Table of Contents
Dedication and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Prologue: Discouraged, Disorganized, Defeated
1. The New Direction: “:6 for ‘06”
2. “I Had to Win the House First”
3. Madam Speaker
4. “Everything Becomes Urgent”
5. “The Slowest Ship”
6. The Economy Wobbles
7. “The Flagship”
8. “You Can’t Have It the Way You Want to Have It”
9. “The Prospects Don’t Look Good”
10. Yes, We Can!
11. The Abyss
12. “We Have to Look Out for Ourselves”
13. “The Country Is Falling Apart!”
14. “Like Swans going Across the Lake”
15. The Firehose
16. Short-Circuited
17. “Number One among Equals”
18. The Summer of Hate
19. “The Most Important Bill You Will Ever Vote For”
20. “Let’s Go for It!”
21. The Unwinnable War
22. ”Keep Steering the Ship”
23. The Unfinished Agenda
24. The “Shellacking”
25. Their Last Bow
Conclusion: The Perishability of Power
Notes
Bibliographical Guide to the John A. Lawrence Papers
Selected Bibliography
Index