Reviews for 24 years of House work-- and the place is still a mess

The average rating for 24 years of House work-- and the place is still a mess based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-11-10 00:00:00 Diego Soto This book was EXCELLENT. I never knew who Pat Schroeder was, I had seen Nora Dunn's parody of her on Saturday Night Live, when I was in maybe 8th grade, but that's about it. I am very impressed that Pat Shroeder was able to go to Congress in the early 70s when there were only a handful of women there (out of 435). She was quick-witted and able to stand up to the men and stand up for her liberal values. She didn't take gifts, and she didn't do polls to see how she should vote on various issues. She took her job seriously and did a lot of research to be informed on the issues, and she did what she thought was right. I think this is the key to successful representative government. We elect the people who we think will have the intelligence, judgment, and moral compass to do the right thing on our behalf. If we find that they are making decisions contrary to what we believe in, then we vote them out in the next term. Pat Schroeder's career in Congress was a true example of representative democracy in action. She was a role model in her personal life, too. She had two young children when she went to Congress. She prioritized her kids by earmarking every night for dinner with the family; only breakfast and lunch were available for Congressional shmoozing--dinner was off-limits (unless it was a function where kids and hubby could come, too). Pat Shroeder's family lived very frugally. They had a very no-frills house in DC (one they picked out over the phone), the same house the entire 24 years she was there. They figured out the family could afford to pay for the kids and husband to come with her on her international trips as Congresswoman, but only if the kids went to public school. So they made a deal with the kids, if they kept their grades up, they could stay in public school, and there would be enough money for the whole family to travel; if the grades dropped, the kids would have to go to private school and wouldn't be able to go on the international trips. The kids were responsible about their grades, and the family seemed to have lots of happy memories together on these international trips as well as their time spent at home in DC and at their condo in Colorado. I love the way Pat Schroeder speaks her mind about many of the main players in the House of Representatives and the Presidents from around 1972 to 1996. She is funny and light-hearted, while being serious about the issues. She is able to laugh at herself and at other people without being mean at all. It's amazing when people can pull that off, and she really does. She seems to be always laughing and smiling, and from the way she writes, you can tell she truly enjoys people and life. And yet she is so full of substance when it comes to issues like war, health care, abortion, education, poverty, scientific research, ethics reform, all kinds of things. Reading Pat's breezy bio was such a breath of fresh air. I feel confident she would have been an awesome president of the United States back in 1988! If the American people would have been compassionate and smart enough to elect her back then. The way she tells it, she was doing quite well, coming in 3rd in the polls before the primaries, but she backed out because she looked at the numbers and decided it would cost too much for her to continue to run, and in 3rd place, she wasn't assured of getting the nomination. She was financially responsible, almost to a fault, and wasn't willing to risk the family savings on a folly. Since Dukakis ended up getting the nomination (not an especially strong candidate), I wonder if she might have actually had a chance at winning the nomination after all! But she was so financially conservative, she backed out without finding out. Her husband wanted her to continue on as he thought she had a chance. And the way we've seen things lately, sometimes the 3rd or 4th place person before the primaries DOES move up and become the main candidate. So maybe she really could have made it. Think how different the 1988 debates would have been, if it had been Pat Schroeder against Papa Bush! Of course quite likely I'm brainwashed, having just read Pat Shroeder's autobiography that would clearly paint her a favorable light. :) As you can tell, I really liked the book. It gave me hope the politicians DO NOT have to be a bunch of wishy-washy puppets of the lobbyists and big monied interests, with opinions changing to match whatever polls, to get elected and stay in office. From what she wrote, the belief that things have to be the way they are now is just totally a sham. She did not get elected that way, and if we want, we can change all of this. Sadly, I feel like most of the American public are like mindless drones, watching whatever sound bytes they see on TV and believing whatever that shows up in expensive TV commercials or Cable TV shows paid for by Big Money. It makes me sad. We could elect people like Pat Shroeder and have an awesome representative government with independent people who decide what is right based on the information before them. Just because X candidate has Y and Z special interests paying for commercials, doesn't mean we have to vote for X candidate. Thankfully we still have the freedom to check whatever box that we want to check on the ballot. I hope the American populace will break out of its vegetative state (step away from the TV!) and start voting for more progressive, independent candidates.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-11-10 00:00:00 Don Price What I learned from this book: - I will never go into politics, because I would not be able to control my Fist of Death. - (Some) (mostly white) men are complete assholes. Other than that, Pat Schroeder seems like a terrific person, and I'm very glad that she served for as long as she did. I'd like to think I would say that even if I didn't generally agree with her politics - as a woman, I'm very happy to have anyone fighting for womens' rights, no matter which side of the aisle they're on.