Croquet balls smashed, Mary crowned Queen Croquetress, ice cream churned, and dudgeon raised and exercised at a memorable evening/weekend at the Duncan’s in Black Butte (8/1/14).

Jake Tanzer

Basic  premise of the book: shift over the last 20 years in Washington, DC has been the  arrival of big money and transformation of politics into an industry. There has been a proliferation of big time lobbying firms, consultants and government contractors. Getting rich is the new bipartisan ideal. Journalists have become very powerful.

The funeral of Tim Russert was an example of the new Washington: very important to be there and to be seen as  part of the tribe. Journalists are now not just reporters but part of the story, players in the game themselves. All part of one big tribe. All insiders. The White House correspondents dinner has become an extended celebration of the celebrity of the tribe.

Presidency has changed. Clinton was the first celebrity, rock-star President. Attracted Hollywood to DC. Clinton staff became highly paid celebrities. Carville. Stephanapoulos.

Obama campaigned against “This Town.” No lobbyists in his administration, no revolving door. Didn’t  last long.

Richard Holbrook was different. Intense but not part of the game or the insider gang. Like Nixon, Obama is a loner but unlike Nixon he does not like to have big personalities around him.

The old ideal of doing public service and then returning to another career is over. Now a public career is a stepping stone toward big money, either as part of the DC crowd or Wall Street. Now the goal is to monetize public service, often by getting big bucks to influence public policy.

Discussion

There always has been money in politics but the scale now makes it different. It does distort policy.

The amount of campaign contributions is so huge it changes the game.

Even locally, you need to hire the right people to get access to the city Council.

Mike Gleason used to explain politics: they give you a bag of beans, you give the beans away, then they give you a new bag of beans.

Now there is a lack of shame over what used to be shameful behavior. Koch brothers held a conference of fellow billionaires to talk about politics which was attended by three sitting members of the Supreme Court.

Koch brothers now trying to burnish image by sponsoring News Hour.

At least three members of the Supreme Court are now actively part of the ideological drive underwritten by the  Koch brothers and  spearheaded by the Federalist Society.

The media now condones activities it used to condemn. For example, the media now says it is okay to buy elections. (disagreement: it is the court, not the media, that takes that position.) Media is now part of the game, that is different. Today if you are not part of the story that is a journalistic failure.

Reporting today is about the playing of the game. Don’t believe the press has become overall more partisan just more focused on the game, not the results of the game. The book, in fact, contributes to that. Main flaw of the book is that it does not address the question of “so what”. Does not try to make the case that the partisan divide would be different or tax policy or anything else. Just that we should all be outraged, as we should, at the behavior of Washington DC today.

Chris Matthews in his book Hardball” takes many of the same incidents and the same behavior that Leibovich faults as marks of the smart politics of LBJ and Ronald Reagan. I.e., personal relationships matter to getting things done in DC. What Leibovich sees as smarmy and self-serving, Matthew sees as smart. Main difference in the books seems to be that Matthews believes most people in DC are there for honorable purposes while Leibovich thinks they are there for personal gain.

Both the Matthews book and the Leibovich  book overstate the degree to which politicking inside the Beltway shapes the fate of the country, understating the more significant tidal movements of demography, social change, and public reaction to events. The book should make us mad. We should be outraged at what it reports.

Yes. We are headed for revolution. (Who is going to cater the revolution?)

(Discussion about including the word “sex” in the 1964  Civil Rights Act: redacted by the group censor.)

Is there a connection between the trends cited in the book and, for example, going income inequality? Yes. High paid lobbyists write the tax code.

Now politics is a very much a route to riches.

Where is the populist movement today that will have the same effect as the progressive news and populists a century ago? There was a revulsion then about the power of money in DC and in the states. Where is that today?

The book, oddly,  is a strong argument for the libertarian side: reduce the significance of government. (Strong disagreement. Wall Street needs regulating.) More regulation of Wall Street will lead to more highly paid lobbyists from Wall Street.

We have gone from 100 to more than 700 lobbyists in Salem. Includes many Democrats.

The power of lobbyists depends in part on the quality of the staff that legislators are able to hire.

In fact, there are many fine lobbyists who choose to work only for good causes.

The playacting bothers me. We both make speeches to inflame our bases and give each other a wink and nod about it.