Tommy the Cork: Washington's Ultimate Insider from Roosevelt to Reagan

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Summary: Tommy the Cork: Washington's Ultimate Insider from Roosevelt
Review: In 1931, a young lawyer from Rhode Island with middle-class, Irish Catholic roots came to Washington to clerk for Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. He had earned among the highest grades ever attained at Harvard Law School and possessed a force of personality to match his intellect. Corcoran would become the most important and valued strategist in FDR's inner circle, and after leaving government he would become one of the driving forces in modern lobbying and influence peddling as we know it." "Corcoran was the first "super-lobbyist," the first person to fully appreciate how World War II changed Washington, the first person to fully understand the symbiotic relationship between the executive branch, the Congress, and corporate America. Corcoran knew how to size people up, apply leverage, and call in - to devastating effect - the favors he liberally spread around town. Yet despite his lasting influence, his fascinating story has never before been told. Drawing on sources ranging from FBI wiretaps to interviews with family members, author David McKean traces Corcoran's career from his early days with Holmes and FDR to his behind-the-scenes orchestration of President Eisenhower's intervention in Guatemala." "Corcoran's life is peppered with political luminaries, including Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., Henry Luce, Evita Peron, and Lyndon Johnson. McKean's account also tells the story of Corcoran's twenty-year romantic relationship with the exotic power broker Anna Chan Chennault, a champion of conservative Republican causes. Anyone interested in the history of Washington's inner workings and tales of political intrigue will find this story irresistible

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Summary: Not just for the "inside the Beltway" crowd
Review: It is somewhat surprising that it has taken this long to get a full-length biography of Thomas Corcoran, who along with Benjamin V. Cohen was responsible for much of the New Deal legislative program. After his government service, Corcoran pioneered in developing a highly influential legislative representation practice, concocting a unique mixture of law, politics and corporate America that continued until the late 1970's. The book is a fair assessment of Corcoran, covering both his virtues and his flaws. As to the latter category, the chapter on "Lobbying the Court" recounts in a dispassionate fashion the episode where Corcoran was accused of having gone over the ethical line in dealing with Justice Black on a pending case. The chapters dealing with Corcoran's clerkship with Justice Holmes, the Court Packing episode, and the drafting of key pieces of New Deal legislation are particularly effective. But there is much more of interest here as well: Corcoran's involvement with a whole cast of Washington characters including FDR, Jim Farley, Truman, Justices Douglas and Frankfurter, Eisenhower, Anna Chennault, LBJ, Nixon and Abe Fortas to name just a few. The book does a fine job in filling the gap in our political history that resulted from the absence of Corcoran getting his biographical due. The book also nicely complements William Lasser's recent biography of Benjamin V. Cohen. Corcoran and Cohen together again!