In life, timing can be everything. In the competitive world of publishing, that is especially true.
Christopher Buckley is an author, editor of ForbesLife magazine, and the son of the late Conservative icon William F. Buckley. He is the recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence.
His dozen novels are humorous satires of the Washington, D.C., political milieu, including “Thank You For Smoking,” which was made into a successful movie a few years ago. That novel was a scathing portrait of a tobacco lobbyist, and lobbyists in general.
His latest novel is titled “Supreme Courtship,” and it tells the humorous tale of a small town female judge from down-home Texas who is chosen by the president for a seat on the Supreme Court. As it says at the beginning of the book “Any resemblance to actual events, locales, persons, living or dead is coincidental.” For the author, it is also fortuitous.
Buckley wrote this novel long before John McCain chose Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate, and it was published shortly before Palin was named. The timing was perfect.
Donald Vandercamp is an unpopular president. He is at war with Congress because he has vetoed every spending bill they have submitted. Vandercamp is a fiscal conservative who walks the walk, a man who cannot abide pork barrel spending, and is willing to use his veto pen to stop it.
His nickname on Capitol Hill is “Don Veto,” and he is as unpopular with the American people as he is with Congress, although his beleaguered press secretary reminds reporters that the president's approval ratings are “in the high 20s.”
When an elderly Supreme Court justice has begun to show signs of mental deterioration, such as wearing tin foil wrapped around his ears to oral arguments at the Supreme Court, it is decided that he must retire.
This opens up a seat to be filled by the president. It is an awesome task, one that most presidents relish because of the long-reaching effects of the choice. It is not always an easy task, though, because the Senate Judicial Committee holds hearings on the nominee, and this can turn into a circus atmosphere as we have seen over the years with several nominees.
Vandercamp nominates a “jurist of impeccable credentials,” Judge Cooney, a man who “was an exemplar of every judicial virtue.” The senator in charge of the committee is Dexter Mitchell, a handsome man from Connecticut, who hates Vandercamp.
Mitchell (who is supposedly based slightly on Sen. Joe Biden, another fortunate coincidence for the author) has a team called the Wraith Riders whose task is to find some dirt on the nominee. The only thing they can come up with is that when Cooney was in middle school he wrote a not-so-favorable review of the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Mitchell was off and running, and Judge Cooney was turned down. Vandercamp was furious, but he had another excellent choice in Judge Burrows, who had “credentials that would entitle him to the E-Z Pass lane at the Pearly Gates.” Again, Mitchell and his team destroy the nomination.
President Vandercamp knew that Mitchell was doing this to teach him a lesson. Mitchell had come to Vandercamp to ask that he be named to the Supreme Court seat, and Vandercamp flatly turned him down. This was the payback.
But Vandercamp would have the last laugh. While watching television one night, he came across a show called “Courtroom Six.” The star was a no-nonsense former judge from Texas, a gorgeous gal named Pepper Cartwright.
Cartwright is similar to Judge Judy, but younger and prettier; she uses down-home common sense to decide the cases before her, and her toughness with defendants, along with her use of Texas phrases, has made her show a top 10 staple.
The president decides to show Sen. Mitchell up. He hits upon the idea of nominating the popular Pepper Cartwright to the Supreme Court. He meets with Pepper, and likes her of-the-people manner, and her tendency to not suffer fools gladly. He is satisfied that she is intelligent enough, and submits her name.
Mitchell thinks that he will destroy Pepper, but he has his work cut out for him. The American people adore Pepper, and she will not go down without a fight. When she goes to meet Mitchell on Capitol Hill, she arrives not in a black limo with a driver, but roars up in her cherry red pickup truck, hops out and waves to the reporters.
Cartwright does her homework, and she beats Mitchell at his own game in her confirmation hearings. He endorses her, and she wins approval from the Senate.
Although she fears that she is in over her head, Pepper takes her seat on the Supreme Court. The other members of the Court are interesting in their own right. The Chief Justice is in the middle of a divorce from his wife who left him for another woman. He is depressed and drinks too much.
Justice Silvio Santamaria is an ultra-conservative, extremely religious, bully of a man. He uses his intellect as a weapon against anyone he believes is inferior, which is everyone. Justice Paige Plympton is described as “the Court den mother,” always attempting to bring the disparate personalities on the Court together to no avail.
Many of the court opinions are 5-4, and when Pepper joins the court, this means that she is frequently the deciding opinion since the junior-most justice votes last. Her first two cases are controversial, including the case of a bank robber who sues a gun manufacturer because his gun misfired when he was holding up a bank.
Meanwhile, back on Capitol Hill, an amendment is passed limiting the president's term to one. This rankles Vandercamp who, although he does not want a second term, refuses to let Congress bully America into this. Senator Mitchell runs against Vandercamp, and the outcome of the election must be decided by the Supreme Court - sound familiar?
“Supreme Courtship” is a humorous novel. Buckley's use of footnotes at the bottom of the pages is hilarious, as he explains Latin phrases and political terms. Part of the fun of reading the novel is deciding which characters are who in today's Washington D.C. Buckley also encourages the reader to expand her vocabulary as he uses unfamiliar words that encourage the near proximity of a dictionary.
If you enjoy politics and want to get away from the seriousness of it all, pick up “Supreme Courtship” for a good laugh. I give it three and half stars.
