Carolina and on the other side, texas. Colorful to say the least. His name is mary and and he lived from 1901 to 1936. Born in poland, his family moved to the United States and settled in seattle washington. There he entered politics first as a student and then as a new deal democrat. By 1932 at the age of 30 when he ran for congress and the 1933. Early on they showed great promise and was antigenic and an advocate for the great depressions forgotten man. He seemed highspirited but was shocked that to the enthusiasm. He was a bachelor at the capitol capitol. But the truth was he would be more diagnosed today treated as this congressman. It began with pranks and partying and the behavior was hardly. By 1936, the stories and the arrests were multiplied. He made waves from publicly referring to the Supreme Court justices as old fossils and hosted a party for the council to investigate the noise complaints taken over the building switchboard calling up all of the neighbors. He was also arrested for speeding down connecticut avenue at 70 Miles Per Hour which mustve been harmusthave been he 30s. Not only did he resist arrest but he tried to run out of the courtroom before the judge and then he found a girlfriend. A Progress Administration secretary. She didnt remain a girlfriend prolonged. Unwilling to wait for three days to clear up the district they hopped in the car and im sure spitup to get hitched. Then they didnt have the license borrowed the reporters were thrilled of course that they have become the go two guy and this one was a winner. Before the party they hosted a small journalist in the apartment and he mixed cocktails i think made out of tonic or Something Like that. I met her about a week ago when she called me up one night a. They went to puerto rico for a honeymoon. They got in two separate Car Accidents including one where they bit the driver on the neck and caused it to drive in a ditch. Things were really getting out of hand and it didnt help that he was talking back the cocktails for some. By returning to the mainland come he continued his downward spiral. He drove to the white house into the driveway because anybody could do some gifts for fdr. The president wasnt home but he wrote a little note and left it behind the driveway along with a bag of holding a collection of empty beer bottles, mothballs and pingpong balls. Later that day he was arrested and brought to a cemetery. [laughter] he escaped several days later and was picked up again by the police. They had him transferred to a different hospital and he was arrested and brought back to gain his freedom he voluntarily returned to his hometown in seattle rather than risk imprisonment in pc. Back in seattle, he found he had quite a fan club and they have crazy stories of what he was being called such as the capitol clown. And then the sum of the residents in the home district. It wasnt as if anybody had gotten hurt except for the guy that was bitten on the neck. When he told constituents he wouldnt run for reelection, a friend filed papers to run for the seat and then suddenly he reversed the decision and said he would run again. However, he would never see the campaign. On the way to the gala, ruby and her husband stopped by the office in downtown seattle while ruby stayed in the car, he went upstairs, wrote a suicide note and stepped off the ledge of the window on the fifth floor. They stepped around the side of the car where ruby sat waiting for him and there was a suicide note written on the letterhead said my only hope in life was to improve the condition of an unfair Economic System that held no promise to those that are all the wealth of even a decent chance to decide what the loan to live. A friend to take his seat or a culmination of growing mental instability. We will never know. But he still holds the record for an insane asylum. Think about that. [laughter] i would like to read a story of rita cromwell, my favorite story in the book. She is still alive born in 1953. This is the biggest embezzlement scandal that you have never heard of. Her case is the biggest municipal fraud in American History and it took place in a little dot on the map known as mixed in illinois. Before they brought into the spotlight it was Ronald Reagans childhood home. The town has three fulltime employees and as the controller and the treasurer the majority of the employees held other jobs to keep their financial heads above water for example, the 9,000 he had a cadillac showroom or something. They started as the secretary in 1974 and was appointed to the city Financial Post in 1983. It was a sweet deal for her and eventually became what was one of the best in the country. Her business took up several months going after horse shows and the like. It was certainly more than the paid vacation allowed. But they have a luxury motor home all tricked out and she was generally oncall even if she was away. Everyday she took a day off and was Still Available for work. No one was quite sure how they afforded the home and in addition to some clothes, jewelry and annual salary minus all the days that he was being unpaid for taking the day off. But that is where all of her money came from and the homes she had. Others assumed she had inherited money from somewhere despite local people that were not at all wealthy. Iit was a perfect