SHOWDOWN: The Struggle Between the Gingrich Congress and the Clinton White House [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Drew (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 1996

The author of On the Edge chronicles the continuing clash between the Clinton White House and the Republican-dominated Congress, focusing on such key people as Dole, Gingrich, and Gramm as they struggle over taxes, welfare, health care, and other issues. 60,000 first printing. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Elizabeth Drew is a reporter's reporter. She goes after the facts with a vengeance, sorts through the issues, absorbs the full context and then lays out the tale in simple yet intelligent language. Her subjects in Showdown offer plenty of material for a behind-the-scenes look at a rather tumultuous time in Washington. She contends that House Speaker Newt Gingrich went too far in his fervor to scale back government. Meanwhile, the Clinton White House helped itself by standing up to Gingrich but failed to answer many of the hard questions of the debate.

From Publishers Weekly

Washington political reporter Drew (On the Edge) believes that House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his fellow conservative Republicans have overinterpreted?and outrun?their mandate to scale back government. Based on interviews with key players of both parties, her chronicle of the battle between the Clinton White House and a Republican Congress concludes that the president has regained the moral high ground with voters disenchanted with a congressional majority that seemingly has scored few positive accomplishments. Drew labels as farcical the Republican proposal to balance the budget in seven years, largely because tax cuts will make the deficit increase again after year seven. She accuses the Republicans of "playing suburban politics" by favoring their own constituencies, which do not include the poor, and by devolving power to the states. And she persuasively argues that the debate over Republican cuts in Medicare was fraudulent on both sides?Republicans in effect proposed to change the nature of Medicare, luring the elderly into private plans, while the Clinton administration took a pass on the hard questions of controlling costs. This is a trenchant, behind-the-scenes look at the making?and possible unmaking?of Gingrich's "Contract With America."
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition First Printing Highlightin edition (April 12, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684815184
• ISBN-13: 978-0684815183
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #562,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-researched; will interest political junkies most, October 27, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: SHOWDOWN: The Struggle Between the Gingrich Congress and the Clinton White House (Hardcover)

Elizabeth Drew has brought years of experience and contact work to the effort to cast light behind one of the most conflict-ridden periods in recent American politics. Parting the curtains of public affairs rhetoric and the pap spoon-fed to the nightly news shows, she shows the reader both the hard policy considerations and the fragile egos at play in the 1994-1995 battles between Bill Clinton's White House and Newt Gingrich's House of Representatives. Two caveats: 1) for political junkies only; if you don't eat, breathe and sleep political intrigue, you ain't gonna care; 2) the editor could have done a little better job of smoothing Drew's dry journalistic style into a somewhat more flowing and readable narrative.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Soild Effort, April 18, 2002

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Showdown: The Struggle Between the Gingrich Congress and the Clinton White House (Paperback)

Ok, I admit it; I am a political junky and a bit of a liberal. I will tend to read anything political and probably enjoy it. With that being said here is another book of his that I will profess to really enjoying. This author has been writing these type of book sense the early 70's and you can tell she has it down cold. She has so many contacts that many times in reading the book you could swear she has the Congress and White House bugged. This book follows the Ginrich contract with American process and how it effects the Clinton team through the second two years that they are in office. You get all the standard Drew items with the book, great details, wonderful he said - she said conversations that really make you feel like a fly on the wall, an easy to follow and well laid out book.

I have read the book "The Agenda" and "The Choice" by Woodward and this book is a nice book in the middle of the two. If you through in "All Too Human" that George Stephanopoulos wrote and you have an excellent view of the first four years of the Clinton Presidency. This is an interesting book that I really enjoyed. If you like political books then you will like this book, if you are interested in the second two years of the Clinton presidency then this is also a good source of information.