Amazon.com Welcome to the trenches of political combat. Eleanor Clift， a contributing editor at Newsweek and liberal voice on the "McLaughlin Group，" and her husband， Tom Brazaitis， a columnist for The Cleveland Plain Dealer， navigate the converging headwaters of Washington politics to show how the game is and has been played. They target the failed health-care reform initiative of the Clinton Administration as their prime case study， detailing how polling， media， lobbyists and downright bullheaded elected officials derail the process. They also portray eight political professionals in this essential text for politics in the 1990s. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly The authors are Washington insiders: Clift， contributing editor to Newsweek and a McLaughlin Group weekly TV panelist， and her husband， Brazaitis， Cleveland Plain Dealer Washington bureau chief. To illustrate how real power in Washington is wielded， they offer personal profiles， by turns trenchant and predictable， of eight powerful individuals. "[Newt] Gingrich could not escape his past. The ruthless way that he had achieved his position would forever color the way he was perceived，" they write of the House Speaker. "A streak of anarchy runs through [Daniel Patrick] Moynihan's dark Irish soul. He wants to tear down everything he has built" is their take on the Democratic senator from New York and former Senate Finance Committee chairman. Clinton's defeated health-care plan shadows the profiles of hospital industry lobbyist Michael Bromberg and independent insurance agents' lobbyist Paul Equale， who helped defeat the plan， and presidential pollster Stanley Greenberg， who urged the embattled White House to give up on health care and overhaul welfare instead. Also profiled are pollster Frank Luntz， California Congresswoman Maxine Waters and ex-Democrat Sheila Burke， now Senator Bob Dole's chief of staff. An appendix details political action committee contributions to candidates and predicts that， with these committees shifting most of their support to Republicans， the Democrats will be hard-pressed to regain a majority. Photos. Author tour. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information， Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. See all Editorial Reviews