Political Suicide

February 15, 2016
Those who think the current electoral season resembles a circus will enjoy this entertaining collection of incredible misdeeds by contemporary and long-gone politicos. McHugh (Like My Father Always Said) demonstrates that politicians didn’t always just argue endlessly, but occasionally settled political disputes permanently—with duels. She also proves that sex scandals in political circles are nothing new; in the 19th century, Daniel Sickles, a New York State assemblyman and later a U.S. Representative, was censured for taking a prostitute to the Assembly Chambers, acquitted after shooting his wife’s lover, and rumored to have had an affair with Spain’s Queen Isabella II. Embezzling is an enduring theme, including a 30-year $53 million scam in Reagan’s hometown, and there’s at least one jaw-dropping quote, a 1976 whopper from Earl Butz, Nixon’s secretary of agriculture. Elsewhere, McHugh briefly revisits the not-too-distant scandal when Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich tried to sell President Obama’s Senate seat. Readers will have to decide whether they agree with the author’s designation of “worst president ever.” Whether readers find this litany of political misdeeds mordantly amusing or simply depressing, the book does remind them that misbehaving politicians are not new. Agent: Chris Tomasino, Tomasino Agency.

April 15, 2016

Prolific author McHugh (Like My Teacher Always Said...) serves up a hodgepodge of tales of less-than-bright-and-shining moments in American history. Included here are two- to four-page retellings on topics such as those sleazy political bedfellows sex and corruption, slavery advocates, and money scandals and the scoundrels who made them happen, as well as those people who played fast and loose with both real and contrived laws. Some stories are familiar: Aaron Burr vs. Alexander Hamilton (1804), the Teapot Dome Scandal (1921), the Whiskey Ring (1875), and the adventures of modern-day politicos, such as Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry, Oregon Sen. Robert Packwood, and Richard Nixon's secretary of agriculture Earl Butz. However, most of these adventures concern lesser-known individuals and unhappy yarns describe the fate of innocent victims, such as 1972 Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Edward Muskie, and the ruined reputations of those whose punishments did not fit the crimes, notably Bess Myerson, the former Miss America who served in New York City mayor Edward Koch's cabinet. VERDICT McHugh's breezy style will appeal to readers who enjoyed Paul F. Boller Jr.'s Presidential Anecdotes. A caveat: as of this review, the volume does not include source notes or a bibliography.--Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

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