instance of people seeing what they wanted to. They believed she was trustworthy. She was one of them said they didnt question it. Therefore it was a shock win in 2011, Kathy Swanson discovered a strange bank account when she was at the office during one of the many accesses. An account had been opened in 1990. As the secondary account holder. The scam was simple often times the spelling on a typewriter so she would drop the fake invoices and deposit it into the double you account. Any audit at all would have uncovered but why would they . She worked for the town all these years so she got away with writing nearly 200 of these in addition to the czechs in the city account to her account made out directly to the treasurer even some were made out and escaped detention so if no one was watching no one was noticing. So i started a small but in a few years after opening the account, she was making checks for fairly large amounts like 300,000, 500,000. Over the course of many years, saddam i hope you are all sitting, she sold 53 million right out of the pockets of her friends and neighbors. They had all of these radios and it was a badly needed repair. When the secretary found the account, she immediately brought it to the objection who wasted no time in six months later they were ready and in april of 2012, she called into the office where the fbi was waiting for her. She was caught redhanded in there was nothing else she could do as she cooperated with the fbi. When asked her comments on the episode they dont care about this town. [laughter] the lawyer asks for leniency and said she would have to endure shame and the rest of her life the former trust sent away illinois had three decades of the luxurious lifestyle and now she would have to pay the price and is due for release in 2030. This is a rather newer story. I have to read it because of the diaries. He got in trouble later in the last century that interesting stuff. He came from a long line of politicians dating back to 1857 when the great grandfather was part of the constitutional convention. He was in his home state of oregon making a name for himself back at the age of 29 he entered the house of representatives and five years later after the race for the longtime incumbent, he won the race for the United States senate. A socially moderate republican who supported civil rights, gun control and legalized abortion and won accolades from many groups including planned parenthood and the National Political caucus. It is a popular breath of fresh air in the political system and by 1985, he replaced moynihan as the powerful committee and finance. They are seeking a therapist and talking about it. He returned and declared i am not an alcoholic. I have what is called a drinking problem. So he continued. It all began to come apart getting kudos from the group says that he was getting hit with charges of harassment and many of the victims were Staff Members or lobbyists and the former left his employee to avoid the problem. The weird thing remember back in the day the weird thing about the allegations that were coming to light is that he didnt understand what the problem was. Im apologizing for the context it is alleged that i did. Of all of the accusers the worst came from packwood himself. I just love this so much. He had the diary that sounded like it belonged to a teenage girl. In 1993 i know this is disgusting but it gets me. It was subpoenaed and experts appeared across the country. My favorite example, although disgusting is extremely odd and unsettling sexual behavior. Behind the xerox machine today she got a little taste. Whats the big deal i was smiling while i did it. She made a big stink about it and it took me two hours and a couple thousand dollars to calm her down. [laughter] i have one question. If she didnt want me to feather ernest why did she come into the xerox room . She had to make copies of the brady bill but if you remember that i have a list you can buy. She knew i was copying stuff in there. I had my jacket off and my sleeves rolled up revealing the welldefined musculature of my arms which are always bulging with desire. I know what she wanted. This didnt require a lot of thought. Its between the start of the investigation and the release of the committee he would have gone back and changed the deleted portions of the record even he confessed about making the changes. This went on until 1995. He went to oregon. Let me read one more, to more . Its hard not to read about mills. When you do Something Like this you are always looking for the one you get to the last line of this one you will see what i found out. The majority is stamped with good deeds of the congressional records and finally redemption. But as a downfall, here is the part of the story the democrats from a family of liberals his father was a School Superintendent who helped integrate the Public School which was the first in the state to teach the students. The valedictorian of the high school and in college. He went on to Harvard Law School and it went on to age 30 he ended up in washington. He became an extremely powerful voice in washington and remained in congress for four decades from 1939 to 1977. 