Jamie Malanowski

No one has ever been quite so clever about repackaging and reselling freelance journalism, but I’m deeply grateful William F. Buckley Jr. has been giving it a try. He has produced a number of anthologies over the years–mostly, I gather, collections of his columns on communism, the Panama Canal, and tattooing AIDS victims buttocks, as […]

Here, for those unfamiliar with the tale, is the story. The year of 1876 was America’s centennial, and a presidential election year. There were two big issues in the race: one, how sick and tired everyone was of President Grant and his thieving Republican cronies; and two, how sick and tired everyone was of Reconstruction. […]

What’s unfortunate is what Schroeder has done with this material. A glibber and breezier writer could probably have gathered these stories into a fun magazine feature. Instead Schroeder has political scientized them in a dull tome, racking up such categories as How Entertainers are Good for Presidents, How Entertainers Are Bad for Presidents, How Presidents […]

Carville’s greatest claim to fame, of course, is that he was Bill Clinton’s campaign manager in 1992, a year when at first it seemed that the greatest stature a Democratic nominee could hope to achieve was to be the answer to a medium-hard “Jeopardy” question. Instead, Clinton was able to attack the first President Bush […]

In truth, if Miniter were about 50 percent less tendentious, he would be 100 percent more convincing. It’s distressing to read the catalog of chances to nip Osama bin Laden that went unavailed. Long before 9/11, for example, the Sudanese government had the terror kingpin under its watchful eye and was willing to unload him, […]

Their essential thesis is that the president is the perfect product of the political culture of Texas, a state where the first and major role of government is to help business. “Help” in that sentence is to be as broadly defined as possible, including perhaps almost all the ways Paulie Walnuts “helps” Tony Soprano. Ivins […]

Carlson has a good eye for detail, and that helps him recognize the odd characteristics in people that make for good vignettes. He catches Bill O’Reilly blowing hard (“I’ve almost been killed three times,” Carlson quotes O’Reilly, dubiously), Barney Frank in a shrewish mode (“I think you’re filled with hatred,” Frank sneers at him), and […]

As one reads Kenneth T. Walsh’s Air Force One: A History of Presidents and Their Planes, one from time to time feels the urge to stand up and exclaim, “Work it, brother, work it!” This would be in professional appreciation for the mulish persistence of a veteran journalist in the undeterrable pursuit of a slender […]

Golf is almost always there. You can always go golfing, or think about golfing, or practice golfing, or think about practicing golfing. You can play golf at home, or you can play golf when you’re away. Many people can play golf at work, and many people–Ken Lay, for example–work while they play golf. You can […]

There are some cool nuggets here, such as a three-page discussion about why Langlitz Leathers of Portland, Ore., makes the best motorcycle jackets. Langlitz has 15 workers, who custom-make six jackets a day; you have to be prepared to wait seven months for your order to be filled. “To make more,” says owner Dave Hansen, […]