Customer Reviews

The Thumpin': How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I love political history and insider accounts of campaigns. This is a bit of both. Unfortunately, it is also a hymn to the brilliance that is Rahm Emanuel (in the eyes of the author).

While it does offer behind-the-scenes, first-hand accounts of the machinations and strategies of the DCCC 2006 campaigns, the author seems to feel that Rahm could do no wrong.

For example, he completely whitewashes the fact that Rahm and the Democrats knew about the Foley scandal even before the Republicans (p. 174) and he accepts without comment that the "Six for '06" agenda happened in "100 hours" (p. 207).

Evaluating the strategy presented in the book, Rahm's keys to the successful 2006 elections seem to be:
(1) Tireless energy; work every day and never let up.
(2) Focus on the goal at hand -- win control of the House; never let anything, whatever the consideration, deflect you from that goal.
(3) Never rest on your laurels; even when you are ahead, push push push until the votes are actually in.
(4) Push everyone around you to be as relentless as you are in pursuit of your goal.

These are good habits to have no matter what side of the aisle you are on and the book demonstrates them in rich detail.

Interesting note: RNCC head Tom Cole (R-OK) is telling his staffers to read this book so that they can see that the Democrats owed a lot of their victory to Republican screw-ups rather than Democrat invincibility. (A fact the author admits at the end of the book on p. 208, third paragraph.)

Overall, a good look at the election and the strategy involved, but it would have been nice to include the mistakes that Rahm made and not present just an encomium to his abilities.

This book is a real eye opener . If you want to understand Democratic and Chicago's political stragedies today read this book. Rahm's methods- take no prisoners- made alot of things clear to me about smearring candidates reputation and if that doesn't work he likes to bankrupt opposing candidates political and personal finances....he's a real piece of work and this book explains his tactics.

Chicago Tribune reporter Naftali Bendavid spent two years with the tough-speaking head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Rahm Emanuel and uses this fly-on-the-wall experiences as the basis -- almost the sole basis -- of this book.
It's an entertaining read. Emanuel, famed for his expletive-laced speech and ruthlessness, is an engaging and charismatic subject and we experience all the ups and downs of the campaign from his perspective.
Bendavid credits Emanuel with helping to end the Democrats' psychology of being perpetual losers and softees who have been crushed by the macho Republicans in election after election. He's the first Democrat for years with the toughness to counter the Republican machine, meeting toughness with toughness. One of his most important achievements, according to Bendavid, was recruiting candidates equally committed to winning with the persistence and focus to stay the course, raise the money and rebut the negatives attacks when they came.
The book's strength is also its weakness. The relentless focus on Emanuel as the fulcrum around which everything turns means there's little objective analysis. Bendavid admits the Republicans were already headed for a bruising election setback as the war in Iraq took a wrong term and especially following the Hurricane Katrina fiasco. The sleaze factor also played a major role. Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff were bad enough but when the Mark Foley sex scandal broke just before the election, the results for Republicans were disastrous.
Bendavid does not identify all his sources and does not do a sufficient job of attributing his quotes. Which were made to him and which did he pick up off TV or from other media interviews? He doesn't always say. The book would also have benefited from more Republicans giving their side of the picture.
Having said that, this is still a revealing look at which a political campaign feels like from the inside. I recommend it.
For more about me and my stuff, especially Gates of Injustice: The Crisis in America's Prisons (Prentice Hall Paperback), and my novel, The Nazi Hunter: A Novelgo to www.alanelsner.com.

Most campaign accounts are about presidential campaigns. The few books that focus on other races tend to focus on major senate races. The Thumpin' offers something different, a look at the national Congressional campaign of 2006. This is not a book that could or should be written in every election year because most Congressional elections do not have the national effect present here. The book's focusing point is Rahm Emanuel, a colorful personality who has had an extremely successful political career. The book gives Emanuel, and his famous family, some biographical treatment and digs into Emanuel's relationship with his fellow lawmakers.

As a result of organizing around Emanuel and following only him, the book misses the chance to dig deeper into candidates and history. The historical discussion of the role of the DCCC and the NRCC is reduced to only a few paragraphs. The book suggests at various points that Emanuel is a different type of campaign committee chief, but does not offer enough comparisons to really drive home the point. That may be because the author did not do much research beyond the considerable time he spent following Emanuel. The timeline in the book can also be a bit murky, as some anecdotes are dropped in as the book progresses from various times during the campaign.

This cool little book chronicles the work of the man who helped lead the Democrats out of the wilderness and into the promised land of the majority -- Rahm Emanuel. Granted unlimited access to the inner workings of the DCCC and Rahm himself during 2005 and 2006, the book paints a delightful picture of how Rahm was able to help catapult the Dems back into power. I have always been a big fan of Rahm, and knew a good deal about him before reading this book -- he's from Chicago, he was a top aide to Bill Clinton, he uses profanity like you or I use the word "hi", etc -- but being a political junkie, this book looked great and I bought it soon after I heard of it. It is a very quick, fun read, and with the tremendous access Bendavid was given, the book is full of awesome anecdotes about Rahm and the long campaign.

