Word: winging
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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What makes the novel riveting is its almost anthropological description of the ebb and flow of power and status in official Washington, where the ultimate currency is access to the President, or "face time." In his descriptions of aides scrambling up the West Wing ladder during the day and angling for an A-list invitation at night, Tarloff provides the context that's missing in disclosures by Starr, Larry Flynt and the tabloids. They tell us everything we always wanted to know about sex in high places, but nothing about life there...
...moves on, the people left behind disperse, "as if the real purpose of the group had now been fulfilled...and there was no longer any compelling reason to remain together." (Now that's Washington.) At another party, Sheffield becomes smitten with Gretchen, a radiant, low-level East Wing staff member who lives with a rising presidential speechwriter named Ben. After Gretchen and the President begin an affair, her face time surpasses Ben's, which sets Tarloff to brooding on the intersection of love and power. If the desire for face time can turn movie stars, corporate barracudas and big-time...
...nonstop campaigning, has replaced his passion for the flat tax with sermons on abortion, winning few converts. John McCain, the maverick Arizona Senator, announced his semi-candidacy last week by talking about campaign-finance reform, and former Education Secretary Lamar Alexander jumped in (again). The party's absolutist wing looks like a scrapyard. Last week it saw its darling, Senator John Ashcroft of Missouri, announce that he would not seek the nomination...
...that is giving the president too much credit for the decisions of Alan Greenspan. Finally, the most justified concern: some are afraid that the president's conviction would strengthen the hold of conservative Republicans over Congress. But the Democrats would be in a stronger position to keep the right wing in check if we had an honest leader in the Oval Office...
...President. "Trent cannot be perceived as Bill Clinton's savior," says a top G.O.P. leadership aide. "This is high stakes for Lott," says Sheila Burke, top aide to Bob Dole for years and now executive dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "Lott's dilemma is his right wing. They want a piece of flesh...