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Fighting the Unbeatable Foe 2008, c. 256 pp This title is not yet available. You may preorder it, and we will ship it to you when it arrives.
courtesy of our partner, Atlas
Books |
Howard Metzenbaum’s Senate years
“In my experience, the Senate rewards persistence,
hard work, patience, and downright cussedness. Howard Metzenbaum had them
all.”
—Mike DeWine, U.S. Senator from
Ohio, 1995–2007
Howard Metzenbaum, a poor Jewish kid from the inner city of Cleveland who fought his way to wealth and the United States Senate, became one of Ohio’s most dominant politicians in the second half of the twentieth century. He represented his state for nineteen years on Capitol Hill, despite being to the political left of most of his heartland constituents. Fighting the Unbeatable Foe tells his story—from his stunning upset of John Glenn to his years as a powerful and outspoken member of the U.S. Senate.
Metzenbaum joined the Senate in 1974 and, despite never holding an official party leadership post or chairing a committee, fought his way to the top. He succeeded through sheer force of will and with a brilliant mind and a steely determination that drove him to take extreme measures to get his way. Though known to his colleagues as “Senator No” because of his willingness to tie up the Senate in parliamentary knots for hours on end to block legislation he didn’t like, hallmarks of conservative politicians, Metzenbaum was among the Senate’s most unabashedly liberal members.
Fighting the Unbeatable Foe is the first biography of Metzenbaum, a fascinating individual who, against the odds, rose from humble beginnings to become a multimillionaire businessman and one of the most effective and powerful senators in the land. By conducting interviews with Metzenbaum’s friends, foes, political scientists, and journalists and consulting primary-source materials, Tom Diemer provides new details about Metzenbaum’s business deals, his successes on Capitol Hill, and also his embarrassing failures and miscalculations. Metzenbaum remains among the most interesting and paradoxical figures in the history of Ohio politics. His story will be enjoyed by anyone interested in Ohio history and politics.
Tom Diemer covered Howard Metzenbaum during most of his second and third Senate terms. As a Plain Dealer congressional and political reporter, Diemer was on the beat in Washington from Ronald Reagan’s second term through mid-2004. He covered seven presidential campaigns during his career with the Cleveland newspaper and The Associated Press. He is currently deputy editor and lecturer in Northwestern University’s Medill News Service Washington program.
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