Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives (48 page)

Bureau of the Public Debt
: Author personally observed; interviews with McCarthy, May 5, 13, and 24, 2011, and June 5, 2011.

His office had in fact sent out a letter
: Interview with Farenthold, April 28, 2011.

listening sessions
: Interviews with three attendees.

At 10
A.M.
on June 1
: Interviews with six attendees.

led by Vice President Joe Biden
: Interviews with three attendees.

“I want to let you know”
: Interviews with four attendees.

Jay Powell
: Interviews with three attendees.

a conference on Friday
: Interviews with four attendees.

“I have to tell you”
: Interview with Labrador, July 30, 2011.

Boehner’s four friends
: Interviews with two of the participants.

“I can’t think”
: Boehner press conference, July 14, 2011.

“You know”
: Interview with Duncan, August 2, 2011.

“Look, we’re winning”
: Interview with Ellmers, July 22, 2011.

“You’ve gotta tell Boehner”
: Author personally observed.

inside the chamber
: Author personally observed; interviews with Ellmers, July 22, 2011, and with Duncan, August 2, 2011.

“A deal was never”
: Boehner letter, July 22, 2011; “when you’ve got”: Obama press conference, July 22, 2011.

Allen West was surprised
: Interview with West, July 28, 2011.

“I’m not from”
:
Congressional Record,
July 19, 2011. “Wasserman Schultz went after”: Interview with West, July 28, 2011. “Look, Debbie”: West email, July 19, 2011. “He thinks it’s okay”: YouTube video of Wasserman Schultz at protest, October 22, 2010. “incited a riot”: Interview with West, January 12, 2011.

whip team dinner
: Interview with West, July 28, 2011.

The conference was the next
: Interview with West, July 28, 2011, and with four attendees.

“is not one hundred percent”
: Author personally observed.

“a bloodied”
: Lisa Mascaro and Michael A. Memoli, “Republicans search for votes with Boehner plan in jeopardy,”
Los Angeles Times,
July 28, 2011.

“I’m gonna vote”
: Interview with Farenthold, August 2, 2011.

chapel in the Capitol
: Interview with Duncan, August 2, 2011.

They went to the whip’s office
: Interviews with four attendees.

“No more”
: Interview with Farenthold, August 2, 2011.

“It’s hard”
: Interview with Cleaver, December 15, 2011.

But Vice President Joe Biden
: Interviews with six attendees.

a recorded vote
: Author personally observed; also
Congressional Record,
August 1, 2011.

Jeff Duncan
: Interview with Duncan, August 2, 2011; also
Congressional Record,
August 1, 2011.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: LOWER, EVER LOWER

the Dow Jones
: Christine Hauser, “World markets staggered by weak consumer data,”
New York Times,
August 2, 2011. S&P downgrade: Charles Riley, “S&P downgrades U.S. credit rating,” CNN, August 5, 2011. McInturff: “A Pivot Point in American Opinion: The Debt Ceiling Negotiation and its Consequences,”
Public Opinion Strategies, August 2011. Poll: CBS News/
New York Times
poll, October 25, 2011.

Beneath the screeching
: Interviews with Chaffetz, February 25, 2011, Labrador, June 2, 2011, and Gutierrez, March 2, 2011. Emerson/Cleaver: Interview with Cleaver, June 24, 2011; also see language in Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services omni report, released December 16, 2011. DeLauro/Manzullo: H.R. 110, Manufacturing Reinvestment Account Act of 2011. Matheson/Brady: H.R. 1834, Freedom to Invest Act of 2011.

Renee Ellmers
: Interview with Ellmers, October 27, 2011.

“I didn’t come”
: Interview with Labrador, December 1, 2011.

“Pass this jobs bill!”
: Obama speech, September 8, 2011.

“Paging the Missouri Tea Party”
: RedState.com post, October 21, 2011.

“Part of it is”
: Interview with Farenthold, October 25, 2011.

“What’s it going”
: Interview with Duncan, December 6, 2011.

“It’s not like”
: Interview with West, December 12, 2011. 2012 calendar: Posted on majorityleader.gov. “I must take the time”:
Congressional Record,
December 8, 2011.

Super Committee
: Interviews with six individuals connected with the negotiations.

Livid, the Appropriations Cardinals
: Interviews with four Cardinals and three others connected with the discussion.

“The institution is still”
: Interview with Dingell, December 13, 2011. Poll: Democracy Corps poll, December 9, 2011.

EPILOGUE: EVENING, JANUARY 24, 2012

seated around a dining room table
: Interviews with two of the participants.

Think about the America within our reach
: State of the Union address, January 24, 2012.

“All around the Hill today”
: Author personally observed.

Once inside the impossibly crowded chamber, Duncan got separated
: Interview with Duncan, January 25, 2012.

Duncan was among them
: Author personally observed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I undertook this project immediately after the 2010 midterm elections, when the Republican Party regained control over the House of Representatives. Observing that this GOP takeover had been made possible by the election of eighty-seven newcomers—about one-third of whom had never before held any kind of political office—I suspected that both the tenor and substance of the House were about to undergo dramatic change. My intuition was that as the Republicans’ point of the spear against the administration of President Barack Obama, the House was sure to be relevant and, at the risk of sounding crass, highly entertaining. So the day after the midterms, I notified both my agent and my publisher that I wanted to put aside the altogether different book project I had been working on for the past two years. Instead, I informed them, I aimed to produce a narrative of the 112th Congress as seen through the eyes and activities of its members, particularly its newest arrivals. After picking themselves up off the floor, my publishing team agreed that this was a good idea.

