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The Strange and Scary Tribes that Run Our Government
Doubleday
January 2008
On Sale: December 26, 2007
288 pages
ISBN: 0385517505
EAN: 9780385517508
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Political
Washingtonรขโฌโขs most acerbic (and feared) columnist, the Washington Postรขโฌโขs Dana Milbank, skewers the peculiar and alien tribal culture of politics. Deep within the forbidding land encircled by the Washington Beltway lives the tribe known as Homo politicus. Their ways are strange, even repulsive, to civilized human beings; their arcane rites often impenetrable; their language coded and obscure. Violating their complex taboos can lead to sudden, harsh, and irrevocable punishment. Normal Americans have long feared Homo politicus, with good reason. But fearless anthropologist Dana Milbank has spent many years immersed in the dark heart of Washington, D.C., and has produced this indispensable portrait of a bizarre culture whose tribal ways are as hilarious as they are outrageous. Milbankรขโฌโขs anthropological lens is highly illuminating, whether examining the mating rituals of Homo politicus (which have little to do with traditional concepts of romantic love), demonstrating how status is displayed in the Beltwayรขโฌโขs rigid caste system (such as displaying a wooden egg from the White House Easter Egg Roll) or detailing the precise ritual sequence of human sacrifice whenever a scandal erupts (the human sacrificed does not have to be the guiltiest party, just the lower ranked). Milbankรขโฌโขs lacerating wit mows down the pompous, the stupid, and the corrupt among Democrats, Republicans, reporters, and bureaucrats by naming names. Every appalling anecdote in this book is, alas, true.
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