When the Tea Party Came to Town
Inside the U.S. House of Representatives' Most Combative, Dysfunctional, and Infuriating Term in Modern History
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
When the Tea Party Came to Town demonstrates Robert Draper’s uncanny ability to ferret out news-making tidbits and provides us with the first look at this game-changing Congress—sure to be a classic work.
In When the Tea Party Came to Town, Robert Draper delivers the definitive account of what may turn out to be the worst congressional term in United States history. As he did in writing about President George W. Bush in Dead Certain, Draper burrows deep inside his subject, gaining cooperation from the major players, and provides an insider’s book like no one else can—a colorful, unsparingly detailed, but evenhanded narrative of how the House of Representatives became a house of ill repute. Because of the bitterly divided political atmosphere in which we live, this literary window on the backstage machinations of the House of Representatives is both captivating and timely—revealing 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First United States Congress member Fisher Ames couldn't have known how poignant his admonishment to "not ask what good we do" would become in light of the abysmally ineffective 112th Congress, particularly the House of Representatives, controlled by the GOP and with 96 freshman 87 of them Republicans on its contentious roster. Plagued by an embarrassing 9% approval rating and a startlingly low passage of bills, the current House has also suffered from the personal tragedies and mistakes of its members, particularly the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords in 2011 and Anthony Weiner's sexting scandal. Indeed, Draper focuses on the lives of Representatives from both parties inside and outside the House, and details the incredibly dynamic interpersonal politics that are the hallmark and the bane of a truly democratic institution. Characterized by the same level of detail and evenhandedness that suffused 2008's Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush, Draper's newest is an in-depth look behind the scenes of what 29-term Representative John Dingell called "the most human institution on the planet."
