Synopsis
Americans equate Washington with politics. But the underpinnings of government remain intangible - complicated and tangled networks fleetingly exposed during election years. Few understand the intricate relationships that keep the machinery on Capitol Hill constantly churning, constantly changing. Behind each public figure is a deep and far-reaching infrastructure driven by calculated career moves and alliances with carefully chosen and cultivated colleagues. In War Without Bloodshed, journalists Eleanor Clift and Tom Brazaitis uncover the interlocking relationships on Capitol Hill far beyond the job descriptions taught in government and history classes.
Each chapter is a slice of the capital's political culture as the authors unveil the tantalizing interplay between Washington posts and personalities. First they note the key positions: the pollster, the lobbyist, the committee chairman, opposition leader, the member of Congress, the chief of staff. They then spotlight exemplary representatives of each job: Stanley Greenberg, the president's pollster, who dreamed of a new Democratic majority, and Frank Luntz, whose polling helped shape the Republican Contract With America; Michael Bromberg, the lobbyist known as Mr. Health Care, who took on Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Paul Equale, the insurance lobbyist, who achieved success at the expense of his youthful idealism; Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the philosopher-politician, who bedeviled the White House; Newt Gingrich, who led his party to power for the first time in forty years; Maxine Waters, the congresswoman from South Central Los Angeles, who refused to be marginalized by a white male power structure - Democratic or Republican; and Sheila Burke, the unassuming staffer who agitated the G. O. P.'s right wing by wielding power in the name of Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.
In War Without Bloodshed, Clift and Brazaitis reveal that every decision is political on Capitol Hill - from the title of a memorandum to the lunch date across the table to one's choice of footwear at a Georgetown dinner party. No career stays within strict partisan lines. The authors offer anecdotes about players from opposite sides who, perceived by the public as enemies, meet secretly - from Stan Greenberg breakfasting with Ronald Reagan's pollster to Newt Gingrich traveling to Texas to consult with Ross Perot. They alternately fraternize, antagonize, and move on. From each character's vantage point, the reader relives the jousting over health-care reform and the turmoil of a tumultuous election, and comes to understand that, in the end, politics is not just about winning and losing. The game is its own reward.
Synopsis
Discusses key political types in Washington--pollster, lobbyist, committee chairman, opposition leader, legislative aide, Congressman--to examine how Washington politics really work.
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