The Book Blog
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A LITTLE GEM OF A BOOK
Elaine Kamarck, the Brookings scholar who decided it would be useful to study success on Capitol Hill instead of failure, wrote about how that project turned out. Her conclusion: "This is a little gem of a book. It shows that positive things can still happen even amidst the current level of partisan rancor. All the legislation discussed in it passed by broad, bi-partisan margins. Perhaps the president can find some time to read it."
CONGRESS 101
Thanks, Professor Jack Pitney of Claremont McKenna College, and hi students!
A SINGULAR BUST AS A NEGOTIATOR
Who could have known negotiating would be so complicated? Obviously not President Trump. My post for the FixGov blog at the Brookings Institution: "Trump has shown zero ability to corral his own party or lead it in a mutually agreed-upon direction. His own quirks and deficits, meanwhile, have led him to violate many of what the American Political Science Association considers fundamental principles of successful political negotiation."
IS GRIDLOCK INEVITABLE?
Great event coming up at the University of Delaware!
UNPREDICTABILITY AND EXPEDIENCY
Here's my USA Today column about President Trump and negotiations. "The only constants with Trump are unpredictability and expediency. These are not, suffice it to say, the traditional cornerstones of getting to yes in politics."
LONG MEMORIES IN CONGRESS
Steve Scully interviewed me about The Art of the Political Deal on C-SPAN's Washington Journal. "You have these long memories on Capitol Hill. It really takes a lot to get people to transcend this and have some trust and work together," I told him.
WALKING THE PLANK
Roll Call writer Patricia Murphy talked to me about The Art of the Political Deal for a column on the congressional struggle to change the health care law. "The best way to avoid walking the plank is to have a bipartisan deal," I told her.
YEARNING TO GET ALONG
Listen to my No Labels radio interview with A.B. Stoddard, Ambassador Stuart Holliday and Margaret White (at minute 12). "There's a yearning for something to get done, for people to prove they can get along, and yet practically speaking, parts of the country want very different things," I said.
EVERYBODY NEEDS TO WIN
Here's my Q-and-A with book blogger Deborah Kalb. "The key is that everybody walks away able to claim a victory. You have to have tolerance for the other side for that to happen," I said.
SUNRISE, NOT SUNSET
Georgetown University opened its Political Pageturners series with The Art of the Political Deal. Here's the talk I had with Judy Feder, a professor of public policy. "That was the first thing, finding the cover picture and making sure it was a sunrise and not a sunset," I said, only half-kidding.
