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The Power Game : Part 2

The Power Game : Part 2

List Price: $83.95
Your Price: $83.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Interesting but too long with too many anecdotes
Review: "You never get in trouble in politics for lying. You only get in trouble for tellinng the truth." These wise words, from Tip O'Neill, former Speaker of the House, sum up the bottom line of what it takes to stay polotically alive in Washington. Interestingly enough they are quoted almost at the end of "the Power Game" by Hedrick Smith. It is as if Smith wants you to read the entire book before giving you the Grand Finale about what Washington is really like. Hedrick Smith, the author of this bestseller, was a the Washington bureau chief for the Washington Post during the Reagan era and his book gives good inside information about how Washington really works. It goes into details about how the game of power gaining and keeping is really played, what it takes to get something on the Agenda, the influence of the Iron Triangle, the power of special intrests and their lobbies and, not to forget the Iran-Contra affair. He also shines a spotlight on how coalitions are made across party lines and the big influence of the National Security Council. Of course the most important issue is how the use of the Media has changed the way politics are "done" from the old fashioned "breed" of politician with long term ideas to the glitzy, image only, political contender, who talks in soundbites. Smith's style is that of a typical journalist. Not too heady and easy to read. Unfortunately, it seems that the book is written in episodes, beefed up with too many anecdotes. Many "sources" are quoted, making it look more like a gossip column than the work of an expert of Washington DC. An overall better organization of related topics could have served the reader better. The way the book is written the reader has to piece the parts together from different sections in the book. Through vignets about the quircks and character of the people discussed, the reader gets to know the personalies who play the power game. A real conclusion is not given but is left up to the reader to figure out. Also this book requires a very thourough background of knowledge of names of politicians and staff members in the Reagan era and the maze of the numerous committies within the political system. Smith starts in his book with a baffeling discription on what is involved in security measures for a presidential visit. He definitely captures the audience's attention with this. Then he goes on describing how, since Watergate and Nixon's abuse of power, the power structure has changed between the president and congress. "Congress seized for itself the legal authority and the expertise to insure that its challenge to the chief executive would be permanent" (p21) and the House of Representatives created an incredible number of subcommittees for each different sector of national policy. Smith blames the weakening of the parties within themselves and the rapid upcoming importance of the TV as the factors contributing to this change of how politics are played. He takes the year 1974 as the split between the "old breed" of politicians with the "new breed." The rise of TV politics brought with it a wave of "political shamans: the media advisors, political strtegists, pollsters [and] direct mail operatives" (p137) who replaced the old political bosses. "New breed" politicians have learned how to manipulate the media by i.e. waiting for a slow news day for their press releases and counting on the competetiveness of reporters to cover the story. (140) Practices of political "junkmail" to rally up support and personalizing of letters made by assembly line like operations of staff are also exposed in the scope light of Smith. The mention that some politicians even use ink that smudges so it will look like they personally answered the letter is a good illustration of the make-believe world of mass media politics. On the bottom of page 152, Smith quotes David Himes of the National Republican Congressional Commettee saying that"... people's image of a congressman is more important to their vote than his stand on the issues. It is questionable who is to blame for this, the Media, the congresssman, or the voter. In my opinion, it is the voter who does not take the time to investigate in enough. But also some blame could be with the other two who don't cover the issues enough. Within congress is a group of scrupulous protesters who make up the Dissident Triangle, according to Smith. These are the congressmen who fight for effectiveness and efficiency within the operations of the Pentagon. One mentioned is Denny Smith of Oregon. Interestingly enough it seems that his motiviation to object to defective weaponry for the military stems from his being a former Air Force officer. He knows from experience what is needed and how the military works on the inside. His realism caused me a few moments of trust in the system and a sigh of relief. Smith goes in his next session into the "old breed" of lobbying and the "new breed" of lobbying. The new breed seems to be more backed up by grass roots activism. However money still oils the machine which seems to need more and more in order to produce the same effect. Activism is also practiced among the staff on Capitol Hill. Staffers are by no means powerless. On page 283 Smith quotes a member of the House of representatives as saying:"....I never thought I'd give up that much power voluntarily" to staff members."

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Thumbs Down
Review: As a non-American, interested in US politics, Smith's book is a more than useful insight into how Washington politics works - the deals, counter deals, and a good examiniation of the machinery that makes it all works. Smith stays away from the personalities, and concentrates on the machinery and plotical strcutures and systems, and how they all interact (and some cases how they don't) and it all reveals a complex but continually fascinating political system.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: There's something rotten in The District of Columbia!
Review: Ever wondered why as soon as a candidate takes office, their campaign promises seem to become the first casualty of their incumbency? The Power Game explains this and many other things about that plodding leviathan we call the US Government. I have never read a better book about the inner working of Washington. Nor have I ever read a better argument for campaign reform.

Kendrick Smith has spent more time wandering the corridors of power than most politicians and he sees their twists and turns with a cartographers eye. The message of this book is simple; once you've obtained a position of power it takes consistent and conserted effort to maintain it. the ultimate victim of this constant power stuggle is, of course, democratic process. After reading this book you can't help but feel that our elected officials are minor players compared to the monied interests that consistently make their decisions for them.

If you want to understand what your representatives are doing or where your tax dollars are going- this is the best primer you can get; It's honest, detailed, unbiased and very informative.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not Government 101
Review: Forget everything you were ever taught or told about how government works. Rick Smith has captured the reality. Though it was written about Washington much of The Power Game is also true of state and sometimes even local government. A must read for anyone with an interest in government or politics.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Inside Guide
Review: Perhaps a political science classic - Hedrick Smith provides an insightful glimpse not only into Washington's political scene but offers a phenomenal analysis of politics and power itself. he presents why so much of the system has become so cumbersome and complex as people fight for power and control of various aspects. He describes PACs and lobbying groups and their impact on the political system.