17 of those years were spent as the chairman of the house ways and Means Committee. No one has ever held the chair. He helped develop a back in the arkansas days in fact it was in the summer of 1974 which they managed to get back with the 1214 vote. He was nervous about bringing it into th the hardware but then it became a midwestern a few months later on the morning of october 9. His wife went to hell in a handbasket. At 2 a. M. He was driving with no headlights on and he was drunk. His glasses were broken. He had cuts all over his face and he was in the company of a stripper who jumped out of the car and ran into the tidal basin. It is called a halfhearted suicide attempt. She claimed she was a washington neighbor and this is an about originally of argentina and all of that was certainly true but she was more famously known as a dancer in the Silver Slipper where she was known as the argentine firecracker. She had a further excuse as reported in the washington post. My wifes broke in foot prevented or entertaining at home and she insisted i take my friends to a public place. Decided he explained because there were a few refreshments. We enlisted the help of others in the group to assist me in seeing her safely home. The bills were beaten up and they ended up in a Mental Hospital and perhaps she should have asked for a better host. Of course they had been canoodling already for some time. The altercations were far from unusual but no one ever nabbed a photo of them were reported any at all. In fact they managed to lay low for a few days after claiming the whole thing was a string of circumstances brought on by a few refreshments. He held up just for the week and then things seemed to die down. November 4 he won the reelection with 60 of the vote. It might have just ended there with a long suspicious incident but it didnt. When she was in boston a few weeks later and obviously drunken he got onstage, gave her a kiss and then as if that wasnt enough, gave a press conference back in the dressing room. [laughter] enough was enough for the ways and Means Committee and they stepped down as chairman. To his credit it was personal life of political. He decided not to run and went into the private law practice when he retired in 1991 he returned and established the treatment center. Not much more was heard about the reform and until clinton proposed one in 1993. Now what happened to the argentine firecracker she eventually returned to south america. Here it is. During the interview with bill oreilly before she left, she confessed thaconfessed the desio medical school and who knows perhaps one could still make a private appointment. [laughter] okay. Last one. I dont know if anybody remembers this. She was smart, honest, fair. She had no criminal past and in fact what she stood for made a lot of sense when she ran for president in the 1964. She made perfect sense its time for the country to have a mother she insisted. If a mother was in the white house we would look to the presidency with more respect. With the abolishment of income taxes in favor of each member of the family waiting in on or before april 15 and paying 5 per pound including pets. [laughter] her platform included some Campaign Promises and ideas that were popular then and would it d likely be appreciated by the American Public for a candidate today. This was the white house bid on the best party ticket with a catchy slogan. Vote and things will get better. There were accompanying fliers and i hope you all have a baton at the front door. Theres a Campaign Poster with his picture on it but in spite of the fair amount of Media Coverage throughout the president ial race, no one ever saw the candidate in person. No one ever saw because it didnt actually exist. They revealed before she got too involved in the candidacy she was the creation of alan abel who thought himself as a professional media hoaxer. It was jean who did the hundreds of interviews for the jewish mother from the bronx used in her Campaign Materials was actually alans mother. And still like any politician went on to write a book. Ththe president idol so wise, published in 1946 a. Memoir of her president ial dreams. Copies are Still Available online. They didnt go gently into that good night in a letter to barack obama in 2009 she offered the president a few of her proposa proposals. Put them on a straight commission. [laughter] charge 5,000 for a marriage license and 5 a mental detector in the white house as well as a metal detector. National bingo and truth serum at the fountain. We hardly knew you. [laughter] thank you very much. [applause] any questions . Scenic this was fun and i hate to go to dinner but im going to buy your book later. Hispanic i promised to sign it. [inaudible] northshire bookstore as the media feels they cant fit everything in 2 24 hours you knw that they are just going to be looking for things to cover but they can just sit in their seat and it comes to bad. I dont know if we could have seen all of this coming. [inaudible] theres so much morthere is n you would think. Theres a lot of things. Obituaries and congressional records and things like that that you would think exist. Its out there but you have to work. The latest scandal was with ted cruz and rachel matt was tag about the creepy behaviors. I dont know if this is how much he can say t do you know anythig about that . One of the things i wrote about we think of him now one of the things he did at the beginning