Mark Leibovich

One of my major gripes during the last election (an election Trump insists was fraudulent - I agree, let's do it over) was the myopia of the Washington media who spent the entire election cycle talking to each other and refusing to examine the obvious currents of dissatisfaction with Washington and the "elites" who reside there and run the country. (They all read and absorb "Playbook" produced by Mike Allen - read the essays to understand what that is and why it's important.)

Leibovich, who show more writes for the Times, specializes in writing profiles of those in Washington. He's more self-aware than some others about where he fits in the Washington swamp, but his insights into the relationship between the media and Washington insiders and how residing there affects them and their lives are valuable. This book is an older collection of those essays. They remain relevant and interesting. The profile of Glenn Beck is particularly interesting and revealing on how and why Beck is the way he is. His show on Fox was known in the ad world as "empty calories: he draws great ratings but is toxic to ad sales."

The mnemonic techniques of Andrew Card, patterned after that of a 16th century monk, are startling to say the least. I have read of other people who create "castles" of the mind where memories are stored for easy retrieval; Card uses a kitchen with some things in the freezer, others on one of the burners, etc.

Even though some of the essays are more than a decade old, the comments and profiles are as fresh as if there were written yesterday. His comments on campaigning and the relationship between reporters (badgered by the 24/7 news cycle and bored to tears by the candidates' canned speeches) and the candidates are just as pertinent today as they were 10 years ago. "Politics is not about objective reality, but about virtual reality . . . an infinitely revisable [and risible] docudrama."

Some fun quotes: "Chris Matthews is trapped in a tired caricature" "The demise of the cable blow-hard" "Rick Santorum is like Forrest Gump with an attitude." His essay on fakery in Washington and pretending to have read the "Economist" is priceless. show less

I returned from vacation to discover the Washington Post -- a major character in a book I finished, _This Town_ -- was sold for $250 million in cash to Jeff Bezos.

_This Town_ is mostly about the WaPo's main competitor, Politico, and the destruction it has wreaked on the cloistered world of Washington DC. But not just Politico -- the entire class of politicians using public service as a springboard to lobbying millions and how a trickle has become a flood. No longer do people get elected to show more public office to serve in public office. Now they get elected to public office for fame, for hanging out in television show green rooms, for cash, for bribes, for parties, for recognition, and to appear, yes, in the daily emailed letters from Politico.

The best way to read _This Town_ is to pretend all the characters in the story are fictional. Otherwise, the temptation to throw the book into the sea becomes so great it overwhelms the senses and over the side of the boat it goes. The people are, for the most part, horrible people and they are horrible a-politically -- _This Town_ does not subscribe to any left-right politics and rare is the political book who treats all the horrible people with equal even-handedness. They are all horrible, regardless where they fall on the political spectrum. It's best to pretend because otherwise reality is too awful.

A few of the characters in the book are exactly as they are on the tin: Haley Barbour (who clearly played along extensively with the author), Darrell Issa, Bill Clinton, Trent Lott. A few come out looking better than you would expect: Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Paul Ryan. But the rest -- the status seekers and the money seekers and the party goers and the insecure politicians -- are a horrible class of people with varying degrees of terrible.

And then there's Barack Obama for whom I left with a very confused picture -- just like everyone else on earth, apparently. He's a man who hates the DC game and refuses to play and is endlessly frustrated by the insistence of everyone around him to play instead of getting down to the hard wonkish business of government. He feels like a man trapped in a glass box. He wants to be there but everyone around him would rather be at a cocktail party in Georgetown. What is a President to do?

I greatly enjoyed _This Town_. It's a refreshing break from the pointless back and forth of the blogs and twitter and Facebook and "winning the cycle" to walk through Washington as it is today with no agenda. I got more out of this book than I have out of a 1,000 hours of reading various op-eds and "serious" journalistic pieces. I was left with a healthy hatred for Politico (and Terry McAuliffe and Dirk Gephardt), a worry about the sanity for the staffers who inhabit the halls of power like tiny ants, and a resignation at the Gilded Age-era rotating door between Congress and enormous lobby firms -- excuse me, "strategic consultants."

If you want to understand the news, read _This Town_. But don't read it on a full stomach. show less

There are few things I care less about than Washington DC political intrigue. So I am only rating this book on whether I had fun reading it, not if it's accurate, even-handed, "gets Washington" or of my ideological leanings. Because I don't give a heck about any of that.

"This Town" is getting 4 stars from this bear because I had great fun reading it. And the reason is the author's tone. Most books about contemporary politics are either embarrassingly self-involved (i.e. they can't imagine show more why you don't care who the Deputy Director of the FCC is to the extent they never bother explaining why you should care) or strident as a default setting that can't be turned off (I have a point, I'm going to shout it in your ear, then I'm going to say the opposite of my point in blood libel because I think being "controversial" really means being authentic. it actually means being an asshole). Mr. Leibovich instead is amused, a bit of a wise apple, and separate, at least emotionally, enough from Washington to enjoy it as human comedy while still admitting he benefits from it. And make no mistake, though the author doesn't say so much, all of the money in lobbying and political media and consulting that we find so odious has turned Washington DC into a desirable place for people to raise families. I'm no fan of gentrification but I don't think anybody is dying for the DC of the 1980s to come back. And we have the explosion of money and jobs in politics to thank for that.

Will you like this book if you don't give 2 figs about politics? If power and human drama fascinate you then yes. If you enjoy "House of Cards," most certainly yes. If you have high-ideals about what goes on in Washington and already find them horribly tarnished then no. Stay away. "This Town" will make you mad.

You can have politics. I won't miss it. THerefore, "This TOwn" was a great fun, laugh riot for me. I'd read a whole other book just like it. And still not miss politics when you took them. show less

If you needed any reason to be cynical about American politics--especially nationally--then Mark Leibovich's This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral -- plus plenty of valet parking! -- in America's Gilded Capital is the book for you.

I guarantee that you will not put it down with a breath single breath of hope and optimism about the future of our country. Unless, of course, you're one of the few wealthy or connected enough to be one of the elites.

That or a journalist. Because to hear Leibovich show more tell it in this highly entertaining look at America's capital, journalists have become accomplices to the what happens there. Instead of America's Fourth Estate providing a check on the corruption, they have drunk from the Kool-Aid and drunk deeply.

I didn't pick up This Town because I am disillusioned, though certainly provides plenty of fodder for those who have lost faith in the fair and transparent workings of government. Certainly, the same trends that have led to Donald Trump's rise to the top of national polls can be seen in the descriptions that Leibovich gives. Rather, I read it from the perspective of a political junkie, and Leibovich fills This Town with stories, anecdotes, and miscellany that should interest any political observer. At times I felt like a driver slowly passing a bad accident on the interstate, unable to tear my eyes away. At the same time, it was hard to forget that, as an American, I am a passenger in the wreck.

As a resident of the capitol, and a journalist himself, Liebovich is as much a member of the club as he is a critic, and he frankly admits this fact. That said, he seems to pull no punches in framing the lives of the people whose lives are centered on the parties, accolades, and money that make the city churn. The result is an absolutely fascinating, and occasionally disturbing, read. show less