David Silverberg - Congress for Dummies

by David Silverberg

Forewords by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle

Congress For Dummies

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Copyright 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2002110307

ISBN: 978-0-7645-5421-6

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

David Silverberg has covered Congress and congressional politics in one form or another since coming to Washington in 1981.

His first Washington job was as assistant editor of Near East Report, a newsletter affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has been called the most powerful foreign policy lobby in Washington.

As a reporter for weekly newspaper Defense News from 1986 to 1993, he covered congressional activity on defense, diplomacy, commerce and trade matters. As editor-at-large for the monthly magazine Armed Forces Journal International between 1993 and 1997 he created and wrote two popular features called Congressional Watch and Congressional Darts & Laurels.

In June, 1998 Silverberg began editing and publishing his own quarterly magazine, The Journal of Information Policy, the first journal of ideas dedicated to government policymaking in the information age. In May 1999 he sold it to Fed Services Inc.

Today Silverberg is managing editor of The Hill, a weekly newspaper covering Congress with the largest circulation of any Capitol Hill publication. He writes three columns for the paper, on defense, technology and globalization. He also oversaw a redesign of the newspapers Web site and created an electronic e-newsletter on congressional doings called Omens & Portents. The site can be accessed at: www.TheHill.com.

Silverbergs writing has appeared in a wide variety of academic and popular publications and he has appeared on a number of national television and radio programs to discuss policy and politics.

Congress For Dummies is his first book.

Silverberg, his wife June Fletcher, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and their son, Adam, live in Virginias 10th Congressional District.

Dedication

Most book dedications say a book is for someone. They often sound as though the author purchased the book in a store and simply delivered it, dumping it on a desk or the nearest coffee table.

This is my first book and having written it, I now know that writing a book for someone means much more than just delivering a manuscript.

Writing a book for someone means keeping before you a vision of the person for whom youre writing and that vision sustains you through the ordeal of producing the book. But it also means that the person for whom youre writing motivates you to continue through a sometimes long, tedious, and frustrating but ultimately worthwhile process. It means you so want this person to have this product of your labors, and this person so inspires you, that youre willing to endure long hours of writing and research, and forgo beautiful days when youre rather be anywhere than at your desk, and keeps you working through nights when youre dead tired but the deadlines demand extra effort, and make all the sacrifices that a project like this entails. Theres an awful lot of meaning in that simple, three-letter word for.

And so this book is for June, my lovely wife who deserves so much more than Ive given her and who has always been an inspiration and a Muse.

This book is for my son, Adam, who I hope grows up safe, strong, free, and fearless. This is my small effort to improve the world hell inherit.

This book is for my parents, Sidney and Edna, who gave me a belief in political involvement, in social justice, and in government that serves the people. And its for my brother Paul, his wife Nancy, and their children.