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What a Party!: My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and other Wild Animals by Terry McAullife (2007):
From Publishers Weekly
The ex-Democratic National Committee chair and political super- fund-raiser lives up to his nickname Mad Dog in this boisterous memoir. McAuliffe is rabidly aggressive toward Republicans (whom he describes as "willing to lie and cheat any way they could"), savaging them on talk shows and facing them down in bristling social encounters. He relentlessly pursues donors, happy to wrestle alligators and sing karaoke for checks ("for $500,000 I didn't mind humiliating myself"). He golfs, dances and plays cards with his political masters Hillary and Bill Clinton ("the Babe Ruth of American presidents"), forever preening over the role his advice and prodigious fund-raising played in their success. But on the exchange of money for access implicit in his activities, he is blustery but evasive. McAuliffe has incisive comments on the Democrats' shortcomings, especially their faintheartedness in fighting Republicans. Though he champions the Democrats as the party of the little guy-contrasting their jeans-and-barbecue shindigs with "swank, hoity-toity" GOP fund-raising events -that stance is undercut by all the name-dropping ("Ben Affleck joined Robin, Marsha, Dorothy and me for a quick tour of the skeet range") and elbow rubbing with grungily dressed billionaires. McAuliffe's inflated self-regard may give more ammunition to Republican opponents than his partisan vitriol does to Democratic allies. Photos. (Feb. 1)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
McAuliffe, who has been involved with Democratic campaigns for the past 25 years as fund-raiser, advisor, and chairman of the Democratic National Committee during President Bush's first term, offers an energetic, behind-the-scenes look at politics. He began his career as a fund-raiser with the Carter campaign in 1980 when he became famous for wrestling an alligator. McAuliffe has gone on to raise more than $1 billion for Democrats. As an entrepreneur and millionaire, McAuliffe might be assumed to have more in common with the Republicans. But he traces his bona fides back to his childhood and his family's long-standing interest in Democratic politics. Despite his love for Democrats, he lambastes his party for failing to fight harder when the 2000 presidential election popular vote--and arguably the electoral votes as well--favored Al Gore; the Kerry campaign's reluctance to challenge Bush's qualifications as commander in chief when he allegedly had not completed his National Guard duty obligations; and a host of other sins. McAuliffe's exuberance and insider status combine to make this a fascinating look at political campaigns. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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