An attempt to convey how lobbyists really work in Washington, by Wall Street Journal reporter Birnbaum (coauthor, Showdown at Gucci Gulch, 1987). Birnbaum examines the lobbying process by following the actions of a small number of notable lobbyists, including representatives of the real-estate industry, the truckers, and the universities. He focuses on the 101st Congress (1989-90), which endured an eruption of scandals arising from the close ties between members of Congress and business constituents (leading to, among other results, the resignations of House Speaker Jim Wright and House Democratic Whip Tony Coelho). ``Lobbying,'' Birnbaum notes, ``is not a last-minute vocation, but rather relies on an accumulation of actions over time.'' It utilizes economists, lawyers, direct-mail and telephone-sales people, p.r. experts, pollsters, and even accountants. In a notable insight, Birnbaum discerns that ``Washington has become a major marketing center,'' with lobbyists seeing their job as one of persuading ``lawmakers that voters are on the lobbyist's side.'' With budgets as well as deficits so large, small changes on the margins can mean large sums of money to favored groups, and both lawmakers and lobbyists often perpetuate these changes—resulting in campaign contributions for the politicians and fees for the lobbyists. Thus, former Carter official Stu Eizenstat, while trying to make the deduction for research and development a permanent part of the tax code for his university clients, benefits when it is renewed only on a year-to- year basis. Similarly, Senator Howard Metzenbaum continues to make lawyers happy by supporting a law that compels railroad workers injured on the job to sue their employers for damages rather than to apply for worker's compensation. An intricate analysis rather than a denunciation—but in focusing on the day-to-day activities of a handful of highly skilled lobbyists, Birnbaum conveys the ambiguous relationship between Congress and those who solicit its favors.
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-8129-2086-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Times/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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