he was responsible for the whole thing having him lose any sort of credence when in fact it was a Massachusetts Law before he was even in office. Once you get it in the media it doesnt matter whether it is true or not. [laughter] obviously a lot has changed and is still changing today. What do you think of today versus back then . At fault for losing your own position whether it is stated or embezzlement or whatever it was you manage to screw up wha you d worked so hard for. What you bring up is a good question. I dont know whether things were worse before or now. We dont know a lot of things that happened before. We found a lot of things that i uncovered when Something Like senator potter when he moved to texas if they werent so far away people wouldnt know who they were or what they were up against. When i went to california and made a new start, thats as far as you can get from here and still be running for office. Years since of invincibility which allowed you to go to some of the stuff . I think thats how it all works. They me think of the rita crumb all story and how she started stealing money its always one of those things. You steal 5 next week is easier to to steal 10 and then the next thing you know its 53 million. I think you get lost in your own power. People start believing their own stories although they are mostly mythical. I can name one candidate treated anything is put akel suicide. You keep thinking now that for those people horror frieda trump you say now that he is out of sort of wry mary mode into the general election mode that hes coming down but i would really just cant believe that will happen. Every day again, every day i think something is going to happen so we will see. He is at the top of the heap when it comes to committing political suicide. Did you touch on Anthony Weiner . I did not. I decided to avoid it. I stayed away from people who were currently in the press because the book takes a long time to come out and then you hope its around for a little while so peoples fortunes change so quickly that you dont know we are going to be in the news are out of the news are somebody forgets about them, back they come so who knows . I stayed away from people who eyes i say are presently in the news. Hi. I was just wondering given the media is so powerful now that if you were to write something similar to this with current people like how much would you have to incorporate the power of the media . Its not just political suicide but the media. Would the think of somebody like lee atwater and so much of what goes on today is when you are talking about news who is watching morning joe today and rob reiner was on and i will tell you he was talking about news and features and how much was news and how much was show, how much was show business and for once jar scarborough could hardly get a word in edgewise. So its hard to tell. I would say the whole thing is fun to watch except its so scary to watch. Its been since 1960 cents of president ial candidate who has remained in his name escapes need that he committed political suicide by saying one word, enough. We are now almost 60 years later , you have to do something very, very bad to commit political suicide. Doesnt that Say Something about our civilization . Of course but it just seems that things are way out of control. I know i am the first complaint about no one having any manners and it just goes on from there i dont think the white house but close to. Obama [inaudible] wilke can run the country. That builds on, i tried it in college but i did not inhale and then you know its like anything you can go one more step and one more step in now you are on im sorry. Im sorry. You in the future saw the cops getting lavish gratuities and diamonds from the two Real Estate Developers in birkeland and some high ups were stripped of their guns and badges and reassigned. Also some of them supposedly that were working on a yacht. Is this something how much time would have to elapse before you would want to investigate . In cases like that in Something Like afghan or Something Like that you would want to wait until the case has been settled as far as call girls and diamonds and free donuts and whatever else. I suspect it was whatever else. Does the idea wrote to play a role in the type of politician goes for one kind of scandal as a republican might tend to do these kinds of scandals and democrats might b thats a good question. I will have to give an xl check on that. How do you feel about a rock obamas presidency . Lucky. [applause] thank you so much everybody. [applause] ladies and gentlemen sub two. [applause] we would like to thank you so much for coming out here tonight. I will be right to the glass doors. We have books available for purchase and erin would be more than happy to sign any of them for you. The calendar events for their estimate, please pick one of those up as well. Booktv in primetime continues as we examine six political personalities who change their politics from the left to the right. Ronald reagan and Whittaker ChambersChristopher HitchensDavid Hurwitz and norman podhoretz. At politics and prose in washington, this is about 80 minutes. [inaudible conversations] good afternoon everyone. I want to thank you for joining us here at politics and prose bookstore as we embark on yet another wonderful