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A timely and tremendously important book that finally explains how Washington really works today, and why it works so badly.
Knopf
February 2010
On Sale: February 2, 2010
432 pages
ISBN: 0307385884
EAN: 9780307385888
Paperback
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Non-Fiction
The startling story of the monumental growth of lobbying in
Washington, D.C., and how it undermines effective government
and pollutes our politics. A true insider, Robert G. Kaiser has monitored American
politics for The Washington Post for nearly half a
century. In this sometimes shocking and always riveting
book, he explains how and why, over the last four decades,
Washington became a dysfunctional capital. At the heart of
his story is money--money made by special interests using
campaign contributions and lobbyists to influence government
decisions, and money demanded by congressional candidates to
pay for their increasingly expensive campaigns, which can
cost a staggering sum. In 1974, the average winning campaign
for the Senate cost $437,000; by 2006, that number had grown
to $7.92 million. The cost of winning House campaigns grew
comparably: $56,500 in 1974, $1.3 million in 2006.
Politicians’ need for money and the willingness, even
eagerness, of special interests and lobbyists to provide it
explain much of what has gone wrong in Washington. They have
created a mutually beneficial, mutually reinforcing
relationship between special interests and elected
representatives, and they have created a new class in
Washington, wealthy lobbyists whose careers often begin in
public service. Kaiser shows us how behavior by public
officials that was once considered corrupt or improper
became commonplace, how special interests became the
principal funders of elections, and how our biggest national
problems--health care, global warming, and the looming
crises of Medicare and Social Security, among others--have
been ignored as a result. Kaiser illuminates this
progression through the saga of Gerald S. J. Cassidy, a Jay
Gatsby for modern Washington. Cassidy came to Washington in
1969 as an idealistic young lawyer determined to help feed
the hungry. Over the course of thirty years, he built one of
the city’s largest and most profitable lobbying firms and
accumulated a personal fortune of more than $100 million.
Cassidy’s story provides an unprecedented view of lobbying
from within the belly of the beast.
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