The man who ran Washington : the life and times of James A. Baker III
Peter Baker (Author), Susan Glasser (Author)
"Co-authored by the Chief White House correspondent at The New York Times and the Washington columnist at the The New Yorker, this is a biography any would-be power broker must own: the story of legendary White House chief of staff and secretary of state James A. Baker III, the man who ran Washington when Washington ran the world. In the latter half of the twentieth century, no Republican won the presidency without his help, and the men he counseled in the Oval Office--Gerald R. Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush--defined more than one generation of American life. Campaign manager, chief of staff, treasury secretary, and ultimately secretary of state, James A. Baker III understood better than anyone how to make Washington work and how to pull the levers of power at home and abroad. A suave and profane Texas Democrat, Baker worked as a wealthy Houston lawyer until his best friend, George H. W. Bush, drew him into Republican politics. His first dramatic win was in 1976 as the delegate hunter who secured the Republican nomination for Ford against a challenge from Ronald Reagan. His next job, as Bush's campaign manager four years later, maneuvered Bush onto the ticket with Reagan and Baker into the most powerful office in Washington other than the Oval Office: White House chief of staff. In his years in the White House and in the cabinet, Baker was the avatar of a style of politics and governance that valued pragmatism and deal making over purity. He went from win to win--reforming the tax code, negotiating the first Middle East peace talks, managing the dissolution of the Soviet Union--until his capstone victory, as field marshal for the younger Bush's Florida recount battle, helped divide the country forever. In today's era of gridlock, The Man Who Ran Washington is an electrifying escape"-- Provided by publisher
collective biographies
xxii, 694 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm
9780385540551, 0385540558
1112904067
Prologue: The Velvet Hammer
In the Magnolia City
The warden's son
God came today
A long dark night
Miracle man
Out of the back room
The asterisk club
Troika
Shit detector
Big leagues
The witches' brew
The ratfuck
The dark side
Morning in America
Fencing master
Black Monday
The handler
Jigsaw puzzle
Fly-fishing with Shevy
The curtain falls
Winners and losers
Desert diplomacy
Eyes of a killer
In the souk
A call to action
The cruelest turn
The virus
Scorched earth
Grave and deteriorating