Riding home recently on the Metro, I spotted an ad for a bank at the Foggy Bottom station that read, “Remember when there were no oversight committees? That train has left the station.” There have been, of course, a lot of leave-takings in Washington in the wake of the November elections. Last month—December 8, to be precise, the last day of work for the 109th Congressional Republicans ousted in the November elections—there were no fewer than three “For Sale” signs posted along the short route between the Metro’s Dupont Circle stop and my own place. Untold numbers of apartments had gone up for lease again, and moving vans seemed to be parked on every other block.
Studies, polls, and D.C.-based think tanks don’t bother to address getting and spending among politicians and the legions who service them—whether as a reflection of personal style and taste or as the usual quid pro quo arrangements for which Washington is known. But food, clothing, hairdos, and literature have always been associated with leadership style. Remember Reagan’s JellyBelly obsession? The news flashes over Clinton’s fast-food choices, followed by his salad days? When Bush II took office GOP Pork Rinds got heavily marketed in D.C. and at conventions, barbecues surged in popularity, and people dusted off the cowboy boots shelved when Reagan left office.
So with this latest shift in power comes yet another round in the dance D.C. does every few years, changing not just partners, but opinions about appropriate personal style. Things have moved beyond boxers vs. briefs, as I learned over drinks at the Reliable Source, the bar at the National Press Club, from former and current State Department employees, an aging reporter, an international aid worker, and a couple of Georgetown professors. For instance, natural lipstick shades are replacing more garish hues like Tangerine Burst. And blonde—that was so 109th. Going to the salon for a few low-lights now becomes an act of political defiance for D.C. women, they said (and so tinting eyebrows a shade or two darker is, I gathered, almost revolutionary). But while laced shoes are replacing tasseled loafers, on the whole, Democrats—at least lately—seem less concerned with their wardrobes, considering how worn their khakis and tweeds are. Digital accessories, too, matter little unless they’re wired: In D.C. it’s far more common to watch commuters knocking down emails on BlackBerries than it is to see them fiddling with iPods.
Then there are the new twists on book-browsing in the nation’s capital. Books are personal purchases and possessions for anyone, but what Washington reads influences how Washington leads or bleeds. Erstwhile Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr knew this. It’s what led to his subpoena of Kramerbooks’ sales records in 1998, when he was sniffing out the personal affairs of Monica Lewinsky. Kramerbooks has been a socio-political force in this city since the end of World War II, when the Capital’s interest in books helped inform how politics, economics, and geopolitical studies could aid in rebuilding nations devastated by war.
Some say a new trend along similar lines has begun. Just before Election Day—when Minnesotans elected Keith Ellison, the nation’s first Black Muslim, to Congress—Kramerbooks reported its bestseller to be Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour, a book about Black Power that many, not least the white liberal activists streaming into D.C. to begin their new jobs, interpret as a template for restructuring society. Other pre-election bestsellers included Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope; Dangerous Nation: America’s Place in the World from its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the 20th Century by Robert Kagan; and Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, by David Kuo.
“Such trends are nothing new,” said Mitch Brown, the general manager of Kramerbooks, of the recent spate of political titles. “Some of it’s angry, some of it’s bitter. Most of it is similar to what we saw getting published eight or nine years ago. The only difference is that the attacks flip back and forth between parties based on who’s in power here.” During the waning years of the Clinton Administration, he pointed out, popular books tackled the same kinds of “who-are-we-and-where-are-going-as-a-nation?” questions from the other side.
“And then there are always the parody books,” Brown added. “They once made fun of Bill and Monica. Today, it’s Bush’s intelligence.” It’s just a matter of weeks, or months, he said, before the next victims of the humor/parody genre emerge.
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