reader. Like this time id like to remind everyone to silence cell phones. The format for our reading today i will be introducing our delightful offer author and he will speak and we will have a questionandanswer session. My name is Christopher Greggs and i welcome you to politics and prose store on behalf of the owners of politics and present our wonderful staff. The two over 500 events a year. Our Flagship Store and bus boys and poets advance around the city and offsite venues as well. If you would like to follow our reading series feel free to subscribe to our Youtube Channel or slate podcast and many more events we have done over the years. I will begin by saying i am pleased to introduce Daniel Oppenheimer as he present his debut exit right the people who left the left and reshaped the american century. Daniel oppenheimer as a writer and Short Documentary filmmaker whose articles and videos have been featured in the new york times, the atlantic, and salon. Com. Oppenheimer profiles of career as a political figure such as Whittaker Chambers, Ronald Reagan and Christopher Hitchens among many others and probes into the force that led these men from the left to the right. Rick perlstein arthur of the invisible bridge celebrates oppenheimer for the exceptional wisdom discernment and your addition on display in his book. Hailing oppenheimer said political essayist for the ages. And excelling in the portrayal of the personal torments and calls to subjects in the transitional struggles and an insightful narrative that inspires soulsearching among political leaders of every stripe. Politics and prose presents Daniel Oppenheimer. [applause] thank you for being here today. Its really exciting and i want to thank politics and prose. I think its a rite of passage for political writers in particular to do a reading here so its exciting for me. Before get started i just wanted to say one or two more things. One is to my wife jessica who is here today who is sort of a part of the book in more ways than i can take it away. I try to get added a little bit innate knowledge meant but thank you for being here with me and being with me through all of this. Want to say hi to my kids. I think that will be exciting for them. What im going to do is im going to give you i guess what i would call it genealogy of the book. That will get into the themes of the book some but i want to start with how it came into existence because its not always the case that a book is about history and politics and has a useful or meaningful personal back story but i think in this case it does and its maybe sort of impossible to fully understand what the book is and what its trying to do if you dont understand where it came from. Even though i dont show up there is snow eide anywhere in the book other than innate knowledge meant but its a deeply personal book so i wanted to give you that genealogy to set up some of the discussions and themes and some of the questions and answers and that the end of the talk im going to read a very short passage from the conclusion that i think captures very fairly well what im trying to. So i think this books starts in a way with my grandparents walter and Becca Kershner who were schoolteachers in philadelphia and communist Party Members and that is a fairly common story may be within a very very thin slice of a politically active its not that, the story more broadly and one of the stories and my uncle rick is here today was telling me to give you an illustration of the world which my mom grew up was telling me a story about one evening i think it was on passover late 1940s early 1950s when there was a knock at the door and two men came into the house and sort of question my grandparents for a little while about their activities about whether they were members of the party and who else was members of the party and what they said was we will tell you anything you want to know about us but we wont tell you anything about any of our friends. For some reason and maybe it was because they answered about themselves, maybe who knows, maybe it was just sort of bureaucratic issues though many of their friends a number of them schoolteachers were fired at the time for being communist Party Members are suspected communist party member so by the time i came along and was born into this not communist but very leftwing household in Springfield Massachusetts, that story but more broadly the fact that my grandparents being communists with their own family mythology and i would say a fairly simplistic part of it. They were communist Party Members and that was a noble thing to be, that they were persecuted for that. Their friends were persecuted for that and we went through this period of mccarthyism and that was a noble and admiral pope part of our legacy not examine very much and as i grew older and thats not communist but leftwing household in this community in Springfield Massachusetts and around Springfield Massachusetts where i grew up of other leftists and probably marxist or communist although they wouldnt necessarily identify themselves as such, i would say for a while loop it was a simple narrative and as i got older it began, it started to become more complicated. I remember when i was in college i had a student job with the holocaust archives at yale and one of the things, what i would