Attributed to a senior FBI official.) Continued...