A friend told me about the Confessions of Congressman X. I figured it was inexpensive, so I ordered the Kindle version.
Had some downtime at work, so I read it. It was a VERY quick read. Maybe too quick, especially for $5.
This “book” was billed as confessions of an inside Congressman. Supposedly, he’s a Democrat. He “tells it like it is”. I didn’t think so.
Some background: the book was compiled by a man named Robert Atkinson based on conversations he’s had over the years with a Demoncrat Congressman. He became friends with this Congressman, and would meet up when he was in DC. Over the years, he made notes of the things the Congressman said. At one point, he figured he had enough notes to make a book. The Congressman was pissed off at him for making notes, but eventually relented and told him to put a book together. He also edited the notes so the quotes are accurate. This is all detailed in the introduction to the book, written by Mr. Atkinson.
One of the newsletters I read took the book on a few weeks ago, before I read it. They couldn’t identify the Congressman, but speculated that it could have been anybody. I agree; the book is a selection of quotes centered around “chapter” themes. It’s more like a book of wisdom; proverbs of an asshole is a better description.
Confessions of Congressman X didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. Voters are stupid. Congressmen are more obsessed with fundraising and getting reelected than anything else, and don’t give a crap about the voters. Bills are written in secret by unaccountable committees, etc. He didn’t even touch on how lobbyists basically write the bills, although he did say Congressmen don’t read occurred
t occured to me while I was reading that this book would have been a lot better if it were written in a fake persona, like Dan Lyons’ “Fake Steve Jobs”. Now THAT was funny, but also informative.
If I haven’t bored you with the idea too much, you can buy “Confessions of Congressman X” here, from my affiliate link.
