Here's a surprise: a book about politics by a current practitioner that is frank, colorful and charming. A one-time journalist who served as advance man and press secretary to New York mayor Ed Koch (and coauthored his books Mayor
and Politics
), Rauch is now mayor himself of Beaufort, S.C., a rapidly growing town whose most heated political controversies center on proposals to widen a highway or alter the schedule for opening the drawbridge. His book is a how-to guide for local politicos, detailing practical techniques for gaining power, wielding it effectively and yielding it graciously when you must. Rauch offers advice on everything from how to spread negative stories about an election opponent without getting your hands dirty to how to persuade people that the most powerful man in town is your intimate buddy (whisper to him as he sits at the dais in a banquet hall). The funny and telling anecdotes are drawn from both Big Apple ethnic brawling and Rauch's duels with the good old boys of his current hometown. Although at times the tone is near-Machiavellian, the book conveys the genuine importance of the hard, often selfless work of local governance as well as the sheer fun Rauch somehow derives from sparring over zoning rules and noise ordinances. He departs from the how-to format for one bitter chapter detailing the squalid whispering campaign against John McCain that helped swing the 2000 South Carolina Republican primary to George W. Bush. Agent, Jeanne K. Hanson.
(May)
