The Warm Bucket Brigade: The Story of the American Vice Presidency [Hardcover]

Jeremy Lott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 2008

What Do You Know about America's Vice Presidents?

(The official quiz that you, the reader, should take right now to determine if you need this book)

1. How many vice presidents went on to become president?
2. How many sitting presidents died or were forced from office?
3. How many vice presidents shot men while in office?
4. Who was the better shot?
5. Who was the first vice president to assume power when a president died?
6. Why did he return official letters without reading them?
7. What vice president was almost torn limb form limb in Venezuela?
8. Which former VP was tried for treason for trying to start his own empire in the Southwest?
9. How many vice presidents were assassinated?
10. In the next presidential election, should you worry about the candidates for vice president?

(Bonus challenge: For extra points, name the men that the vice presidents shot!)

See answers below. No cheating!

The vice presidency isn't worth "a bucket of warm spit"

That's the prudish version of what John Nance Garner had to say about the office--several years after serving as VP under FDR. Was he right?

The vice presidency is one of America's most historically complicated, intriguing, and underappreciated public offices. And Jeremy Lott's sweeping, hilarious, and insightful history introduces readers to the unusual and sometimes shadowy cast of characters that have occupied it:

• Aaron Burr, the only VP tried for treason
• John Tyler, president without a party
• Andrew Johnson, defiant drunkard
• Thomas Marshall, who should have been president
• Richard Nixon, underdog and daredevil
• Gerald Ford, icon of the 1970s
• Al Gore, the most frustrated man in America
• And, of course, the real Dick Cheney

With crisp prose, Lott focuses on their bitter rivalries and rank ambitions, their glorious victories and tragic setbacks. At the end of hundreds of historical vignettes, interviews, and pilgrimages to obscure places, Lott concludes that the vice presidency is an invaluable political institution that tends to frustrate the ambitions of America's most ambitious politicans--an ungainly launch pad for future political success and a drunk tank for those who would imbibe too deeply of power.

Answers to Quiz!

1. Fourteen of the forty-three presidents were vice president
2. It's happened eight times so far
3. Aaron Burr and Dick Cheney
4. Aaron Burr
5. John Tyler
6. Because he insisted on being called "president," not "vice president" or "acting president"
7. Richard Nixon
8. Aaron Burr (him again!)
9. None, though an assassin was hired to kill Andrew Johnson
10. See answers one and two and then ask yourself, "Does America feel lucky?"

Answers to bonus challenge: Alexander Hamilton and Harry Whittington

Score:

0-4 You are a novice who should probably buy this book

5-8 You are a history buff who should love this book

9-12 You are a smart cookie who should appear on Jeopardy--and buy this book for show prep

 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The vice presidency of the United States may be an awkward, ill-defined creation, but it has now inspired the book it probably deserves, a chatty, discursive chronicle that wobbles uncertainly between Veep 101, comic fable and perceptive political commentary. Despite his lighthearted style, it's clear that Lott, an accomplished writer and widely published columnist, has not only researched his topic carefully, but is also, as his discussions of vice presidents Nixon and Tyler reveal, prepared to come to his own, occasionally unconventional, conclusions. That said, he throws in so many jokes (some good, some startlingly bad), breezy asides and anecdotes (including the revelation that the bucket filled with a warm liquid to which FDR's John Nance Garner famously compared the vice presidency allegedly contained something less appealing than spit) that they drown out the overall story. This confusion is compounded by the way Lott's narrative is disproportionately focused on those vice presidents who made it to the White House. The vice presidency's current significance is another matter. It has, as Lott notes, become a real source of power in its own right. However, those looking for a serious understanding of the vice presidency are best advised to look elsewhere. (Mar. 11)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Jeremy Lott has been published in nearly 100 magazines and newspapers, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Post, and National Review. Stateside, his work has appeared in outlets from Christianity Today to Seattle's alternative weekly the Stranger. Internationally, the Lott byline has appeared in publications in Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands. A contributing editor to Books & Culture, Lott's work has sparked debate from commentators of every stripe. Conservative Charles Colson has featured his articles in his BreakPoint radio commentaries and bestselling liberal author Chris Mooney called his piece on book burning and free speech the "best counter-intuitive argument ever." Lott is the author of the equally counter-intuitive book, In Defense of Hypocrisy: Picking Sides in the War on Virtue.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (March 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595550828
• ISBN-13: 978-1595550828
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #436,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeremy Lott (1978- ) was born in Modesto, California, and traveled north along the West Coast for much of his life, with extended stops in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. After accidentally graduating from Trinity Western University, he went to work for several magazines and think tanks. His work has appeared in well over 100 publications in America, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and the U.K. including the National Post, Australian Financial Review, the Financial Times, the Guardian, Politico, and the American Prospect. Lott is a contributing editor to Books & Culture and author of two books, The Warm Bucket Brigade and In Defense of Hypocrisy. He lives in Fairfax, Virginia, and Lynden, Washington.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Charming, illuminating history of a little understood office April 13, 2008

