Word: strausses
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...said Robert Strauss shortly after he was chosen to be Democratic national chairman four years ago. He seemed to be taking on an impossible task. The fractured and fractious party had just gone down to a disastrous defeat with Candidate George McGovern, who carried only one state (Massachusetts) and the District of Columbia. Through a combination of shrewd politicking and good-humored bullying-"He is the only person I know who can call you a son of a bitch and leave you laughing!" says an admirer-Strauss succeeded brilliantly in reconciling the party's warring wings into a reasonably...
...party that Strauss rebuilt helped carry Jimmy Carter into the White House. Last week Strauss received his reward. Impressed by his effectiveness and flair, Carter wrestled down his earlier resentment over Strauss's preference for other candidates and recruited him for a job in which his personal drive may serve the entire nation. At 7:45 one morning, the President summoned Strauss to the Oval Office and offered him the post of Special Representative for Trade Negotiations. Strauss mulled it over for about 30 hours and then he said...
...accepted because the appointment makes Strauss, 58, the minister of U.S. trade and the President's chief adviser on international economic affairs, an extraordinarily powerful position that will carry Cabinet rank. The basic job was originally created by Congress in 1962 as part of President Kennedy's Trade Expansion Act. Until now, the men who have held the position, including former Secretary of State Christian Herter and Frederick Dent, have kept rather low profiles. By contrast, Strauss can be counted on to use the full power and prerogatives of his rank...
Crowded Lineup. Some other Cabinet-level officers may be tempted to whisper under their breath about Strauss. His nomination brings another powerful figure into the new Administration's increasingly crowded economic policy lineup. The man who appears to be getting crowded most is Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal, the German-born Bendix Corp. president, who seemed to have been recruited by Carter for his drive and expertise in foreign commerce; he had been an effective international trade negotiator in the Kennedy Administration. Even before Strauss's nomination, Blumenthal's clout in the new Administration had appeared...
Reeves describes this kind of thing with a New Yorker's kind of perverse delight, but after a few stories like that hinterlanders begin to feel both scared and bored. And the other parts of the book that deal with the machinations of Bob Strauss, Democratic National Chairman, or other political figures are pedestrian. One trouble with this book--the big trouble with it--is that most of this stuff has been reproted before. There's just not anything new that a faithful reader of The New York Times, or even Time or Newsweek, doesn't already know...