Diane La Rue is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. Her lifelong goal is to read one book per week. She can be reached at
laruediane2000@yahoo.com
His dozen novels are humorous satires of the Washington, D.C., political milieu, including “Thank You For Smoking,” which was made into a successful movie a few years ago. That novel was a scathing portrait of a tobacco lobbyist, and lobbyists in general.
His latest novel is titled “Supreme Courtship,” and it tells the humorous tale of a small town female judge from down-home Texas who is chosen by the president for a seat on the Supreme Court. As it says at the beginning of the book “Any resemblance to actual events, locales, persons, living or dead is coincidental.” For the author, it is also fortuitous.
Buckley wrote this novel long before John McCain chose Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate, and it was published shortly before Palin was named. The timing was perfect.
Donald Vandercamp is an unpopular president. He is at war with Congress because he has vetoed every spending bill they have submitted. Vandercamp is a fiscal conservative who walks the walk, a man who cannot abide pork barrel spending, and is willing to use his veto pen to stop it.
His nickname on Capitol Hill is “Don Veto,” and he is as unpopular with the American people as he is with Congress, although his beleaguered press secretary reminds reporters that the president's approval ratings are “in the high 20s.”
When an elderly Supreme Court justice has begun to show signs of mental deterioration, such as wearing tin foil wrapped around his ears to oral arguments at the Supreme Court, it is decided that he must retire.
This opens up a seat to be filled by the president. It is an awesome task, one that most presidents relish because of the long-reaching effects of the choice. It is not always an easy task, though, because the Senate Judicial Committee holds hearings on the nominee, and this can turn into a circus atmosphere as we have seen over the years with several nominees.
Vandercamp nominates a “jurist of impeccable credentials,” Judge Cooney, a man who “was an exemplar of every judicial virtue.” The senator in charge of the committee is Dexter Mitchell, a handsome man from Connecticut, who hates Vandercamp.
Mitchell (who is supposedly based slightly on Sen. Joe Biden, another fortunate coincidence for the author) has a team called the Wraith Riders whose task is to find some dirt on the nominee. The only thing they can come up with is that when Cooney was in middle school he wrote a not-so-favorable review of the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Mitchell was off and running, and Judge Cooney was turned down. Vandercamp was furious, but he had another excellent choice in Judge Burrows, who had “credentials that would entitle him to the E-Z Pass lane at the Pearly Gates.” Again, Mitchell and his team destroy the nomination.
President Vandercamp knew that Mitchell was doing this to teach him a lesson. Mitchell had come to Vandercamp to ask that he be named to the Supreme Court seat, and Vandercamp flatly turned him down. This was the payback.
But Vandercamp would have the last laugh. While watching television one night, he came across a show called “Courtroom Six.” The star was a no-nonsense former judge from Texas, a gorgeous gal named Pepper Cartwright.
Cartwright is similar to Judge Judy, but younger and prettier; she uses down-home common sense to decide the cases before her, and her toughness with defendants, along with her use of Texas phrases, has made her show a top 10 staple.
The president decides to show Sen. Mitchell up. He hits upon the idea of nominating the popular Pepper Cartwright to the Supreme Court. He meets with Pepper, and likes her of-the-people manner, and her tendency to not suffer fools gladly. He is satisfied that she is intelligent enough, and submits her name.
Mitchell thinks that he will destroy Pepper, but he has his work cut out for him. The American people adore Pepper, and she will not go down without a fight. When she goes to meet Mitchell on Capitol Hill, she arrives not in a black limo with a driver, but roars up in her cherry red pickup truck, hops out and waves to the reporters.
Cartwright does her homework, and she beats Mitchell at his own game in her confirmation hearings. He endorses her, and she wins approval from the Senate.
Although she fears that she is in over her head, Pepper takes her seat on the Supreme Court. The other members of the Court are interesting in their own right. The Chief Justice is in the middle of a divorce from his wife who left him for another woman. He is depressed and drinks too much.
Justice Silvio Santamaria is an ultra-conservative, extremely religious, bully of a man. He uses his intellect as a weapon against anyone he believes is inferior, which is everyone. Justice Paige Plympton is described as “the Court den mother,” always attempting to bring the disparate personalities on the Court together to no avail.
Many of the court opinions are 5-4, and when Pepper joins the court, this means that she is frequently the deciding opinion since the junior-most justice votes last. Her first two cases are controversial, including the case of a bank robber who sues a gun manufacturer because his gun misfired when he was holding up a bank.
Meanwhile, back on Capitol Hill, an amendment is passed limiting the president's term to one. This rankles Vandercamp who, although he does not want a second term, refuses to let Congress bully America into this. Senator Mitchell runs against Vandercamp, and the outcome of the election must be decided by the Supreme Court - sound familiar?
“Supreme Courtship” is a humorous novel. Buckley's use of footnotes at the bottom of the pages is hilarious, as he explains Latin phrases and political terms. Part of the fun of reading the novel is deciding which characters are who in today's Washington D.C. Buckley also encourages the reader to expand her vocabulary as he uses unfamiliar words that encourage the near proximity of a dictionary.
If you enjoy politics and want to get away from the seriousness of it all, pick up “Supreme Courtship” for a good laugh. I give it three and half stars.
Diane La Rue is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. Her lifelong goal is to read one book per week. She can be reached at
laruediane2000@yahoo.com
Citizen
Hot Jobs
New! Off the Menu
The Citizens' Say
Post your comment - click hereThere are No comments posted.