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CHOICE Review

This book is part of a larger project in which the author will examine a six-year slice of the political careers of nine senators. Understandably, when Dan Quayle became the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Fenno rushed the "Quayle portion" of the manuscript into print. Based on his interviews with Quayle and his staff from 1980 through 1986, Fenno's book tells two stories. The first is about the relationship between governing and campaigning, and here Fenno is primarily interested in how incumbents manipulate the explanation of their Washington work to their advantage during reelection campaigns. The author's second story, the growth of Quayle into a competent senator, is more successfully developed. From his "over the shoulder" perspective, Fenno provides a rich portrait of a rookie subcommittee chair marshalling bipartisan support for the Job Training Partnership Act, initially against the wishes both of the administration and of his committee chair. Fenno's account of an action-oriented, hardworking, politically astute, but intellectually shallow Quayle, provides a complex portrayal of the sort only now beginning to appear in the press. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates and graduate students. P. Gardner Luther College