By Jerry Saperstein HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Jeremy Lott has done a bit of the wondrous here. He has taken the history of a little understood or, or for that matter, little noticed political office and made it into an understandable, interesting and often humorous history. Academics and their supporters will probably not like "The Warm Bucket Brigade" for all the reasons just stated: this is an understandable, interesting and frequently funny book that illuminates a barely understood elective office and the more often than not forgotten souls who occupied it. (Can you identify President Polk's Vice President? No Googling allowed!)

The title derives from the famous characterization of the office by John Nance Gardner, one of Franklin Roosevelt's Vice Presidents, who had left a powerful position in the House of Representatives. Consulted by Lyndon Baines Johnson about the wisdom of taking the VP nomination offered by John F. Kennedy, Garner advised the then powerful Senator Johnson that the post wasn't worth a bucket of warm (bodily liquid excretion that is most certainly not spit).

Lott enlivens what would otherwise be a deadly dull excursion into the expired lives of some very dead and largely forgotten men (all VPs have been men to date) by bringing what can be described as a snarky sense of humor to the job. It is, frankly, a welcome attribute and enlivens the book although sometimes Lott does stretch things.

Lott moves straight into the enigma of the Constitutionally created elective office of Vice President of the United States. It is the only elective office that renders its occupant a member of the executive and legislative branches. However, the Constitution fails to enumerate much in the way of power or responsibility to the VP. The VP is, of course, on heartbeat away from the Presidency and can cast a deciding vote when the Senate is tied. But beyond that, the office doesn't really come with much in the way of poltical power or patronage.

By and large, Vice Presidential power and responsibilities have ebbed and flowed, depending both on the incumbent President and the nature of the Vice Presidency. During the current Bush administration, Vice President Cheney has labored hard in behalf of the belief that the Constitution favors a strong executive branch. On the other hand, there is substantial belief that President Clinton was not impeached solely because it would have resulted in a President Gore, who had shown his nature as Vice President. Lott details as well the growth of the modern Vice Presidency through the example of Richard Nixon who became a very effective super ambassador for then President Eisenhower. He then describes how some highly regarded potential presidential aspirants had their hopes destroyed because they occupied the Vice Presidential chair at the wrong time or with the wrong President. Hubert Humphrey was one such casualty.

It must be remembered that all the men who became Vice President were at one time notable and reasonably well known in their time. Some of them, such as Lyndon Johnson and John Nance Gardner, were also remarkably politically powerful before they became VP. Fourteen VPs went on to become Vice President. The rest, by and large, faded into obscurity after their term(s) as Vice President, like, for example, Dan Quayle and Woodrow Wilson's VP, whose name I have forgotten. (Just kidding in an attempt to make the point.)

Lott does these men, the office of the Vice President, history and the nation a favor by recounting in summary detail their histories. At first, I thought Lott's approach was too light-hearted, almost flippant. As I got into the book, I realized that Lott's approach was really on the mark and very much appropriate: a different approach, more serious and academic would probably leave these lives unexplored in a stack of unopened books, gathering dust in a dark corner. Lott has done right by his subjects and his readers with his approach.

For younger readers (anyone under 50 - about half or so of the population), Lott's elucidation of how Vice Presidential candidates were chosen prior to the 1972 campaign will be an education in what American politics used to be.

