Advise & Consent: The Landmark Masterpiece of Political Fiction

by Allen Drury

The paths of ambition lead to strange places sometimes,

gradual evolution from prominence, which so many have, to power, which is achieved by so few.

Especially was this so in a troubled time in which the great promise was being challenged and the great Republic which embodied it was being desperately threatened.

“I repeat, Mr. Chairman,” Bob Leffingwell said in the same measured tones, “an evil, inexcusable, underhanded, vicious, shabby attempt to smear me, destroy my personal character, and destroy my usefulness to the President and to my country, so that I could not be confirmed for Secretary of State. I expected this sort of thing from the senior Senator from South Carolina, whose ability to damage good citizens and injure his own country has increased in direct geometric ratio to his lengthening years in this body, but I did not expect it of some other members of this subcommittee. I did not expect that they would give support, some directly and some indirectly, to his tactics. It has shocked and disappointed me, Mr. Chairman.”

politics, as Brigham Anderson had noted in seven years, could sometimes be a most cruel and heartless business. Those who entered it took upon themselves always the possibility that it might someday turn without pity upon them.

“I think I’ll introduce a resolution to change the motto of the Republic from ‘E pluribus Unum’ to ‘It all depends upon whose ox is gored.’ That would be more fitting, I think.”

“Rumors are always more interesting than facts.”

Americans, telling each other constantly that politics was a dirty business, did not dare let themselves realize that upon occasion it could actually be that dirty. That would really upset them; and while they liked to be clever about their own shortcomings, they did not like to be upset by them.