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INSIDE CONGRESS: The Shocking Scandals, Corruption, and Abuse of Power Behind the Scenes on Capitol Hill
 
 
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INSIDE CONGRESS: The Shocking Scandals, Corruption, and Abuse of Power Behind the Scenes on Capitol Hill [Hardcover]

Ronald Kessler (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)


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Book Description

June 1, 1997
The bestselling author of Inside the White House, The FBI, Inside the CIA, The Sins of the Father, and other acclaimed works of nonfiction takes readers behind the scenes--via interviews with more than 350 insiders--to reveal the inner workings of Congress. Meticulously documented and chock-full of sizzling detail, Inside Congress divulges the sex scandals, the dirty financial deals, the abuses of power--in all their sordid glory.


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If the National Enquirer covered Congress, the result would be something like this. There's a lot here about the petty perks of power: the arrests of powerful members of Congress (and their sometimes even more powerful staffers) that somehow go away; members' use of the Capitol Police as personal chauffeurs; the fixing of members' parking tickets and the squandering of public funds on their custom-made office furniture and other interior decorations. The book also takes a look at the corruption of the current political fund-raising system and as an antidote, supports public campaign finance. But most of all, there's the drumbeat of congressional sex: furtive couplings with staffers and teenaged pages in congressional offices and "hideaways," in parked cars with streetwalkers in broad daylight, even on the steps of the Capitol itself. What makes this book more than just a cynic's delight is that Kessler is a thorough investigative reporter, an alum of both the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. So don't be surprised if the stories he breaks here have further impact--after all, Kessler's book on the FBI brought down the Bureau's then director.

From Library Journal

Kessler here builds on the lurid details from his earlier best-selling tell-all, Inside the White House (LJ 1/95).
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 300 pages
  • Publisher: Pocket Books; First Printing edition (June 1, 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0671003852
  • ISBN-13: 978-0671003852
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #978,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ronald Kessler is the New York Times bestselling author of nineteen non-fiction books about the Secret Service, FBI, and CIA.

Kessler began his career as a journalist in 1964 on the Worcester Telegram, followed by three years as an investigative reporter and editorial writer with the Boston Herald. In 1968, he joined the Wall Street Journal as a reporter in the New York bureau. He became an investigative reporter with the Washington Post in 1970 and continued as a staff writer until 1985.

Kessler's latest book is "The Secrets of the FBI." His previous book was "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect." USA Today described the book as a "fascinating exposé...high-energy read...amusing, saucy, often disturbing anecdotes about the VIPs the Secret Service has protected and still protects.....[accounts come] directly from current and retired agents (most identified by name, to Kessler's credit)....Balancing the sordid tales are the kinder stories of presidential humanity...[Kessler is a] respected journalist and former Washington Post reporter....an insightful and entertaining story." Kessler and the book were featured on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Kessler has won seventeen journalism awards, including two George Polk awards--for national reporting and for community service. Kessler has also won the American Political Science Association's Public Affairs Reporting Award, the Associated Press' Sevellon Brown Memorial Award, the Robert Novak Journalist of the Year Award, and Washingtonian magazine's Washingtonian of the Year award. He is listed in Who's Who in America.

Ron Kessler lives with his wife Pamela Kessler in the Washington, D.C. area. Also an author and former Washington Post reporter, Pam Kessler wrote "Undercover Washington: Where Famous Spies Lived, Worked and Loved." His daughter Rachel Kessler, a public relations executive, and son Greg Kessler, an artist, live in New York.

 

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Time to reorganize?, February 20, 2000
This review is from: INSIDE CONGRESS: The Shocking Scandals, Corruption, and Abuse of Power Behind the Scenes on Capitol Hill (Hardcover)
The book started off slowly with all the sexual escapades of our elected officials, in a tabloid way. However, once you just accept the fact that this is the norm, it's easy to continue into the more substantive issues: passing laws that don't apply to themselves, spending our money as an entitlement, the blatant misuse of the capital police, and the endless, endless hunt for money, which usually ends up in the selling of votes.

If only half of what Mr. Kessler says is true, the quality of our representation is abyssmal. I was very disheartened by both parties. They're both shamelessly arrogant and in it only for themselves. No wonder they stay in DC after they are turned out, usually kicking and screaming.

Kessler did not cover a related topic, and that is that we, the represented, will elect anyone who can deliver the goods, and bring home the bacon.

Maybe it's time we hold a Constitutional Convention to get back to what the founding fathers had in mind. It surely wasn't this morass of self-important egos and libidos.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars sex, lies and politics !, January 1, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: INSIDE CONGRESS: The Shocking Scandals, Corruption, and Abuse of Power Behind the Scenes on Capitol Hill (Hardcover)
Although repetitive (could be cut down by half if everything wasn't restated three times), the book is an open door to the real happenings on Capitol Hill. Written in an amusing manner with comical statements throughout to keep the reader from becoming bored. Reveals behavior so appalling it makes one ashamed to be a US citizen. A book every American should read and should take to heart when voting.
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5.0 out of 5 stars A must read., September 8, 2009
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This is a book every person in America should read. Your representatives are robbing you blind. Wake up and smell the coffee, no matter what they say they think you are DUMB, NIEVE and that's the way they want it. Read how they squander your money on THEMSELVES.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
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First Sentence:
The Capitol sits on land once known as Jenkins' Hill, which rises eighty-eight feet above the Potomac River in Washington. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
page supervisors, folding room, franked mail, hideaway offices, female pages, campaign finance system, drug unit
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Capitol Police, Capitol Hill, Newt Gingrich, House Post Office, White House, Metropolitan Police, United States, House Bank, California Democrat, Supreme Court, Washington Post, First Amendment, Justice Department, Library of Congress, Price Waterhouse, Common Cause, New York Republican, Secret Service, South Carolina Republican, Wisconsin Democrat, Defense Department, Massachusetts Democrat, Pennsylvania Republican, Sonny Bono, Ted Kennedy
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