Kilian, Michael and Sawislak, Arnold. Who Runs Washington? New York: St.Martin's Press, 1982. 340 pages.

Jack Anderson commented that this book is "perceptive of what Washington is really like and also irreverent enough to puncture a lot of stuffed shirts." Michael Kilian, a Chicago Tribune columnist based in DC, and Arnold Sawislak, a 25-year UPI Washington correspondent, put together this amusing look at the bigwigs in Power City. They approach their subject more as gossip columnists than investigative journalists, and the last 100 pages are of local interest only (sports, museums, the arts, real estate, restaurants), so that leaves about 240 pages of NameBase material. The authors paint with too broad a brush to penetrate very deeply, but it's a worthwhile effort.

The fifteen chapters that interest us are divided into the White House gang, the Hill, courts, spooks, the bureaucracy, regulatory agencies, moneymen, diplomats, influence traders, media, think tanks, press agents, lawyers, high society, and political pros. The first half of each chapter is an overview of the authors' impressions, in which they go out of their way to be witty. We liked the second half of each chapter best. Here they list the top five, ten, or fifteen individuals in that chapter category and dedicate a half page to each individual career.
ISBN 0-312-87024-8

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