Fishbait: The Memoirs of the Congressional Doorkeeper

By William Miller and Frances Spatz Leighton

Book Overview

Realidades 4 Digital Edition (c)2014 provides standards-based instruction that seamlessly integrates vocabulary, grammar, communication, culture, and digital learning for upper level Spanish. This... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 044681637X
• ISBN13: 9780446816373
• Release Date: May 1978
• Publisher: Warner Books
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Engaging and Informative

William "Fishbait" Miller is one of those obscure figures who were lucky enough (or unlucky enough) to observe more of America's recent political history than the majority of us could ever hope to know. We could spend an entire lifetime learning what Miller observed firsthand. For several decades, he served as the doorkeeper for the U.S. House of Represenatives. During that time, he met and got to know some of the most prominent figures of recent American history -- Sam Rayburn, Adam Clayton Powell, Gerald Ford, Bella Abzug, Richard Nixon, and many others while remaining unknown to the general public. When Miller finally left his position in the mid-70s, he produced this engaging memoir, a good-humored look at the men and the institution that he had previously devoted his life too. Though slight on any in-depth analysis, the book is a treasure trove of anecdotes that reveal the human side of our often impersonal Congress. If you want to know about Congressman Marion Zioncheck's notorious drinking escapades of the 1930s or which Congressman was the most sensually-minded this is the book to read. This is the book is you want to know what a Sam Rayburn or a Lyndon Johnson was really like before they became just more distinguished names in stuffy history books. As well, Miller's details of the 1950 attack on Congress by Puerto Rican terrorists (a terrifying moment that, now forgotten, carries some renewed weight following the recent terrorist atrocities in New York and Washington) is both harrowing and moving.Though a proud Democrat, Miller's book is nicely nonpartisan, treating Republicans with the same affection as Miller's comrades. In fact, the only completely negative, unsympathetic portrait in the book is reserved for a Democrat, the notorious Rep. Wayne Hays who was known as the "meanest man in the House." Miller, who lost his job as a result of Hays, takes a sly delight in showing us why that reputation was deserved.This is an enjoyable, engaging memoir that should be required reading to anyone interested in the human side of American political history.