Balance of Power: Presidents and Congress from the Era of McCarthy to the Age of Gingrich - Hardcover

Wright, Jim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1570362785 ISBN 13: 9781570362781

Publisher: Turner Pub, 1996

Synopsis

The former Speaker of the House looks back on his thirty-four-year congressional career

About this title

From Booklist:

In a gracefully written memoir, full of insights and inside information about cooperation and conflict between the legislative branch and the nation's last nine presidents, former House Speaker Wright presents "the truth--as I saw it--about people and events that contributed to the major national decisions of the past forty years." A former mayor of Weatherford (near Fort Worth), Wright came to the House in 1954 and learned the ropes as a protegeof fellow Texans Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson. Often serving as a mediator between blocs within Congress and between GOP presidents and Democratic legislators, Wright stresses the key role of civility in the consensus politics of the '50s through the '70s--and negative results of the '80s breakdown of that civility, thanks in large part to the secret contra war and to ideological bomb-throwers like current Speaker Newt Gingrich, who gleefully "brought down" Wright in 1989. Wright's final chapter argues that a "growing decibel level of hate-mongering and negativity threatens democracy" ; to overcome this threat, he urges campaign finance reform, a renewed social compact, infrastructure and education investments, acceptance of both the need for and appropriate limits on government, and restoration of civility. An enlightening (and, for political junkies, fascinating) historical document. Mary Carroll

From Publishers Weekly:

An intimate of nine presidents from Eisenhower to Clinton, former Congressman Wright (D.-Texas) resigned from his post as Speaker of the House in 1989, a move he blames on character assassination by Newt Gingrich and other conservative Republicans whose "predatory," elitist agenda would have this result: "The rich will get richer; the poor will get poorer; there'll be fewer of us in the middle." In this brisk, outspoken, sometimes bland political memoir, Wright recalls that he rode in the Dallas motorcade close behind President Kennedy and heard three distinct rifle shots fired. A crusader for Johnson's Great Society programs, Wright has held unpredictable views, including his unpopular support for Nixon's deepening involvement in Vietnam and his fierce opposition to Reagan's interventionist policy in Nicaragua. He writes affectingly of the difficulty of balancing his career with being a father to four children, and of his divorce in 1970 followed by remarriage two years later. Defending Clinton's overall record, Wright calls for a new social compact emphasizing investment in education, infrastructure and full employment.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Turner Pub
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1570362785
• ISBN 13: 9781570362781
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 528