Club Fed

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Informed and depressing is this survey of Capitol Hill by a reporter who has covered Congress for National Public Radio and is a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times. Thomas foreshadows his text with the introductory remark that ``Washington, which began as a swamp, has never lost touch with its roots.'' He then builds his argument that the chief interest of all members of Congress is not passing laws but getting reelected. The best way to insure long tenures for themselves is to procure money and/or projects for their states and districts. Newer members must kowtow to older, who in turn are adept at making their committee members kowtow to them. This all takes place in a crime-ridden capital where murder is not uncommon. Thomas suggests ways to improve this state of affairs but doubts that anything will be done, because Congress is ``a closed and protected society.'' Photos not seen by PW. Author tour. (Oct.)

Library Journal

Just when you think Congress-bashing has reached a new high in the media, along comes Club Fed, a book full of material that one would expect to find in the National Enquirer. The author, a journalist with extensive reporting experience on the Hill, seems bent on stirring popular passions against Congress by employing the most inflammatory language possible to describe each event or activity he relates. His mix of facts with extremely jaundiced and cynical interpretations of congressional representatives at work and play will leave the reader wondering whether communism might not be such a bad alternative after all. He provides little in the way of context or explanation of congressional rules-formal or informal-so that the reader can make informed, independent judgments, and he appears to make no effort to be objective or balanced. This book has little redeeming value and cannot be recommended; however, Rush Limbaugh will certainly find much to quote from here.-Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Gilbert Taylor

The scandal-ridden Congress, impervious to reform and as imperial as ever, supplies grist galore for gripers of all stripes. When polls regularly show that three-fourths of us hold the place in minimal high regard, and yet nothing changes, what's left to do but read it and weep? Thomas regales readers with a series of familiar malfeasances from the past few years with the only solace that's left: humor. Describing the place as one that rewards acolytes, not apostates, Thomas walks through the Hill culture as it "orients" new members and turns them into full-time fund-raising media hounds. The Names keep hanging around--like Packwood and Frank, pillars of sexual improprieties, hetero- and homo- respectively--while losers can turn into winners, as in the case of Democratic Representative Tony Coelho, who, though forced out in a bond scandal five years ago, is back inside the Beltway as a fund-raiser and political fixer for his party. Thomas is just as alert to the revolving doors that Republicans spin for their favored lobbyists, too, and points out that even convicted felons won't go away (see, for instance, John Mack, the Hill staffer who viciously slashed a woman, and the better-known Marion Barry, the crack-smoking ex-mayor currently on the comeback trail). Amusingly critical and familiar to NPR listeners, Thomas and his litany of horror stories will definitely bend the ears of the talk radio crowd.