>From Kirkus
The chronicle of a farcically troubled marriage between two rich, hubristic
West Coast techies and their e-mail–challenged D.C. counterparts. Miles
(who's covered politics for Wired) has spent the past four years—the height
of the dot.com era—with New Economy wunderkinds and Washington powerbrokers.
Her star player is the self-appointed kingmaker Wade Randlett, a former
fundraiser and centrist"New Democrat" who fashioned himself as the
go-between for politicos (for whom the Internet was not much more than a
breeding ground for Matt Drudge) and technocrats (who were, at best,
apolitical and, at worst,"naïve libertarians"). In 1996 Randlett found
common ground with legendary venture capitalist John Doerr and enlisted him
in a sort of grassroots campaign for millionaires to undo California's
controversial Proposition 211 (which would have facilitated shareholder
lawsuits against company executives). The subsequent defeat of 211 landed
Randlett in the center of what would become Silicon Valley's impressive, if
easily retractable, access to the White House and Congress. The
political-economic back-and-forth was a windfall for the technos (in terms
of legislation) and for the pols (in terms of money)—an arrangement that
would soon settle into a common special-interest quid pro quo. But before
Miles's account wonders off into the sunset, her fly-on-the-wall reporting
proves breathtaking. In particular, she has fun with the culture clash
between the ancien régime and the Young Turks: in one raucous instance,
Doerr (with little grasp or concern for proper senatorial gravitas) lectures
an incredulous Senator Jay Rockefeller on how things will bedone,causing one
onlooker to quip,"Get me a camera... . That's old money versus new money
right there." In between anti-Microsoft conspiracy rumors and cameos from
Bezos et al., Miles offers trenchant analyses of, among other things,
the"digital divide" and the nuances of party subdivisions. A sweeping debut
not only for the author but also for this branch of American poli-sci, with
color on every page and a hacker's gift for cutting through the blather.
One of the SF Chronicle's political reporters, Carla Marinucci quotes that DLC'er, Wade Brandlett, constantly. Along with Congresswoman Tauscher, another New Democrat. Michael Pugliese