This book documents how the eight year reign of President George W. Bush changed Washington and the country. A compilation of some of the best journalism published in the Washington Monthly magazine during those years, the book provides an insightful real-time account of what happened in the nation’s capital when, for the first time in half a century, the GOP took charge of both elected branches of government. Suddenly, the rules in Washington changed in ways Beltway veterans were slow to see, in the service of an agenda they did not grasp, and with a level of incompetence that they literally could not believe.
Americans are still feeling the reverberations of the Bush years—in an unfinished war, an enduring recession, and the long shadows of Supreme Court appointments and decisions. And the possibility remains that the next presidential election could bring a new period of unified GOP control. Whether you’re a liberal or a conservative, Elephant in the Room is a timely and important book premised on the idea that comprehending what went wrong in Washington during the Bush years is key to understanding what can be done to set the country right.
