A Capital Crime

Syndicated columnist and presidential nemesis Jack Dodd lies in a coma in a Washington, D.C. hospital, so close to death that a priest has already administered last rites. His parents and girlfriend, Barbara Connover, are gathered at his bedside, desperately trying to ignore the grotesque cadence of life support equipment that struggles to keep him alive. They can only pray.

Less than a mile away, an embittered President not only battles a hostile Congress and an unrelenting press, he strug...