The Whole Damn Deal: Robert Strauss and the Art of Politics by Kathryn J. McGarr

By Kathryn J. McGarr

Robert S. Strauss used to be for plenty of many years the fundamental Democratic energy dealer. Born to a terrible Jewish relations in West Texas, he based the legislation enterprise that turned Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, and—while perpetually altering the character of the Washington legislation firm—worked as chairman of the Democratic nationwide Committee, unique alternate consultant, ambassador to the Soviet Union after which Russia, and an consultant to presidents. As former first woman Barbara Bush wrote of Strauss in her memoir: “He is the absolute so much remarkable baby-kisser. he's everybody's buddy and, if he chooses, might promote you the paper off your personal wall.”

however it is not the positions Strauss held that make his tale attention-grabbing; it really is what he represented concerning the tradition of Washington in his day. He was once a grasp of the artwork of understanding every person who mattered and getting issues performed. in keeping with specific entry to Strauss, the complete rattling Deal brings to lifestyles a vanished epoch of operating behind the curtain, political deal making, and winning bipartisanship in Washington.

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Strauss tried to produce his memoirs. In the late 1990s, he hired journalist Peter Ross Range to collaborate on an autobiography. Although Strauss made a few attempts to write such a book, usually with a collaborator from within his law firm, the Range effort was the most sustained, lasting a year and occupying two or three hours a day, with a full draft by the end of it. The memoir was never published and ended up scattered in boxes in a large and dusty storage room at Akin, Gump along with transcripts of the more than seventy interviews conducted at that time that Strauss has allowed me to use in writing this biography.

At some point in his youth, Karl’s mother married, and the couple sent Karl to boarding school in Lausanne, Switzerland. At school, he learned to speak French and improved his piano playing, developing an ear that allowed him to pick up other languages quickly and take almost any instrument and find a tune. He also learned to gamble. His knickerbockers betrayed his age, though, so in order to get into the casinos, he sold his bicycle to buy a pair of long pants. S. S. citizenship until 1939, when he was naturalized; however, Karl did change his name to Charles and endow himself with the rights and privileges of an American.

I idolized my mother,” Bob Strauss said in the Jewish oral history interview, “and, unhappily, I was wise enough early enough to see my father’s weaknesses and my mother’s strengths, and it isn’t very nice to see those things. ”17 He liked to sit and listen to the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts sponsored by Texaco or the German-born conductor Walter Damrosch hosting the “Music Appreciation Hour” playing on the National Broadcasting Company. Mrs. Strauss was not the type ever to scold or complain, though.

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The Whole Damn Deal: Robert Strauss and the Art of Politics by Kathryn J. McGarr
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