Customer Reviews

Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Washington is about power and access to power. We're simultaneously attracted and repulsed by the audacity of those plying their trade in quiet darken anterooms. John Harwood and Gerald Seib, in their book, "Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power", shined a spot light on those who work and play in the shadows of Washington politics.

Through great background research and first hand interviews with key players such as Karl Rove, Ed Rogers, Ken Duberstein, this is an excellent book for those wanting to know how deals are made, and how the wheels of power are greased".

In an era of 24-hour cable news, endless political blogs and an infinite number of political talk shows, it was refreshing to get beyond the noise and meet the people who really pull the levers. Newscasts are filled with commentary about "Washington gridlock" and "Washington insiders," without ever getting to the root causes of the issues or ever understanding the people beyond the headlines. This book gives texture and shape to these vague labels.

Pennsylvania Avenue, Profiles in Backroom Power offers a series of profiles of people that most Americans probably see quoted in mainstream media everyday, but have no idea why they are opinion leaders.

The book is interesting if just for the profiles, but it also ties together how many of these players on the chessboard interact. These power brokers either succeed or fail in a way that creates the headlines we all read.

I think this book should be mandatory reading for all aspiring political science students or anyone who wants a better understanding of how the most famous Avenue in the United States really works.

I look forward to a sequel in 2009 when a new wave of deal makers ride into town.

For those of us of a certain age who remember the Everett Dirksens and Mike Mansfields of Washington in years gone by, John Harwood and Gerald Seib have put together a compact and informative work regarding where at least some of the power rests in Washington these days. With an increase of coverage by the networks and cable of the major players, the co-authors have compiled a list of powerbrokers who run more of the show than we know. Our nation's capital is like no place else and Harwood and Seib remind us that history is always being made on that far from lonely stretch of road known as Pennsylvania Avenue.

While the narratives are short, the book succeeds in a comprehensive way. We all know Karl Rove and many more know Charlie Rangel. Indeed, white men are more represented here than others, but people like Hilary Rosen and Lea Berman, not to mention Debbie Wasserman Schultz appear as major players...some in highly competitive political ways and some in more coalition-building endeavors. If one ever had any hopes for Washington, this book might just give you a hint of a glimmer.

It would be great to see Harwood and Seib write a sequel that broadens a look at the next group of insiders to appear, given the nature of a political climate that's bound to see some major changes after November. As for now, this is a good start and I highly recommend "Pennsylvania Avenue" for its introduction to the incumbent powers that be and the rising stars that will surely follow.

Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power by John Harwood and Gerald Seib is an excellent book. It gives an overview of what politicans are really like, while including big names( i.e. Rove and Dubinstein) and not so big names( Wasserstein-schultz, although she is becoming popular)and using a bi-partisian approach. Harwood and Seib showed their journalistic skills by providing this overview for the common man and for folks who are non-Washingtonians. But, it also is a good read for History/Political Science buffs who want to have an easy read and want to learn more about the political climate bipartisian style from Washington. This book is highly recommended for all readers who may be interested in Washington Politics. BUt, it also should be on the reading list for college poli sci majors. I think this book also shows what fine writers and Washington Pols John Harwood and Gerald Seib are, and hopefully will get them to recognition they both deserve.

There's hope yet...

And this reasonable, well-written book gives it to us...and its nice and refreshing to read a book about politics and Washington without people shouting or belittling one another.

(People up there need to do what our founding fathers did. Argue all day, argue like hell, then go down to the City Tavern, have a beer/ale, solve the problem, agree, come back and vote on what they decided the next day.)

Folks up there need to calm down, take a step backward, put down the microphones, step back from the cameras, take a deep breath and say, to one another, not to the TV commentators, "Now, what do we need to do and how can we work this out..."

This book gives us hope for that, in a calm, reasoned way without being overly cute, patriotic, emotional and sentimental.

(But we still may need to "Throw the Bastards Out," some of them at least. This book lets us know it's not hopeless. Not yet.)

This is a fine, short book on current politics in America. Harwood and Seib both worked for the Wall Street Journal (Seib still does). Their non-partisan approach to the problems and potential cures for what ails the American political process is useful. The chapters are short and each focuses on one or two powerful political folks. Some of those folks are well known, like Karl Rove and Jim Webb, and others are the backroom players that few people hear much about. A few overriding themes include the influence of money in politics, the nastiness of political fights, and the increasing chasm between the two parties. Well worth it and easy to get through.

I am researching for a script I'm writing and this book has helped me immensely. It breaks down so many different roles people may not know about- the behind the scenes power players. it gives great examples, explanations and stories and I am left with a strong impression of- not just how much money rules Washington, but in some ways, how some can not help but be ruled by it once they get there.

I finished reading the book a while ago, and I find it gives me food for thought during this political season--particularly when I see one or another of the profiled people quoted or interviewed. Though I work in Washington, I have little interaction with the world depicted in Pennsylvania Avenue--but, having read it, I now know a lot more. We all think of ourselves as jaded, but I was really startled by the sheer volume of money that Harwood and Seib describe as flowing through the political world. They may not be partisan, but they do describe a system that desperately needs change.

I was looking forward to reading this book but was rather disappointed by the content and found it to be somewhat dull. It covers the likes of Debbie Wasserman Schultz to the founder of the Carlysle Group. It is basically a series of biographical short essays about Washington's power brokers.

Though I'm an admirer of the authors as journalists, they fail to step up to provide more fully-formed profiles of their many subjects. This reads like a compendium of short mini-profiles. Just as you think you're about to learn something about a subject, the chapter ends and you're onto the next personality. Better to spend the price of the book for a brief subscription to the authors' newspapers. In this case, there's more meat in the daily reportage.