Tommy the Cork: Washington's Ultimate Insider from Roosevelt to Reagan - Hardcover

McKean, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1586420682 ISBN 13: 9781586420680

Publisher: Steerforth, 2003

Synopsis

“The life and adventures of Tommy the Cork, from serving as a clerk to Oliver Wendell Holmes to helping United Fruit find ways to overthrow the government of Guatamala, make for one of the most intriguing Washington books in years. Readers with a taste for the politically picaresque will seize upon it with delight.” — Harry McPherson in Wilson Quarterly

IN 1931, A YOUNG Rhode Island lawyer with middle-class, Irish Catholic roots came to Washington to clerk for Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. He had earned the highest grades ever attained at Harvard Law School and possessed a force of personality to match his intellect. A brilliant lawyer, wily political operator, and likable rogue, Corcoran would become the most important and valued strategist in FDR’s inner circle. After leaving government, Corcoran would virtually establish modern lobbying and influence peddling as we know it.

Corcoran was the first “super-lobbyist,” the first person to fully appreciate how World War II changed Washington; the first person to fully understand the symbiotic relationship between the executive branch, the Congress, and corporate America. Corcoran knew how to size people up, apply leverage, and call in — to devastating effect — the favors he liberally spread around town. Despite his lasting influence his story is little known today.

Drawing on sources ranging from FBI wiretaps to interviews with family members, Tommy the Cork traces Corcoran’s career from his early days with Holmes and FDR to his behind-the-scenes orchestration of President Eisenhower’s intervention in Guatemala. Corcoran’s life is peppered with political luminaries, including Henry Luce, Joseph P. Kennedy, Evita Peron, and Lyndon Johnson. McKean’s account also tells the story of Corcoran’s twenty-year romantic relationship with the exotic power broker Anna Chan Chennault, a champion of conservative Republican causes. Anyone interested in the history of Washington’s inner-workings and tales of political intrigue will find this story irresistible.

About this title

About the Author:

DAVID MCKEAN is chief of staff to a United States Senator and is coauthor of the biography Friends in High Places: The Rise and Fall of Clark Clifford.

From Publishers Weekly:

Thomas G. Corcoran was one of the first modern lobbyists, a Washington power broker from his early years as an influential member of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "brain trust" through his postwar career representing a host of corporate, political and even religious interests. The young Irish Catholic Corcoran came to Washington to clerk for the great jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes, the first of a series of powerful mentors that included Felix Frankfurter, Sam Rayburn and Roosevelt himself. Nominally employed by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Corcoran gradually took on a complicated role in support of FDR's New Deal, helping to draft the legislation that created the Securities and Exchange Commission while building a network of government cronies and developing his skills as a political arm-twister. After leaving government in 1941, Corcoran spent almost 40 years as an increasingly conservative "fixer" for companies and causes ranging from the notorious United Fruit Company to the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association. McKean is chief of staff for Sen. (and Democratic presidential hopeful) John Kerry and previously wrote a biography of another great power broker, Clark Clifford. Although McKean occasionally suggests idealistic motivations behind his subject's maneuvering, Corcoran comes across as an amoral operator, seeking power and influence for their own sake. This biography offers an intriguing glimpse of how the power game in Washington evolved in the middle decades of the 20th century as well as sketches of Holmes, FDR, Joseph P. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and many other notables; even New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd makes an appearance as a cousin of Corcoran's wife, Peggy. B&w photos.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Steerforth
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1586420682
• ISBN 13: 9781586420680
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 350