Inside Congress: The Shocking Scandals, Corruption, and Abuse of Power Behind the Scenes on Capitol Hill [Mass Market Paperback]

Ronald Kessler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1998

MONEY, SEX, AND SELF-INTEREST TAKEN CONTROL OF CAPITOL HILL

Now more than ever, Congress runs the country. But who is running Congress? New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Ronald Kessler takes you behind the scenes, conducting unprecedented interviews with more than 350 insiders to reveal the shocking answer to that question. Here are the sex scandals, the dirty financial deals, the abuses of power -- the deepest, darkest secrets of Congress -- exposed for the first time, including:

How congressional members -- including the entire House Republican leadership -- used taxpayer dollars to lavishly redecorate their offices with custom-made furniture, including $20,000 chairs.

Eyewitness accounts of members engaging in adulterous affairs and wild orgies in the parking lots, back rooms, and hidden chambers of Capitol Hill.

Evidence of special-interest money-laundering schemes that put millions into the pockets of our elected officials.

Meticulously documented and chock-full of sizzling revelations, Inside Congress is making headlines across the country. Read it -- and find out what your senators and representatives don't want you to know.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671003860
• ISBN-13: 978-0671003869
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #785,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Nonfiction > Politics > U.S.
  • #6 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Nonfiction > Government > Congresses, Senates, & Legislative Bodies
  • #30 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Political

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.