Robert Draper - Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives
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Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives: summary, description and annotation
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Robert Draper explores this question just as he examined the Bush White House in his 2007 New York Times bestselling book Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bushby burrowing deeply inside the subject, gaining cooperation of the major players, and producing a colorful, unsparingly detailed, but evenhanded narrative of how the House of Representatives became a house of ill repute. Drapers cast of characters spans the full spectrum of political experience and ideologiesfrom the Democrat Dingell, a congressman since 1955 (though elbowed out of power by the partys House leader, Nancy Pelosi), to Allen West, a black Republican Tea Party sensation, former Army lieutenant colonel, and political neophyte with a talent for equal opportunity offending. While unspooling the boisterous, at times tragic, and ultimately infuriating story of the 112th Congress, Draper provides unforgettable portraits of Gabrielle Giffords, the earnest young Arizona congresswoman who was gunned down by a madman at the beginning of the legislative session; Anthony Weiner, the Democrats clown prince and self-made media star until the New Yorker self-immolated in a sex scandal; the strong-willed Pelosi and her beleaguered if phlegmatic Republican counterpart, House Speaker John Boehner; the affable majority whip, Kevin McCarthy, tasked with instilling team spirit in the iconoclastic freshmen; and most of all, the previously unknown new members who succeeded in shoving Boehners Republican Conference to the far right and thereby bringing the nation, more than once, to the brink of governmental shutdown or economic default.
In this lively work of political narrative, Draper synthesizes some of the most talked-about breaking news of the day with the real story of what happened behind the scenes. This book is a timely and masterfully told parable of dysfunction that may well serve as Exhibit A of how Americans lost faith in their democratic institutions.
***
Congress will rise June 1st, as most of us expect. Rejoice when that event is ascertained. If we should finish and leave the world right side up, it will be happy. Do not ask what good we do: that is not a fair question, in these days of faction.Congressman Fisher Ames, May 30, 1796
In Do Not Ask What Good We Do, Robert Draper captures the prophetic sentiment uttered by Fisher Ames over two centuries ago. As he did in writing about President George W. Bush in Dead Certain, Draper provides an insiders book like no one else canthis time, inside the U.S. House of Representatives. Because of the bitterly divided political atmosphere we live in, because of the combative nature of this Congress, this literary window on the backstage machinations of the House is both captivating and timelyrevealing the House in full, from the process of how laws are made (and in this case, not made) to the most eye-popping cast of lawmakers Washington has ever seen.
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ALSO BY ROBERT DRAPER
Hadrians Walls
Rolling Stone Magazine:
The Uncensored History
Dead Certain:
The Presidency of George W. Bush
FREE PRESS
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Copyright 2012 by Robert Draper
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Free Press Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Free Press hardcover edition April 2012
FREE PRESS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
DESIGNED BY ERICH HOBBING
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-4516-4208-7
ISBN 978-1-4516-4210-0 (ebook)
TO MY BROTHER JOHN AND IN MEMORY OF OUR BROTHER ELI
Do not ask what good we do: that is not a fair question, in these days of faction.
U.S. Representative Fisher Ames, member of the First Federal Congress, after concluding that he would not seek a fifth term in the House, May 30, 1796
(in order of appearance)
KEVIN MCCARTHY: Three-term Republican, California, 22nd District, House Majority Whip
PAUL RYAN: Seven-term Republican, Wisconsin, 1st District, chairman of the House Budget Committee, leading GOP voice on economic policy
JEFF DUNCAN: Freshman Republican, South Carolina, 3rd District, former state legislator and real estate auctioneer, rated most conservative House member in 2011 by Heritage Action for America
JOHN DINGELL: Twenty-nine-term Democrat, Michigan, 15th District, dean of the House, former chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee
ALLEN WEST: Freshman Republican, Florida, 22nd District, retired lieutenant colonel, U.S. Army, only Republican member of the Congressional Black Caucus
BLAKE FARENTHOLD: Freshman Republican, Texas, 27th District, former radio talk show cohost
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS: Three-term Democrat, Arizona, 8th District, member of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition
JOHN BOEHNER: Eleven-term Republican, Ohio, 8th District, Speaker of the House
ANTHONY WEINER: Seven-term Democrat, New York, 9th District, New York City mayoral aspirant
NANCY PELOSI: Thirteen-term Democrat, California, 8th District, House Minority Leader, former Speaker
JO ANN EMERSON: Nine-term Republican, Missouri, 8th District, member of the moderate Tuesday Group coalition and Cardinal of the House Appropriations Committee
WALTER JONES: Nine-term Republican, North Carolina, 3rd District, opponent of the war in Afghanistan
SHEILA JACKSON LEE: Nine-term Democrat, Texas, 18th District, liberal member of the Congressional Black Caucus
CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Five-term Democrat, Maryland, 8th District, ranking member of the House Budget Committee, member of the Democrat leadership team
RENEE ELLMERS: Freshman Republican, North Carolina, 2nd District, former intensive care nurse
RAUL LABRADOR: Freshman Republican, Idaho, 1st District, former state legislator and immigration lawyer
Evening, January 20, 2009
You could fit the number of Republicans who were out on the town the night of Barack Obamas inauguration around a single dining room table.
There were about fifteen of them, all white males, plus a few spouses. , an expense-account steakhouse halfway between the White House and the Capitol. A seething winter chill was the least of their discomforts that evening. Nearly a half-million people had begun to congregate on the National Mall on Sunday, January 18, 2009two days before the inauguration. By the time Obama was sworn in on Tuesday, the number had reached 1.8 million. The nations capital had never hosted a crowd that large, not for any reason. Definitely not for the previous president, George W. Bush, who had been jeered that afternoon as a helicopter whisked him off to Texas. Now the occupant of the White House was a Democrat. The House and Senate were controlled by Democrats. Barricades still lined the streets outside, as if at any moment the ruling party might engulf the Caucus Room and finish off what was left of the Republicans.
On such a night, it was a comfort to suffer among friends. Most of themEric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan, Pete Sessions, Jeb Hensarling, Pete Hoekstra, and Dan Lungrenwere members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Five served in the Senate: Jim DeMint, Jon Kyl, Tom Coburn, John Ensign, and Bob Corker. The other three invitees were conservative journalist Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard, former House Speaker (and future presidential candidate) Newt Gingrich, and communications specialist Frank Luntz. Most of them had attended the inauguration. That astounding vista of humanity on the Mall would haunt them more than last Novembers electoral margins. McCarthy, a California congressman who had thus far served only a single term in the House, had made a game effort of viewing the event for the historic moment it was. Hed procured Obamas autograph and even that of Obamas sister. As the unworldly progeny of the Bakersfield working class, Kevin McCarthy had been dazzled to be included in such a tableau. As a Republican, he and the others in the room were devastated.
Luntz had organized the dinnertelling the invitees, Youll have nothing to do that night, and right now we dont matter anyway, so lets all be irrelevant together. He had selected these men because they were among the Republican Partys most energetic thinkersand because they all got along with Luntz, who could be difficult. Three times during the 2008 election cycle, Sean Hannity had thrown him off the set at Fox Studios. The top Republican in the House, Minority Leader John Boehner, had nurtured a dislike of Luntz for more than a decade. No one had to ask why Boehner wasnt at the Caucus Room that evening.
The dinner tables were set up in a square, at Luntzs request, so that everyone could see each other and talk freely. He asked that Gingrich speak first. It was Newt, after all, who had pulled the Republicans out of a far deeper hole fourteen years ago, leading the GOP to a takeover of the House for the first time since 1955.
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