The Lion of the Senate: When Ted Kennedy Rallied the Democrats in a GOP Congress

This earnest, respectful account of Sen. Ted Kennedy at the peak of his senatorial powers evokes nostalgia for a bygone era of bipartisan lawmaking. Littlefield and Nexon, longtime staffers for the Massachusetts Democrat, chronicle the time between the Republican electoral surge of 1994, which made way for Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America, and Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election. In an instance of critical insight regarding their own party that is rare for this book, they observe that “the Republicans’ success was a testament to the failure of Democrats nationally to produce their own agenda.” They then show how their former boss rallied his party against the GOP’s cost-cutting plans with bids for healthcare reform and an increased minimum wage. The authors tie Kennedy’s effectiveness to decades of Senate relationships that allowed him, even in the minority, “to build bipartisan coalitions and enact elements of his own agenda.” It’s a fair call that Kennedy’s mix of leadership styles allowed a minority response to the Contract’s disastrous results, which included two government shutdowns. But this analysis could have been made convincingly in a far shorter book, and the lengthy descriptions of Senate rules arcana, committee lineups, and legislative horse-trading will appeal mainly to Kennedy buffs and serious students of political science. (Nov.)