How the Good Guys Finally Won [Mass Market Paperback]

Jimmy Breslin (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (March 12, 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034525001X
• ISBN-13: 978-0345250018
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,284,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Watergate - from the House Impeachment Inquiry point of view, June 3, 2005

By 

K. Ford (Minneapolis) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How the Good Guys Finally Won (Mass Market Paperback)

Of the many Watergate books, this terrific book is special for two reasons. First, Jimmy Breslin. What a writer! He has a journalist's eye and an Irishman's gift for language. Second, this book uniquely looks at the inside story of the U. S. House of Representatives' role in what eventually was impeachment votes.

The book doesn't focus on the details of Watergate or even the investigation but on the politica and the politicians in both parties maneuvered the House through impeachment inquiries and finally impeachment votes.

Constitutional history writ large and, yes, thrilling by ordinary people who grew in their roles but whose strength was that they were ordinary.

Such a great book that I'm buying another copy after 30 years rather than trying to find my orginal.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The illusion of power, October 17, 2005

By 

Steven Hellerstedt "SH" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How the Good Guys Finally Won (Mass Market Paperback)

"Impeachment is going to hit this Congress," Democratic Majority Leader Tip O'Neill announces early on in Jimmy Breslin's 1975 bestseller `How the Good Guys Finally Won.' The pronouncement came before the break-in of the DNC headquarters at the Watergate, when "there wasn't a shred of documentation, only a race-track suspicion by one Congressman." What sparked this suspicion, we're told, were the stories O'Neill was hearing about the shakedown of the rich by representatives of President Nixon's re-election campaign. Soliciting contributions was something an old pol like O'Neill understood. Shaking down anyone with deep pockets and a federal contract was off-the-chart behavior.

This is an informal, anecdote filled history of the House of Representatives during "an impeachment summer." The star of the book is Massachusetts Congressman Tip O'Neill, an old-fashioned, door-knocking politician who was more intuitive than systematic, more inclined to test the wind and count votes than accumulate an ironclad legal case, although other `good guys,' notably House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino and Special Counsel John Doar, play prominent roles as well. Set deep in the background is Richard Nixon, an evil man in Breslin's eyes. To many Watergate was a triumph of the American legal system. To Breslin it was the politics, head counts, votes, the subtle shifting of blue smoke and mirrors that mattered, and not theories on the Constitution.

HTGGFW is about Power, the `art of mirrors and blue smoke.' A street-smart club-fighting politician like Tip O'Neill not only knows where the power is today, but, more importantly, knows in what direction it's drifting and where it'll likely be tomorrow. O'Neill, in that impeachment summer, is the indispensable man. The only one with the foresight to see where the Nixon Presidency was heading, and enough power and will to steer the House to an irresistible confrontation.

I'm afraid I may be making this book sound a lot drier than it is. Breslin has a keen eye for detail, a love of colorful characters (he wrote an affectionate biography of Damon Runyon, for goodness sake,) cynical wit, and an ear finely tuned to the telling anecdote. O'Neill is a natural for him, and happily it's an ideal marriage of subject and author. The energy flags a bit when Breslin turns his attention to Doar, or Rodino, the reticent Congressman from New Jersey whose outstanding feature, beyond his methodical silence, seems to be his quiet, burning pride in his Italian-American heritage.

As is common with many books written about the collapse of the Nixon Presidency in the mid-70s, the author assumes a certain degree of familiarity with Watergate that may be absent lo these many decades later. If you know the significance of the `smoking gun' tape, have heard of Judge John Sirica, and know who "unindicted co-conspirator" refers to - common enough knowledge in 1974 - dive right in and enjoy this entertaining book. If not, I'd suggest reading a general history of Watergate first.

5.0 out of 5 stars A keen journalist's observations of politics and Tip O'Neill, July 20, 2011

By 

Mark Greenbaum (South Orange, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How the Good Guys Finally won: Notes from an Impeachment Summer (Hardcover)

Truth be told, I've known of Jimmy Breslin for most of my life, his name being synonymous with New York City and several of the great city newspapers he's worked for. But prior to picking up "How the Good Guys Finally Won," I had never taken the time to search out and read Breslin's work, whether it be his articles or any of his colorful books. That was a huge mistake. I came away from this book terribly impressed. Breslin is a superb, smart writer, and his prose is a pleasure to read. When I like to describe the type of writing I aspire to, this is what I am talking about. Breslin has a simple, bright, sarcastic style that makes whatever he's talking about easy to digest and appreciate. No doubt, much of this comes from his lifetime of work as an eagle-eyed city reporter who has seen everything and then some, but his writing is as good and enjoyable to read as any writer I can think of.

For example, take this small passage from page 83 of the soft cover edition: "The candidates were Hugh Carey of New York and Tip O'Neill of Massachusetts. Carey had bitter opposition from Brooklyn Congressman John Rooney, an important man on the major Appropriations Committee. Rooney was from Red Hook and spoke like it. He considered Carey, who lived on Prospect Park West in Brooklyn, as being "Lace Curtain Irish." It was a bitterness that started long before 1970, 150 years before at least, and it damaged Carey's changes."

He came from Red Hook and spoke like it -- what writing!

But Breslin's talent goes beyond his writing, as this book well bears out. I read a great deal of stuff on politics, historical and contemporary, and there are very few folks who have such a clear, incisive understanding of political processes and the players involved. For someone who had never covered the federal legislature from up close, Breslin delved into the subject -- not just the development and investigation of Watergate in the early 1970s, but Congress in general -- with a skill and understanding you will not find from contemporary political writers who have been covering Congress daily for decades.

And the way he tells his story is what makes this little book so readable. His cynical understanding of politics and politicians seems fairly instinctive, and is spot-on. In particular, the book is as much about then-House Majority Leader O'Neill as it is about anything else, and it is obvious that Breslin had a great deal of affection and admiration for the legendary future Speaker. In following O'Neill around and watching him operate Congress's halls so adeptly, Breslin saw a kindred spirit -- a bright, accessible Irishman who liked a good cigar and good drink -- and also a symbol of how the institution works best. Another passage from the book (p.33) where he talks about O'Neill's clout speaks to this:

"The ability to create the illusion of power, to use mirrors and blue smoke, is one found in unusual people. They reach their objectives through overstatement or understatement, through silent agreements and, always, the use of language at the most opportune moments."

There are few better descriptions anywhere of the elusive nature of political power. Breslin felt he had come across a special breed in O'Neill -- and remember, at this point, Tip was not yet the national figure and political folk hero he would become later -- and clearly, his keen eye was right. While this book is almost forty years old, it may as well be a book about contemporary Congress, its underlying knowledge is that sharp.