Around when Rham took the reins of the DCCC in 2005, things looked bleak for Democrats. Since 2000 when George Bush edged out Al Gore, the national Democrats have been stuck on the canvas, basically too stunned and too scared to get up and fight the GOP. This problem was compounded by the equally-brutal loses in 2002 and 2004. Coming into the 2006 cycle, Nancy Pelosi wisely tapped the second-term congressman to run the Dems' House campaign arm (the DCCC) to end the bleeding. She believed that the Dems needed their own Tom DeLay -- and ruthless brute dedicated solely to winning -- to finally beat the GOP. She couldn't have been more right. For years, the GOP had been nasty and ruthless in doing whatever it took to win elections. Forgetting Tom DeLay the man, no one can ignore the electoral success he helped engineer cycle after cycle. Rahm is just as smart and just as ruthless, and from the moment he took the helm of the DCCC he was relentless in setting the groundwork to win as many seats as possible.

This singular focus is the book's central theme. All of Rahm's nasty behavior, outbursts, and strategic focus all go back to his goal of trying to win as many seats as he could to get to the magic 15 he needed. Whether it be his many f-bombs at his many enemies, his lack of sentimentality on individuals who weren't top candidates, or his attacks on DNC chair Howard Dean for foolishly squandering resources away from the congressional races, Rahm was consistent in his pursuit of bringing the Dems back into power, and seemed to never stray from his goal.

Besides Rahm himself, the most striking thing in the book was the pace of the campaign itself. It is amazing how Rahm and his staff were able to keep up their 150% pace for nearly two years. The book notes at various points how the campaign had taken its toll on Rahm himself -- weight loss, fatigue, extended separation for his wife and three young children. The pace of it all can be best characterized as frantically organized, I guess.

The Thumpin' is a very interesting book for political junkies, and it provides a lot of inner details and dialogue for what was going on during the congressional campaign in 2006. I think even critics of Rahm should read the book, if for no other reason than to try to gain an appreciation for his hard work. A lot of liberals have criticized Rahm for his tactics as well as his fights with their hero, Howard Dean. Whether or not one likes Rahm's liberal use of the f-word or his hardball treatment of candidates he judged winners or losers, it is impossible to not appreciate his results. In my opinion, he's the party's best strategist - along with Chuck Schumer - and should be given his due. Either way, this is still a really fun political book. I wish Rahm had stayed on for another term at the helm of the DCCC - to win all the remaining districts he barely lost in '06: CT-04, FL-13, NC-08, NM-01, OH-02, OH-15, WY-AL -- but after reading the book, I can understand why he wouldn't want this job again. Besides, duplicating his amazing results from 2006 may be impossible.

This is a thumpin' good read about a turning point in modern American politics. The stakes were big in the 06 elections and the characters, especially the main character Rahm Emanuel, larger than life. All this is vividly portrayed in Bendavid's spare but dramatic narrative.
Theodore (Teddy) White invented this modern genre of political writing (report now, write and publish when the votes are counted) with the Making of the President 1960. I don't know what the late Mr. White would have thought of Rahm Emanuel (probably not his cup of tea), but he would have loved and admired the reporting and writing in this book

Great book! I just finished it and I would love to recommend it for any political junkies.

"The Thumpin" provides a fair amount of insight into how the Democrats, led by Rahm Emanuel, took 30 seats from Republicans in the 2006 election to retake the House (needed only 15). We learn that Emanuel was a hard-driving leader who selected candidates most likely to win, instead of simply passing a litmus test for various Democrat special interest groups. Military veterans, police, and pilots were prized candidates as Emanuel worked to shake the belief that his party was weak on national defense. Emanuel followed up by focusing resources where most likely to lead to victory - instead of Howard Dean's presence in every race strategy.

In the end, however, Emanuel should share credit for the Democrat victory with Republicans - ethics and sex scandals, high gas prices, Katrina blundering, and Iraq weighed mightily on voters.

This is a masterly example of story telling, bringing to life in vivid detail the story of how Democrats scored historic victories and retook control of Congress.

It normally takes years of tedious reconstruction to put together this kind of narrative. The Thumpin is rich with in-the-room anecdotes, true insider insight, and all told in a fast-paced fashion that will have the reader turning the papers like they are reading a thriller.

If you would like to understand how the Democrats fought to regain control of the House, this is a must read! Naftali Bendavid takes us on an expedition that guides us through the machinations of what it takes to win an election. His book is well written and might be the precursor for urgently needed campaign reform. His informative account of Rahm's 22 month journey to win seats in the House was an eye opener into partisan politics. It was startling to realize the enormous amount of money, time, effort and sometimes ruthlessness that was necessary to accomplish his goal. Perhaps Bendavid's next book will illustrate how the Democrats and Republicans - working together - make changes to the election laws. Then both parties may be able to choose the most qualified committed candidates, not necessarily individuals who have the ability to raise money. Or is that fictional?