The conceit for the book was to immerse myself in the House—to spend every day that it was in session on the Hill, doing interviews and observing the activities of this world-renowned yet (at least in book form) little-explored democratic institution. Though it would have been a fool’s pursuit to attempt to speak to all 435 congressional members, I did what I could to visit with a sizable cross section and was gratified by the openness of nearly all whom I approached. Between November 2010 and December 2011, I interviewed over fifty House members, some of them as many as fifteen times. I also benefited greatly from the insights of about two dozen former members, in addition to numerous current and former senior House staffers. In all, I conducted
more than three hundred interviews for this book. A number of my sources requested that our interviews be “on background” in order for them to speak candidly. Where a quote or fact is not accompanied by an endnote, the reader should assume that the information in question came from one or more on-background interviewees. For that matter, many facts obtained by on-the-record sources were verified by others on background.

I knew at the outset that this would be a character-driven narrative; I just didn’t know who the characters would end up being. Several months of interviewing went by before I concluded that among the protagonists, three would receive the lion’s share of space: Allen West, a Tea Party sensation with no political experience; Jeff Duncan, another Republican freshman, but one who lacked West’s celebrity and thus would encounter the familiar challenges of earning distinction among a body of 435; and the freshman class’s institutional counterweight, Democrat John Dingell, the longest-serving House member in history. I’m particularly indebted to them and to their excellent staffs for enduring my many impositions. At the same time, I’m deeply thankful to all the other House members and staffers with whom I spoke for the book. Though any honest rendering of a Congress that achieved record lows in public standing could not be a particularly glowing one, I emerged from my experience with great admiration for the intellect and dedication of virtually every representative and staffer whom I encountered.

I could not have accomplished this book without my assistant Emily Umhoefer, whose job description came to include not only research and transcribing but also sitting in on House committee meetings and minding my dog Bill while I was away. Emily’s dependability and hilarious take on House-related vagaries kept me sane throughout an otherwise frantic timeframe; I’ll never be able to thank her enough. I also appreciate the archival research that Dan Kaufman contributed. Morgan Wimberley, Sarah Wheaton, and Ian McCue deserve thanks as well for the research they contributed to the book I put aside for this one.

Accomplishing this book required taking a year off from my magazine work. For their patience and support, I’m very grateful to Jim Nelson and Mike Benoist at
GQ;
to Barbara Paulsen, Victoria Pope, and Chris Johns at
National Geographic;
and to Ilena Silverman and Hugo
Lindgren at
The New York Times Magazine,
where the lengthy feature I published on House
Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy in June 2011 formed a kind of template for how I would write this book-length story.

Most of this book was written in blissful seclusion at the Glade, a lovely farmhouse in Wytheville, Virginia. For that memorable and very productive experience (which I highly recommend to writers and nonwriters alike), I want to thank the Glade’s owner, Jack Stuart, and its very able caretaker, Bill Mello.

Throughout my career, I’ve benefited from the perspective and encouragement of literary friends, and that was certainly the case as I slogged my way through this project. Special thanks, then, to writer pals Sara Corbett, Mike Paterniti, Frances and Ed Mayes, Lisa Depaulo, Mark Leibovich, Peter Baker, Mark Salter, Kathleen Parker, Elise Hu, Jonathan Martin, Matt Bai, Manuel Roig-Franzia, Ceci Connolly, Maureen Dowd, Ashley Parker, Lee Smith, Hal Crowther, Allan Gurganus, Ann Hornaday, Jim Shahin, Mark Halperin, Jacob Weisberg, Greg Curtis, Jan Reid, Skip Hollandsworth, and Marty Beiser. In the non-ink-stained category of Washington, D.C., friends, I’m grateful for the diversion supplied by Todd Harris, Doug Heye, John Scofield, Jessica Shahin, Susan McCue, Danielle Landau, Susan Raines, Jim Duffy, Louis and Dena Andre, Brad Garrett, Elisa Poteat, Gary Greco, and certain others who cannot be named here lest the merest association with me wreak havoc in their professional lives.

The best ally a writer—or maybe anyone—could have is Sloan Harris at ICM, my agent and friend for the past fifteen years. Sloan’s judgment, literary and otherwise, has been crucial to me. I’m lucky to have him and his assistant Kristyn Keene in my corner.

I’m equally fortunate to be an author for Free Press. In allowing me to put my other book project to the side and wade into this one, editor in chief Dominick Anfuso and publisher/president Martha Levin demonstrated a level of faith that I’ll always appreciate. Martha’s support has extended far beyond what any author has a right to expect from someone so high up on the publishing food chain. Meanwhile, Dominick’s excellent editing of the first draft improved the story in numerous ways. Thanks as well to Dominick’s ferociously hard-working assistant, Sydney Tanigawa, and to all the rest at Free Press, including vice president and director of publicity Carisa Hays, publicist Jill Siegel, director
of social media marketing Claire Kelley, production editor Edith Lewis, copyeditor Tom Pitoniak, and attorney Elisa Rivlin.

It’s almost absurdly reductive to say that my parents and my brother John (to whom this book is dedicated) have always been there for me. But I feel absurdly lucky to say it anyway. Finally, I won’t embarrass Lara Andre by listing here the countless ways in which she has made a difference in my life. I’ll just say (with apologies to Fisher Ames) that in these days of faction, our togetherness means everything to me.

INDEX

Abedin, Huma,
56
,
89
,
194
,
197
,
198
,
199
,
201
,
202

abortion,
5
,
48
,
85
–86,
102
,
134
,
156
,
180
,
207

Abramoff, Jack,
46

ACORN,
160

Adams, John,
27
–28

Adams, Sandy,
205

Advanced Vehicle Technology Act,
158

Aegis Sciences,
129

Affleck, Ben,
247

Affordable Health Care Act (2010),
33

     Andrews’s work on,
196

     Clarence Thomas and,
197
,
198