Smith, Hedrick. The Power Game: How Washington Works. New York: Ballantine
Books, 1989. 790 pages.
Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith reported from Washington for the
New York Times for nearly a decade, and has written two books on Reagan and
one on Russia. The Power Game, three months on the NYT bestseller list, is
another of the "Washington insider" genre that quashes what some believe to
be the popular illusions about how Washington works. But as suggested by his
final chapter, "What Is to Be Done?", the problem with insiders is that in
the end they like being insiders. They get richer as the system collapses,
so their proposals for reform amount only to petty tinkering. Despite the
tongue-in-cheek toward Lenin, Smith's worst nightmare is an emerging class
consciousness that sees major problems as requiring major solutions. As we
slip further downhill, we can expect more books like this to be touted by
the major media. Call it a "limited hangout," a form of damage control.
Still, this book is an antidote to those charts on "How a Bill Becomes
Law," and is recommended for those who have just graduated from the eighth
grade. It covers the obvious bases: lobbying, image manipulation, turf wars,
the power of Congressional staff, PAC money, the need to constantly campaign,
Pentagon pork projects, foreign policy back channels and shadow policy-making,
gridlock and the blame game, influence peddling, the institution of media
leaks, and the impact of television. This just in: Little Guy Gets Screwed.
ISBN 0-345-36015-X
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