The Club

Mark Leibovich has written a book titled “This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral (Plus, Plenty of Valet Parking!) in America's Gilded Capital”. The book was intended to raise anti-Congressional sentiments.

According to the New York Times, the book is “not to ruin it for you, but: if you already hate Washington, you’re going to hate it a whole lot more after reading Mark Leibovich’s takedown of the creatures who infest our nation’s capital and rule our destinies. And in case you are deluded enough as to think they care, you’ll learn that they already hate you”.

Mark Leibovich quoted his former Washington Post colleague Henry ­Allen: ­“Washington feels like a conspiracy we’re all in together, and nobody else in America quite understands, even though they pay for it.”

Mark Leibovich intended his book to be read not only by those who already hated the United States Congress but also by those who already have a fair knowledge of that scandalous bicameral legislature of the federal government. In order to be able to fully appreciate the delicacies of Leibovich’s book, the reader has to be one of those political junkies who regularly watch the Sunday talk shows and other pundit platforms. Then the reader would be able to know most of the characters who swim through the narrative. Most probably, no one else would.

Delicious portrayal of vanity and runaway opportunism, the book could be categorized halfway between satire and a polemic. Although not an in-depth investigation into Washington’s abuse of power and excesses, it is said to be giving a panoramic view of the culture of Washington portraying it as a fertile soil for wide-spread corruption.

Mark Leibovich is a New York Times reporter and perhaps no other source does a better job attenuating the desired effect of the afore mentioned book than the New York Times itself in a piece published on July 25, 2013. Dubbed “Leibovich’s Congressional hall of shame”, the book was portrayed as a bold but honest account of people - Washington insiders, that is - who cynically enrich themselves with taxpayers’ money and “gleefully inhabit ethical no-worry zones and execute brisk 180-­degree switcheroos on any issue... as long as it pays”. According to some critical comments, those people always have a cynical smirk on their faces, laughing at the stupid people - everyone outside of the Beltway - who support their little aristocracy upon the Potomac ('The Club', as it is referred to).

It has been noted that the author does not take sides, politically. He shies away from exposing true corruption. Generally, the author is portrayed as a guy who is simply giving an honest account of what he had seen behind the curtains. As a political reporter, Mark Leibovich is disinclined to expose the true breadth and depth of the decadence of 'The Club' of which he is definitely a member.

Giving the readers only a few quick glances behind the curtain before closing it again, the author has nonetheless exposed the relationship between politicians and the media people who cover them. But the greatest attention is paid to the lobbying!

While writing mostly about the last several years, with much of the book centered upon the 2012 elections, Leibovich dedicated a lot of his attention to lobbying and lobbyists in the United States Congress. The New York Times points out that President Obama’s first year in office was the best year ever for the special interests industry, which earned $3.47 billion lobbying the federal government. Calling it the “arresting figure”, the New York Times cites Leibovich as well as The Atlantic emphasizing the fact that lobbying has now become one of the primary activities for “50 percent of senators and 42 percent of congressmen”.

Lobbying and the arrival of big money in Washington has become the major focus both of the Leibovich’s book and the New York Times’ critical acclaim of his book. The two has portrayed Washington as a culture that breeds irrevocably corrupt politicians and the constellation of enablers. A lot has been said about the proliferation of “formers” and pundits, who had turned Washington into a “Parliament of Whores, Continued.”

As it has been mentioned, Leibovich does not takes sides in his strangely provocative and intentionally depressing book. Leibovich does not make any recommendations for change, either. The book has been generally referred to as a well-written anthropological study of a specific tribe of politicians, with its own culture, language and social mores. The author plays the part of the anthropologist, who is simply observing but unwilling to judge.

In a very complimentary way, the New York Times does just that in its critical essay on the book. Christopher Buckley, in the final chapter of his recent article ‘A Confederacy of Lunches’ writes: “By the end, one is left thinking that our country would be so much better off if, after putting in their years of “public service,” all these people would just go home. Or just away.”

It seems, for some, the “Parliament of Whores” has become more than just a nuisance of America’s everyday politics. And the notorious lobbying of transnational corporate interests in the United States Congress has ceased to be just another feature of the local political landscape. The tragic proliferation of foreign-backed corruption and political intrigue, which has dramatically increased over the past twenty years, has turned out to be playing against the national interests of the United States of America.

It is well known that traitors and sellouts have no true political or national identity and are loyal only to the source of their biggest financial support. Perhaps, a sweeping political reform in Washington is a long shot, so far. But this book by Mark Leibovich and a characteristic response from the leading critics in the U.S. bespeak a growing tension in the relationship between ‘The Club’ and the American nationalists. If such a book were to become the first stone, the years, if not centuries, of infiltrating of foreign interests inside the American politics would be over within a decade or two. But, perhaps, it will take more than just another book before American citizens manage to make the “Citizens of the Greenroom” go home. Wherever it is.