6/6/2023 0 Comments Advise and consent book![]() ![]() It begins with Senate confirmation hearings for a liberal Secretary of State and concludes two weeks later, after debate and controversy have exploded this issue into a major crisis. Indeed, much of the ambience in which these fictional senators work and preen has vanished. ADVISE AND CONSENT is a study of political animals in their natural habitat and is universally recognized as THE Washington novel. ![]() His mid-20th-century senators certainly speak better than those serving today, most of whom, during debate, could scarcely pronounce, let alone deploy, its orotund courtesies and barbs. Drury's Senate is such a passionate, full-throttle place that '' Advise and Consent '' never has occasion to quote George Washington's famous wish that the Senate serve as a cooling saucer for legislation that boils over from the more demotic House. But then one remembers that Byrd, only 41 in 1959, didn't grow into the part of Cooley until decades later. At this long remove one may be tempted to see him as Drury's model for South Carolina's Seabright Cooley, whose ornate, quavering oratory was made so memorable by both the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and Charles Laughton's performance in the film that followed. " Of all the real-life senators serving when Allen Drury's '' Advise and Consent '' was published 50 years ago this summer, only Robert C. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |