A Muse N' Washington: Beltway Ballads and Beyond : Fifth Years of Politics and Other Pleasures in Poetry, Prose and Song - Softcover

Symington, James W.

9781571971425: A Muse N' Washington: Beltway Ballads and Beyond : Fifth Years of Politics and Other Pleasures in Poetry, Prose and Song

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1571971424 ISBN 13: 9781571971425

Publisher: Ivy House Pub Group, 1999

"Jim Symington is a living oxymoron: a good Democrat, a trustworthy lawyer, an amateur musician people really want to hear, and a humorist who doesn't hurt. To this dark age of politics he brings light, laughter, and understanding. A MUSE is a MUST!"
-President George Bush

"With a wit that warms but never scalds, Jim Symington has kept Washington smiling through its tears for nearly four decades. History in poetic amber is the gift of his 'Muse!'"
-Senator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyoming)

"Erudition, humor, artistry, joy, insight, wit and wisdom for the ages are the seven lively virtues that billow their sails through many of these pages!"
-Ralph Nader, President, Center for the Study of Responsive Law

"Jim has been delighting his friends with his lyrics and his prose for so long, we have wondered why he hasn't gone public. Probably the reason is that his friends and the public are co-extensive. Still, now they're yours to keep!" -William F. Buckley, Jr., Host, Firing Line, PBS-TV; Founder and Editor, National Review

"There is about these verses a whiff of Nash, and balderdash, and surely Dorothy Parker; rhythms Kipling, laughter rippling, and yes, a circus barker. These nimble lines, like fine wines, ought to be tasted and never wasted. Uncork the wines! Relish the lines!"
-Jack Valenti, President, Motion Picture Association of America

"Jimmy Symington is an attorney and poet and is redeemed by the latter. It's too bad more Washington lawyers are not witty balladeers. It would certainly liven up Talent Night at your average minimum security prison."
-Mark Russell, Political Humorist and Entertainer

"My St. Bernard's School classmate, Jim Symington's promising career in arts and letters, having been tragically interrupted by forty years of law practice and government service, has re-emerged for the benefit of that most deserving of crowds-mankind!"
-George Plimpton, Actor, Writer, and Sportsman

"I warned Jim Symington that if he didn't stop writing poetry I would leave Washington. He wrote on. President Johnson told him that if he didn't stop writing poetry he would not run for re-election. On he wrote ... All for the sake of art and wit and the wisdom herein. Read, therefore, at your own risk!"
-Bill Moyers, White House Press Secretary, Reporter, and Television Commentator

"Not much authentic wit comes forth from American officialdom, but for many years Jimmy Symington has livened up State Dinners and Air Force One with his 'inside the loop' verse on national figures and national issues ... I would love to steal his every line."
-Liz Carpenter, Aide to President Johnson

"Jim Symington, along with his public career of distinction, has served as Washington's ex-officio poet laureate. Without portfolio but with grace and wit he adumbrates the city's great, near great, and not so great ... A charter passenger on the joy rides of our ship of state, he suffers the ship's fools if not gladly, at least mirthfully ... Symington must be heard beyond the beltway!"
-The Late Hon. Douglass Cater, White House Counselor, President of Washington College, Journalist, & Historian

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