Club Fed - Hardcover

Thomas, Bill

2.86

7 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684196352 ISBN 13: 9780684196350

Publisher: Scribner, 1994

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A Washington insider reveals what the public never sees, humorously exposing parties, free vacations, incredible sex habits, and VIP luxury enjoyed by those in office, and explaining who writes legislation, how bills get passed, and how reporters avoid the real news. Tour.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

A mildly amusing tour de Capitol Hill based on some reporting forays and armchair rumination by a veteran Washington journalist. Los Angeles Times contributing editor Thomas (coauthor of Red Tape: Adventure Capitalism in the New Russia, 1992) has written a lite accompaniment to more somber analyses (like Jonathan Rauch's Demosclerosis, p. 210) of why Washington doesn't work. He has a way with a quip, observing that Senator Robert Byrd ``has moved so many federal offices to poverty-stricken West Virginia, the state could pass for a government in exile.'' But his survey of governmental inefficiency and self-protecting lawmakers doesn't dig too deep. He describes how congressional representatives grandstand to get media coverage, limns the proliferation of interest groups and congressional caucuses, and describes the Senate's unwillingness to investigate colleague Bob Packwood, charged with sexual harassment. The better chapters provide a fresh look at local folkways: Thomas follows the orientation of freshman representatives in 1992, observing how they get sucked into the system they ran against; he also shows how the city's racial polarization led Washingtonians to vote against a local death-penalty bill they felt was foisted on them by Congress. Unfortunately, his chapters on the Supreme Court, fund-raising, and lobbying are mostly old hat, and the best anecdote in his chapter on Congress-as-frat-house--concerning a night on the town with senators Christopher Dodd and Ted Kennedy-- is borrowed from GQ magazine. Little in his narrative is as rich as the quotes he extracts from a transcript of the clubby, nasty TV show ``The McLaughlin Group.'' Thomas admits that he offers no plan to solve any of our national problems--``which makes it [the book] a lot like Congress.'' But he does conclude, quite reasonably, that congressional procedures should be reformed so that our representatives spend more time making laws than planning for reelection. This topic deserves either tougher reporting or an over-the- top satirist like Dave Barry. (8 pages of photos, not seen.) (Author tour) -- Copyright �1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Booklist:

The scandal-ridden Congress, impervious to reform and as imperial as ever, supplies grist galore for gripers of all stripes. When polls regularly show that three-fourths of us hold the place in minimal high regard, and yet nothing changes, what's left to do but read it and weep? Thomas regales readers with a series of familiar malfeasances from the past few years with the only solace that's left: humor. Describing the place as one that rewards acolytes, not apostates, Thomas walks through the Hill culture as it "orients" new members and turns them into full-time fund-raising media hounds. The Names keep hanging around--like Packwood and Frank, pillars of sexual improprieties, hetero- and homo- respectively--while losers can turn into winners, as in the case of Democratic Representative Tony Coelho, who, though forced out in a bond scandal five years ago, is back inside the Beltway as a fund-raiser and political fixer for his party. Thomas is just as alert to the revolving doors that Republicans spin for their favored lobbyists, too, and points out that even convicted felons won't go away (see, for instance, John Mack, the Hill staffer who viciously slashed a woman, and the better-known Marion Barry, the crack-smoking ex-mayor currently on the comeback trail). Amusingly critical and familiar to NPR listeners, Thomas and his litany of horror stories will definitely bend the ears of the talk radio crowd. Gilbert Taylor

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