Show Time: The American Political Circus and the Race for the White House.

• Author: Pitney, John J., Jr.

Roger Simon, New York: Times Books, 356 pages, $25.00

In his meandering account of the 1996 campaign, syndicated columnist Roger Simon tells how President Clinton joked about a famous Inca mummy: "I don't know if you've seen that mummy. But, you know, if I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out. That's a goodlooking mummy."

In Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz's look at White House press operations, we learn the rest of the story. During an "off-the-record" bull session with reporters later that day, White House press secretary Mike McCurry topped Clinton's gag with one of his own: "Probably she does look good compared to the mummy he's been [having sex with]."

These two passages illustrate a difference between the two books. Clintoh's mummy line is, as the White House likes to say, "old news." It appeared in dozens of press reports, and Simon's account adds nothing to what we already knew: that even a 500-year-old corpse can gets. guy thinking about sex. By contrast, McCurry jab is fresh information, which itself made news when Spin Cycle came out. What's more important, the story offers insight into McCurry's style: By making a naughty side comment about the Clintons, he sought to charm White House reporters, who might thus become a tad more receptive to his pro-Clinton spin on larger matters. He's so good at his work that publication of the remark did not cost him his job, though it probably did earn him a curse from the First Mummy.

Though the lesser book of the two, Show Time does merit attention. One could easily rework it into a textbook on political writing, whose new title would be Don't Do This. The jacket notes call it a "riveting, rollicking, behind-the-curtains peek at the greatest show on earth: the modern American presidential campaign." It's more like a cheap circus that promises a wild-animal show and produces a wretched pack of mangy dogs. Simon has caged every cliche from the 1996 campaign and billed it as a revelation. Dole was an old man who lacked vision and ran a rotten campaign! Clinton was a slippery politician! Perot was a loony!

One might forgive Simon for his trite themes if he compensated with witty prose. He doesn't. A chapter on Dole's war wound bears the title "Arm and the Man." If that high-culture reference is too sophisticated for you, Simon serves up plenty of pop. "On Bob Dole's bad days, he looked like Grandpa Munster. On his really bad days, he sounded like him." To anybody who...