Senator Leahy
A Life in Scenes
-
- $29.99
-
- $29.99
Publisher Description
Having vaulted to a position in the United States Senate at the tender age of thirty-four, Patrick Leahy now claims the longest tenure of any member of that institution still serving—and he was third in line for the presidency when the Democrats held control. Few recent American lawmakers have watched history unfold so at such close range; fewer still have influenced it so powerfully. Philip Baruth brings a thriller-like intensity to the most spectacular of those scenes: the 9/11 attack on the US capital, the contentious drafting of the Patriot Act, the ensuing anthrax attacks, and the dramatic 2014 opening of diplomatic ties with Cuba. Throughout, the biography focuses in on Leahy’s meticulous image making, his cultivation of a “Top Cop” persona both in the media and at the ballot box. It is an approach that culminates in simultaneous roles for the lawmaker as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and as the tough-talking “distinguished gentleman” in Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy of Batman films. Leahy’s improbable success, Philip Baruth argues, in the end lies in his ability both to be and to play the top cop not only in post-Watergate Vermont, but in a post-9/11 America viciously divided between the red states and the blue.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Baruth (The Brothers Boswell), a University of Vermont English professor, admiringly profiles Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, now the Senate's most senior member. The book highlights three unique and unusual aspects of Leahy's career: his status as the first (and still technically the only) Democratic senator elected from Vermont, his role as an anthrax target after the September 11 attacks, and his multiple appearances in Batman movies, recordings, and comic books. Baruth neatly shows how these distinct aspects of Leahy's career all equally illuminate Leahy's character. The book recounts the intense, relentless campaigning by Leahy and his wife, Marcelle, that led to his unexpected first win in 1974, his prominence as a critic of President George W. Bush's administration and of the Patriot Act, and the seven "turbulent years" he spent "clean house" at the Department of Justice, leading him to become the Democrats' "most potent congressional weapon." An invitation to visit the set of 1995's Batman Forever led Leahy, a huge Batman fan, to an unlikely second career as guest star in subsequent installments. This media exposure spurred him to push bills on copyright infringement and piracy. Baruth's biography brings Leahy's long string of accomplishments to life in clear detail.