Lott opens his journey with a visit to the United States Vice Presidential Museum, a former Christian Science Church in Dan Quayle's birthplace, Huntington, Indiana. Uh huh - I never heard of the museum or the town either. He then moves into a history of the office and the men who occupied it.

Not unwisely, Lott spends less time on the less visible vice presidents and more on those who made more of the office or moved into the Presidency, one way or another.

Overall, "The Warm Bucket Brigade" is a fascinating little book (260 pages plus an appendix, notes and index). It casts light on a surprisingly obscure, if potentially powerful, elective office and its largely forgotten occupants. For the student of American history, it is frankly a must-read: there are lots of facts here that I haven't stumbled across in my fifty years of reading - or facts that I have forgotten. As noted, Lott's often humorous approach makes the subject much more accessible than it otherwise would have been.

A delightful read, especially with summer coming up. Whether it's on the beach or waiting for your oft-delayed flight to finally take off, this is a book that anyone with an interest in American history will enjoy.

Jerry

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun to Read, Some Left Out November 23, 2012

By D. Mabry

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Mr. Lott wrote this book in a very accesible vernacular style that I found to be a pleasant break from the very scholarly presidential biographes that I have been reading. The book was entertaining and informative. Through previous reading I had been exposed to many of the stories that Mr. Lott covered in this book. However, his coverage of many of the modern vice presidents was insightful and new to me. I was disappointed that he did not cover more of the early vice presidents and their historical trivia. Robert Mentor Johnson is the only VP to be elected by the Senate. Mr. Lott did not discuss this or the constitutional mechanism that was triggered by Johnson's failed electoral election. Vice President King was the VP to be sworn into office on foreign soil. How Gerald Ford was never elected to the executive branch but was appointed. Another reviewer pointed this out as well. These men were someone. They had to have some power in the party, contribution in the electoral process, balance to the ticket, something. While all stories are not as interesting. Mr. Lott missed quite a few that would improved his telling of the misunderstood elected office.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Funny, Bizarre, and Interesting History of America's #2 Office May 24, 2012

By John Gardner

Format:Hardcover

When I was in middle school, I had a button with a picture of a potato... with a toenail in it. It was the strange sort of thing only an 8th grade boy could like! The button was my "souvenir" from the Dan Quayle Center and Museum (now known as the Dan Quayle Vice Presidential Learning Center), located in my hometown of Huntington, Indiana. It was supposed to be mocking Quayle's potato/potatoe controversy, but for some reason I just thought it was cool.

Growing up in perhaps the most vice presidential town in America (the "highway of vice presidents" rolls right through town) helped spark my interest in politics through two large political rallies I was able to attend. The first, referred to in Lott's book as the "famous Battle of Huntington", was considered a turning point in the Bush-Quayle 1988 presidential campaign. The second was the kickoff to Quayle's doomed presidential campaign, which took place at my high school a few months before my graduation. Our band provided the music; I was fascinated by the entire political process, as I looked forward to voting in my first presidential election.

So when I saw this book about the vice presidency -- which, judging by its cover, wouldn't take itself too seriously -- my interest was piqued. When I opened it and saw that the entire first chapter was about the V.P. museum in my hometown, I knew I needed to buy it!

I'm glad I did. Far from a dry history of an office few people care about (including those who have held it), the book is exactly what it says it is. It's a story, and Lott tells it well.

The evolution of the vice presidency from a despised and essentially worthless position to the high-powered and influential office it is today is traced through a series of anecdotes about the often colorful men who have served as our nation's #2 man. There is no shortage of funny, bizarre, and interesting facts here, as Lott traces the history of the United States through the eyes of these men who, prior to 1972, often languished in total obscurity.

The author's personality certainly comes through frequently, but he does an admirable job of remaining neutral and objective for the most part -- his noticeable disdain for certain recent occupants of the office notwithstanding. His sense of humor keeps the reader engaged and amused with what could very easily be an intensely boring topic. All in all, this is a light and enjoyable read for anyone who likes history and/or politics, and it's almost guaranteed to teach you things you never knew!