THE BIG BREAK: THE GAMBLERS, PARTY ANIMALS, and TRUE BELIEVERS TRYING to WIN in WASHINGTON WHILE AMERICA LOSES ITS MIND (audiobook) by Ben Terris
Published in June of 2023 by Twelve.
Read by Tim Andres Pabon.
Duration: 9 hours, 32 minutes.
Unabridged.
Ben Terris offers up a collection of stories about a few of the people that casual political observers have never heard of. I regularly watch the Sunday morning political shows and listen to political podcasts and I'd only heard of 4 of the people featured in this book, and only 1 of them by name.
That, of course, is the point of the book - a look at the movers and shakers below the obvious level of movers and shakers. Some move and shake a whole lot in the world of Washington politics, some barely do any moving at all, and some used to move and shake a whole lot but now have been sidelined by scandal.
Terris looks at people like Matt Schlapp, who is the head of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) - the travelling roadshow of right wing politics. Schlapp is an example of a hyper-connected mover and shaker in the book. But, he also looks at people with less influence like a person that runs a website for staff members on Capitol Hill who want to complain about pay and working hours, members of Congress that fart during staff meetings and some that are a little too grabby with the help.
Some of these are compelling stories, some are not. For example, I was not particularly impressed with one of the stories that he started with - a young, idealistic staff member who thought he would make a profound political statement by resigning and then sneaking back into his boss's office (Diane Feinstein) at night and smoking a joint in her chair while recording himself on video. I thought this was a fairly pathetic attempt at protest and I felt pity this young former staffer rather than being impressed by his actions.
The only person that I knew by name was Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster and advisor. Luntsz's specialty is coming up with more politically advantageous wording. He is credited with coming up with the renaming of the estate tax as the "death tax" and global warming as "climate change." Luntz used to do a lot on work on TV on CBS and Fox discussing his polls.
Read by Tim Andres Pabon.
Duration: 9 hours, 32 minutes.
Unabridged.
Ben Terris offers up a collection of stories about a few of the people that casual political observers have never heard of. I regularly watch the Sunday morning political shows and listen to political podcasts and I'd only heard of 4 of the people featured in this book, and only 1 of them by name.
That, of course, is the point of the book - a look at the movers and shakers below the obvious level of movers and shakers. Some move and shake a whole lot in the world of Washington politics, some barely do any moving at all, and some used to move and shake a whole lot but now have been sidelined by scandal.
Terris looks at people like Matt Schlapp, who is the head of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) - the travelling roadshow of right wing politics. Schlapp is an example of a hyper-connected mover and shaker in the book. But, he also looks at people with less influence like a person that runs a website for staff members on Capitol Hill who want to complain about pay and working hours, members of Congress that fart during staff meetings and some that are a little too grabby with the help.
Some of these are compelling stories, some are not. For example, I was not particularly impressed with one of the stories that he started with - a young, idealistic staff member who thought he would make a profound political statement by resigning and then sneaking back into his boss's office (Diane Feinstein) at night and smoking a joint in her chair while recording himself on video. I thought this was a fairly pathetic attempt at protest and I felt pity this young former staffer rather than being impressed by his actions.
The first part of the book was okay (3 stars), the middle part drug a bit (2 stars) and the last part was pretty good (4 stars.) Do all of the math and that makes it a 3 star book for me.
This book can be found on Amazon.com here: THE BIG BREAK: THE GAMBLERS, PARTY ANIMALS, and TRUE BELIEVERS TRYING to WIN in WASHINGTON WHILE AMERICA LOSES ITS MIND by Ben Terris.
This book can be found on Amazon.com here: THE BIG BREAK: THE GAMBLERS, PARTY ANIMALS, and TRUE BELIEVERS TRYING to WIN in WASHINGTON WHILE AMERICA LOSES ITS MIND by Ben Terris.
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