He also describes how the various players in Wahsington have grown over time. Take this interesting tidbit from the book: Journalists: 1,522 were acredited to Congrssional press galleries in 1961 and 5,250 in 1987; the 1980 census showed 12,612 journalists citywide. When Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan in 1945, I was told, he broke the news to the entire White House press corps - twenty-five reporters. By mid-1987, some 1,708 people had regular White House press passes. So enormous had the wider political community grown - lobbyists, lawyers, journalists, policy think tanks, defense or health consultants, and the hotels, offices, accountants, resterautns, and the service industries that support them - that by 1979 this whole nongovernmental sector actually outnumbered federal government employees in Washington!

Other fascinating facts like that are found throughout the book helping to maintin the interest of the reader. If you want to read a book about Washington, politics and the ultimate Power Game, this is the one for you. You won't be disappointed.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Pig Circus On The Potomac
Review: Talk about your weighty tomes. Hedrick Smith's "The Power Game" takes on the story of politics in Washington, D.C., circa the 1980s. Not only does he dig into every subject imaginable, like the importance of staffers, the intricacies of foreign policy work, and the behemoth of defense spending, but he takes more than 700 pages doing so.

"The Power Game" works best as a series of anecdotes about political life, and the passions that ran riot across the national landscape at various times in the second half of the 20th century. Smith gets some tremendous candor from many of his subjects, like former Massachusetts senator Paul Tsongas, who tells Smith that his "substantive work" suffered most when he was most in the public spotlight. "I was probably a lesser senator when my numbers were going up," Tsongas confesses.

There's great anecdotes about presidential power, too. The book begins with preparations to convert a senator's rambler-style ranch house into a bunker as Ronald Reagan plans a sleepover there, and then dovetails into an account of the symbolic importance of the office. Smith's style is to present such an anecdote at the start of each chapter or section, then offer some insights and overview.

The anecdotes are great, like the one that features Lesley Stahl anchoring a CBS attack piece on Reagan. After, she gets a call from a White House senior official. She expects a tirade, but instead the guy thanks her. Stahl's acid commentary was aired over image after image of Reagan in carefully staged feel-good set pieces, sort of by way of ironic contrast. But the senior official told Stahl no one cared what she said, it was the images that would resonate with the viewer, and those images supported Reagan. Alas, to her chagrin, he was right.

The problem I have is with the analysis and overview. At times Smith is very dry, writing at length about congressional backroom games, staff work, and supplemental appropriations in a way that's probably too elementary for the poly sci student and too dull for everyone else. Elsewhere, he is just wrong, nowhere more so than when he talks about the presidency as a debilitated institution. He discourses on such things as the Democratic control of Congress and the dominance of PAC money as if they are things that will always be with us, when time has shown him wrong.

The last chapter is the book's weakest, not because Smith attempts to offer prescriptions for the ills he ably depicts in the rest of the book, but for the "this could work, but then again..." tone he takes as he offers them up. Smith is a typical reporter; he wants to find fault but not commit himself to anything that smacks of a solution, since his inner cynic tells him such nostrums only bite you back in the end.

There's a great book about Ronald Reagan and his impact on D.C. in "The Power Game" which I sort of wish Smith had hacked from the rest of this book and released in its stead. Smith is no fan of Reagan, but he's a keenly perceptive critic, not blindly partisan but very mainstream media in his generic liberal disdain. He makes some strong points about Reagan's less-than-positive legacy on the economic front, specifically by channeling the artful turncoat David Stockman, who ran the numbers for the early Reagan budgets, then turned around and told everyone Reagan was just in business to give tax breaks to the wealthy. Reagan also got run around by Congress more than popular history remembers, and Smith is there with the play-by-play.

But did Reagan's first term in office see less growth in the national economy than the lone term of his predecessor, Jimmy Carter? Smith says so, but I sure don't remember it that way. He also lambastes Reagan for things that history proved him right on, like his handling of the Soviets, the Contras, and tax relief, and for Star Wars, where the jury is still out. By the end, Smith has worked up such a head of steam that he lumps Reagan and Kennedy alongside Carter, Ford, Nixon, and Johnson as failed presidents. [Here's a clue: When they name a major airport after a president, it probably means he did something right.]

The problem is that the premise of "The Power Game," that Congress is winning, is flawed. Since Smith keeps hitting on that point, it keeps sounding a false note.

But Smith is a solid journalist, and at its best, which it frequently is, "The Power Game" is a fine inside-the-Beltway account of what went on in Washington during a time of great change. In some ways, the book is valuable historical reading as much for what it gets wrong as for what it gets right.


Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very good
Review: This book should be required reading for undergraduates alongside a good American Government textbook. As opposed to textbook description of our governmental process, Smith's book digs a little deeper to describe how American government - and politics - really works. It is big but fairly readable. There are some flaws: the book is a bit dated as it was written in the late 80s (e.g. Smith talks about the problems of PACs in campaign but today's problem is soft money); there are a surprisingly decent number of typos and editing oversights; finally, like I mentioned, it is a large book and at some points, few as they are, where the book drags. At the least, a good teacher could use the book and pull out certain chapters that are more pertinent. ENJOY!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not Government 101
Review: Though he talks a little too much about the Redskins, this one is still worth studying in the classroom.


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