Combat:: Twelve Years in the U.S. Senate

by Warren Rudman

In Twelve Years in the U.S. Senate Warren Rudman focuses on four historic Senate actions in which he played a central the Gramm-Rudman act--the audacious 1985 attempt to force a balanced budget on an unwilling Congress and President; the Keating Five ethics committee hearings, which revealed the thin line between campaign finance and corruption; the Iran-Contra investigation, Rudman's no-holds-barred account of the Reagan administration's biggest scandal; and the appointment of his colleague and close friend David Souter to the Supreme Court.

Rudman offers vivid portraits of the men he worked Dole, Packwood, Baker, Helms, Gramm, and the two presidents he served under--Reagan and Bush.  He writes unflinchingly about his colleagues and about the legislative process.  Here is the inner world of the Senate club, revealed by the man who was often called "the conscience of the Senate." Combat is one of the most important books on American politics to be published in years.

287 pages, Hardcover

First published April 14, 1996

Reviews

[Swift Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear reading about how Congress and the Senate should work but seldom do. Tells of how Rudman and Phil Gramm created the Gramm-Rudman bill that tried to get Congress to balance the budget back in the 1980s. He called it "a bad idea whose time has come." He also tells how he talked David Souter into going onto the Supreme Court, and the story behind the Keating Five, as a few of the highlights of his years in the Senate. (275p.)

[Mike Bascom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the quote. "1/3 of the senators in the senate know what they want and hot to get it, 1/3 know what they want but don't know how to get it, and 1/3 do not know what they want or how to get it"