Synopses & Reviews
Washington’s most acerbic (and feared) columnist, the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, skewers the peculiar and alien tribal culture of politics.Deep within the forbidding land encircled by the Washington Beltway lives the tribe known as Homo politicus. Their ways are strange, even repulsive, to civilized human beings; their arcane rites often impenetrable; their language coded and obscure. Violating their complex taboos can lead to sudden, harsh, and irrevocable punishment. Normal Americans have long feared Homo politicus, with good reason. But fearless anthropologist Dana Milbank has spent many years immersed in the dark heart of Washington, D.C., and has produced this indispensable portrait of a bizarre culture whose tribal ways are as hilarious as they are outrageous.
Milbank’s anthropological lens is highly illuminating, whether examining the mating rituals of Homo politicus (which have little to do with traditional concepts of romantic love), demonstrating how status is displayed in the Beltway’s rigid caste system (such as displaying a wooden egg from the White House Easter Egg Roll) or detailing the precise ritual sequence of human sacrifice whenever a scandal erupts (the human sacrificed does not have to be the guiltiest party, just the lower ranked).
Milbank’s lacerating wit mows down the pompous, the stupid, and the corrupt among Democrats, Republicans, reporters, and bureaucrats by naming names. Every appalling anecdote in this book is, alas, true.
Review
"The most anti-Bush reporter currently assigned to the White House by a major news organization." National Review
Review
"Milbank hilariously compares the beliefs and rituals of primitive cultures with things that happen every day inside the Beltway... The political-tell-all-as-cultural study conceit wears surprisingly well; Milbank's comparisons are sharp and funny enough to keep it fresh." Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Dana Milbank is a
Washington Post staff writer and author of the "Washington Sketch" column. He won the White House Correspondent Association's Beckman award for "repeated excellence in White House coverage" and the National Press Club award for humor writing. He was named one of the nation's top political journalists by
Columbia Journalism Review.
Milbank also serves as a political analyst for MSNBC. Before joining the Post, Milbank was a senior editor of the New Republic and a staff reporter of the Wall Street Journal. Milbank also has written for the New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine and other publications. He is author of Smashmouth, a book about the 2000 presidential campaign. Milbank is a graduate of Yale University, where he received his B.A. cum laude in political science. Milbank lives in Washington with his wife and daughter.