WAR WITHOUT BLOODSHED: The Art of Politics [Hardcover]

Eleanor Clift (Author), Tom Brazaitis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 3, 1996

Two seasoned journalists use the motivations and methods of key political types in Washington--pollster, lobbyist, committee chairman, opposition leader, legislative aide, Congressman--to examine the ways in which Washington politics really work. 50,000 first printing. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Welcome to the trenches of political combat. Eleanor Clift, a contributing editor at Newsweek and liberal voice on the "McLaughlin Group," and her husband, Tom Brazaitis, a columnist for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, navigate the converging headwaters of Washington politics to show how the game is and has been played. They target the failed health-care reform initiative of the Clinton Administration as their prime case study, detailing how polling, media, lobbyists and downright bullheaded elected officials derail the process. They also portray eight political professionals in this essential text for politics in the 1990s.

From Publishers Weekly

The authors are Washington insiders: Clift, contributing editor to Newsweek and a McLaughlin Group weekly TV panelist, and her husband, Brazaitis, Cleveland Plain Dealer Washington bureau chief. To illustrate how real power in Washington is wielded, they offer personal profiles, by turns trenchant and predictable, of eight powerful individuals. "[Newt] Gingrich could not escape his past. The ruthless way that he had achieved his position would forever color the way he was perceived," they write of the House Speaker. "A streak of anarchy runs through [Daniel Patrick] Moynihan's dark Irish soul. He wants to tear down everything he has built" is their take on the Democratic senator from New York and former Senate Finance Committee chairman. Clinton's defeated health-care plan shadows the profiles of hospital industry lobbyist Michael Bromberg and independent insurance agents' lobbyist Paul Equale, who helped defeat the plan, and presidential pollster Stanley Greenberg, who urged the embattled White House to give up on health care and overhaul welfare instead. Also profiled are pollster Frank Luntz, California Congresswoman Maxine Waters and ex-Democrat Sheila Burke, now Senator Bob Dole's chief of staff. An appendix details political action committee contributions to candidates and predicts that, with these committees shifting most of their support to Republicans, the Democrats will be hard-pressed to regain a majority. Photos. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First Printing edition (June 3, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684800845
• ISBN-13: 978-0684800844
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,200,067 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading for Politicos, March 4, 2003

By 

Hunter Baker "Hunter Baker" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: War Without Bloodshed (Paperback)

"War Without Bloodshed" is a truly outstanding book about American politics. By opening a window into the lives of different Washington players like Newt Gingrich (the speaker), Daniel Patrick Moynihan (the committee chairman), Sheila Burke (the staffer), Frank Luntz (the pollster), and others, the authors give us a sense of the daily goings-on inside the Beltway.

Although Eleanor Clift and her husband are coming from a left of center viewpoint, the information they pass on to the reader is not overly shaded by their biases. Having watched Ms. Clift on television's "The McLaughlin Group", I would never have imagined she was capable of producing such a well-balanced and insightful account. The book is a pleasant surprise and is another candidate for the required reading list of college government classes.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More than solid review of politics in America, June 22, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: War Without Bloodshed (Paperback)

Here, the authors make a successful attempt to make a book on the inner workings of our political system.

Here, we see much of the recent occurances in Washington - the health care, social, economic and political debates which can change our lives in enormous ways. The ideologies of all parties involved is also well defined here.

This is for anyone who simply likes - or loves - politics or political history.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Examines the political system by examining key players, February 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: WAR WITHOUT BLOODSHED: The Art of Politics (Hardcover)

This book examines "the system" of politics by looking at how the best of the best preform their jobs within the system. It is a nice book for people who are studying the inner workings of Capital Hill because it is not policy heavy, but rather the methods of the individuals described heavy. The book also helps one understand how people involved in the art of politics think and tackle their work.