Fat Man in a Middle Seat: Forty Years of Covering Politics [Paperback]

Jack W. Germond (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2002

For more than forty years, Jack Germond enjoyed an extraordinary career in political reporting. With his trademark no-nonsense style and tremendous wit in abundance, Fat Man in a Middle Seat remembers the personalities that dominated national politics during Germond’s career: Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Germond writes about the real stuff of politics and captures the details of the reporter’s life on the road—the off-the-record briefings and strategy sessions, countless late nights in bars, and overcrowded Friday-night standby flights. In the words of Tim Russert, this is “quintessential Germond—candid, insightful, and irreverent.”

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's impossible not to like Jack W. Germond, the veteran journalist who became a household name for political junkies during his 15 years on The McLaughlin Group. He's a reporter's reporter, the kind of fellow who knows that for every good story "you spend two or three rainy Friday nights at the airport in Atlanta trying to fly standby and ending up as the fat man in the middle seat." Germond cut his teeth at a small newspaper in Michigan, where he began to master his trade: "Once you learned to deal with Carlos Gastambide, the business agent for the largest UAW local at the Monroe Auto Equipment Company, you would not likely be intimidated again by any source at any level, up to and including the White House." He later rubbed elbows with some of the best-known journalists of his generation, and his memoir contains plenty of anecdotes about these colleagues (David Broder, Tom Brokaw, Robert Novak) as well as the people they covered. His chapter on The McLaughlin Group, which he abruptly quit in 1996, is a real highlight, revealing both his disdain for television's "lowest common denominator" programming and the medium's awesome financial temptations. Like most reporters, Germond is a conventional liberal by temperament--yet readers of all political stripes will enjoy his fast-paced recollections. --John J. Miller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The journalistic antithesis of the crusading Anderson, Germond looks back on a long career and admits: "My indignation threshold was too high to sustain me as an investigative reporter. I couldn't get worked up about the mayor getting his driveway paved with public asphalt." The statement, with its smooth blend of self-needling irony and unapologetic embrace of modest expectation, is representative of this outstanding reporter's memoir. Germond may be familiar to most readers as the chagrined, portly liberal at whom conservatives Pat Buchanan and Fred Barnes threw their verbal harpoons on television's The McLaughlin Group. But throughout a long career as a political correspondent and columnist with the Gannett chain, the Washington Star and the Baltimore Sun, he has been a reporter's reporter (and, he lets readers know repeatedly, a reporter's drinker). Though some politicos arouse his contempt (George Bush receives a drubbing), Germond actually likes politiciansAeven when he dislikes their politics. His anecdotes are models of concision. Reflecting on how journalism has changed, he recalls how the press let George Wallace's womanizing slide even when a woman plunked herself down among reporters and declared: "That George Wallace. He didn't even take off his shoes." In his descriptions of encounters with Nelson Rockefeller, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, among others, Germond doesn't like to make himself the issue, but his consistent voice infuses the book with his character. Rumpled, cantankerous and blessed with a sense of humor as dry as the best martini, Germond tells great political stories and tells them expertly. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (January 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375758674
• ISBN-13: 978-0375758676
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #923,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!, November 23, 1999

By 

MAG "MAG" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fat Man in a Middle Seat: Forty Years of Covering Politics (Hardcover)

A must read for political junkies. Jack is himself, what you see is what you get! Thoughtful, informative, intelligently written, funny, the book describes forty (count them, 40) years of covering politics. The author deserves praise for the casual manner in which he tackles such a dynamic subject--journalistm. He is definitely old school, and it shows. A must read for anyone who is interested in journalism, political history, and modern politics.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for followers of the political scene, November 20, 1999

By 

Gil Taylor (Kailua-Kona HI) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fat Man in a Middle Seat: Forty Years of Covering Politics (Hardcover)

Anyone who has become a fan of Jack's through his TV appearances over the past years, as have I, will thoroughly enjoy this easy-to-read account of his 40 years of covering politics. Some very interesting insights are contained therein plus some intriguing stories that will surprise some. Jack writes much like he talks - low key, matter-of-fact, no-nonsense/bottom line assessments. A great read all the way around.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 1st-hand, candid insight into late 20th cent. US politics, February 27, 2000

By 

Byfield Ted (Byfield, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fat Man in a Middle Seat: Forty Years of Covering Politics (Hardcover)

This is a must-read for anyone even slightly interested in American politics of the late 20th century. I have admired Jack Germond's straightforward, thoughtful manner for years on the McLaughlin Group, and can remember thinking how fascinating it would be to end up sitting on a plane next to him. Imagine my surprise and delight when the title of his memoirs was "Fat Man in a Middle Seat." Germond pulls no punches in his descriptions of politicians he has known, from Averill Harriman and Nelson Rockefeller to George Bush and Bill Clinton.

Most of the other reader reviews here are on the mark, but I would add one important point: Germond's discussion on race relations in the US, from the civil rights era to the present, is as insightful a commentary as I have read anywhere. He went to high school in Louisiana, and travelled through the South in the 60's covering the civil rights movement. He has known the players from George Wallace to Jesse Jackson, and, as with the other people in the book, describes their personalities and motivations with great insight. I rarely re-read a book, but when I finished the book I immediately re-read the chapter, "Race and Politics."

Germond's constant references to his drinking and skirt-chasing were a little distracting, but since this is a memoir from someone who tells it like it is, one should not be surprised that he included his own vices as part of the narrative.