The politics of cynicism.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: TILTING at windmills

I have had a couple of months to think about Mark Leibovich's book This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral--Plus, Plenty of Valet Parking!--in America's Gilded Capital, and I remain in awe of his memorable description of the late Tim Russert's memorial service. Leibovich also nails the extent to which selling out has become acceptable in Washington. He offers one telling example after another, including one of a congressional staffer discussing how best to "monetize his government service."

But I do find that I have concerns about This Town. One is that the book, as Leibovich himself explained to C-SPAN's Brian Lamb in a recent interview, can have the effect of making people cynical. Why do I worry about that? Because cynical is exactly what the bad guys want us to be. As the economist and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich pointed out in an interview with Bill Moyers, "What the powerful moneyed interests would like in this country is for us all to get so cynical about politics that we basically give up."

A clue as to why Leibovich does not seem to see that giving up is the danger of his cynicism came when he told Lamb, "I am not in the solutions game." If he had thought about it, one solution to the situation he describes in This Town is political action. When I wanted to see change in the 1950s, I worked on campaigns, ran for office, served in the West Virginia legislature, and later came to Washington with the Kennedy administration. You have to participate in the system if you are going to change it. I wish Leibovich had thought about how essential politics and politicians are to fixing Washington. Then, perhaps, he would have given a more balanced picture of Senator Chuck Schumer and Chris Matthews, to take two examples. Sure, their hustling can be embarrassing, but Schumer is not only very bright and hardworking but...