THE SAUSAGE.
A blog by “Morning Briefing” host Tim Farley.
“Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion
as we know how they are made.” (John Godfrey Saxe)
JULY 2, 2009
Yesterday I sat down with Bradley Graham to talk about his new book, By His Own Rules: The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld. It’s a long but rewarding read about the controversial and enigmatic former Secretary of Defense. (Listen to a clip from my interview with Graham)
I’m also just about finished with The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works by Representative Henry Waxman (written with an assist from Joshua Green, Senior Editor at the Atlantic). And by the way, Rep. Waxman checked into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for testing after reporting that he wasn’t feeling so hot. I hope he’s better now.
The books are unrelated, but they both remind me how few areas of black and white exist in Washington, D.C. Competent people do stupid things, occasionally (but not always) partial good triumphs over fractional evil, and the “truth” (if such a thing can be singularized) is as evanescent.
Graham portrays Rumsfeld as brilliant, driven, occasionally petty, ambitious, loyal, and alternately intractable yet obsessed with change. Rep. Waxman characterizes lawmaking as an exercise in perseverance, patience, teamwork, and being able to apply legislative legerdemain or hard-nosed confrontation, depending on the circumstances.
Neither subject—the former SecDef nor lawmaking (see “sausage”)—can be captured with bullet points, and I’m surely oversimplifying here. Just do yourself a favor and take one (or both) on your next trip.
As I said, in the case of Graham, it had better be a l-ooooo-n-g trip. (We’re talking 700 pages.) But the destination makes it worth the drive. Waxman is a shorter journey, but also a satisfying one.
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