By
Emily Cahn, John Bicknell
| May 14, 2012, Midnight
Former Sen. Arlen Specter's autobiography laments what he considers to be the death of the political center and points fingers at his former GOP colleagues and tea party activists for the partisan divide now gripping Congress.
Richard E. Cohen
| May 8, 2012, Midnight
New York publishing houses have recently issued two books that focus on how the House has performed since the Republicans’ dramatic 63-seat takeover in November 2010. Each is a thin volume that focuses on the first several months of last year, with less-than-glowing assessments.
By
John Bicknell
| April 30, 2012, Midnight
Conservative author Jonah Goldberg busts liberal myths in "The Tyranny of Clichés."
By
Aaron Guerrero
| April 16, 2012, Midnight
The author of two self-published books, Robert Pohl released his latest effort, “Wicked Capitol Hill: An Unruly History of Behaving Badly,” last week. The book chronicles some of Capitol Hill’s most legendary scandals, ranging from duels to murder to sex.
By
John Bicknell
| March 26, 2012, Midnight
In his 1991 biography of Jefferson Davis, noted Civil War historian William C. Davis wrote that the future Confederate president’s years as U.S. secretary of War “generated nothing we remember or care about today.” Davis the historian is one of my favorite writers, but in this case, he was dead wrong about Davis the secretary of War.
By
Aaron Guerrero
| March 19, 2012, Midnight
It’s little secret that many Members of Congress like to write. Some begin working on their books while in office, churning out pages in between committee meetings or trips back to their districts. Others don’t even contemplate writing a book until the twilight of their careers or years removed from it.
By
John Bicknell
| March 5, 2012, Midnight
One wonders what might have happened to the notion of liberal Republicanism if its identity had been linked to President Dwight Eisenhower rather than New York Gov. and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller.
Richard E. Cohen
| Feb. 15, 2012, Midnight
Describing the period from 1977 to 1980 as that of “The Last Great Senate” — as Ira Shapiro has titled his new book — does not immediately connect with popular memories of that era.
Kenny Ames
| Jan. 31, 2012, Midnight
Scott Farris has a personal perspective on losing. In 1998, as the Democratic nominee for Wyoming’s lone House seat, he was handily defeated by former Rep. Barbara Cubin.
John Bicknell and Eugene Mulero
| Jan. 26, 2012, Midnight
Sometimes it seems like American politics has been reduced to the tea party vs. Occupy Wall Street. Author Linda Killian would like to posit a different scenario: independent voters who can bring both ends toward the center.
By
John Bicknell
| Jan. 9, 2012, Midnight
There is talk that President Barack Obama plans to reprise President Harry Truman’s strategy from the 1948 campaign and run against the “do-nothing Congress.” After reading David Pietrusza’s “1948: Harry Truman’s Improbable Victory and the Year That Transformed America,” count me as skeptical.
Niels Lesniewski
| Nov. 30, 2011, Midnight
Quirky. Odd. Dilettante. Those are some of the words used to describe the late Claiborne Pell, who came to the Senate in 1961 and stayed until 1996.
By
John Bicknell
| Oct. 25, 2011, Midnight
In “Prisoner of Conscience: One Man’s Crusade for Global Human and Religious Rights,” Rep. Frank Wolf recounts instances in which words sometimes failed and sometimes made a difference.
By
John Bicknell
| Oct. 18, 2011, Midnight
“Believe in America: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth” is the work of a frontrunner.
By
Jason Dick
| Oct. 12, 2011, Midnight
It takes a brave politician to talk about his hair implants. But the late Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.) didn’t stop at that. In 1973, his book “You Can Do It! Senator Proxmire’s Exercise, Diet and Relaxation Plan” laid out in excruciating detail his own attempts to go against the grain and get physically fit.
By
John Bicknell
| Oct. 12, 2011, Midnight
“This Is Herman Cain!” (yes, with an exclamation point, like a Broadway musical) is optimistically subtitled: “My Journey to the White House.” No one can accuse Cain of undue pessimism.
By
John Bicknell
| Sept. 21, 2011, Midnight
The most important word spoken in the CNN/Tea Party Republican presidential debate this month was not “Ponzi.” It was “we.” In Rick Perry’s “Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America From Washington,” it’s pretty clear that the Texas governor and debate moderator Wolf Blitzer aren’t talking about the same “we.”
By
John Bicknell
| Sept. 8, 2011, Midnight
American politics is replete with practitioners who preach honest politics while failing to practice it. Thomas Brackett Reed of Maine, late-19th-century Speaker and the subject of James Grant’s winning new biography, “Mr. Speaker! The Life and Times of Thomas B. Reed,” was the opposite.
By
John Bicknell
| Sept. 7, 2011, Midnight
The 9/11 Commission Report was that rarest of documents produced by a government body: People actually read it. It is the search for answers that stands at the heart of the success of the report, both in a stylistic and a popular sense.
By
John Bicknell
| Aug. 17, 2011, 4:30 p.m.
In this secular age, the idea of a Senator writing what amounts to a guidebook for observing the Sabbath might seem more than a little out of the ordinary. But Joe Lieberman has never seemed to mind being perceived as standing a bit off the beaten path.
