McCarthy, Eugene J.

"Beyond his influential legislative career, Eugene McCarthy serves as one of the nation's foremost political thinkers, writing with tremendous foresight about American democracy and its institutions. Through both prose and poetry, in more than twenty books, he has explored the greatness of America, as well as the challenges facing our nation. In this collection of writings, the most comprehensive compilation to date, Senator McCarthy takes aim at our political institutions and mores, sharing his wisdom with a new generation."--Jacket.

Eugene McCarthy, former senator and heroic, charismatic presidential candidate, occupies a unique place in American public life. Here, McCarthy continues to redefine the landscape by taking on the characters and issues of recent decades. McCarthy's observations are often amusing, but as often profound. They involve, among others, presidents, the press, special prosecutors, and persecutors. It is an axiom of the author's that those who mean well often end up doing the most harm. He explains the downside of Billy Graham (he "made religion safe for TV and for presidents") and Walter Cronkite ("whose impression of seriousness created the illusion that television equals reality"), and he reexamines the consequences of Carter, Bush - in "Representation Without Taxation" - Reagan, Nixon, and Clinton & Co. - in "The No-Fault Presidency: Who, Me?". McCarthy is against routine reforms, and most reformers, but his own prescriptions - Fidel Castro for baseball commissioner, celibacy for presidents, a football coach for defense secretary ("maybe two - one for offense, one for defense") - will leave readers in stitches and some pols needing a few.

Ten stories featuring Mr. Raccoon and other animals such as Badger, Beaver, and Horace the horse.

Shows why our classic American writers remain dispensable, even in an age of uncertainty over what our common heritage is.

Looks at the last forty years of American politics, notes changes in the Democratic Party, and discusses the ideas and individuals important to the period.

Ten stories featuring Mr. Raccoon and other animals such as Badger, Beaver, and Horace the horse.

In Part 1, McCarthy takes a look at the presidency, vice-presidency, courts, Congress, the military, the political parties, the CIA and at some major forces in contemporary American life that have assumed the status of institutions--the corporations and universities. In Part 2, he examines the system of primary elections and finds them sadly wanting. In Part 3, he writes of innocence in politics, of Watergate and "the Enemies List," of the use and abuse of language as it applies to politics. In Part 4, he singles out eleven Americans who he feels have fulfilled the highest expectations not only as politicans but as human beings.