Political Suicide: Missteps, Peccadilloes, Bad Calls, Backroom Hijinx, Sordid Pasts, Rotten Breaks, and Just Plain Dumb Mistakes in the Annals of American Politics

Prolific author McHugh (Like My Teacher Always Said…) serves up a hodgepodge of tales of less-than-bright-and-shining moments in American history. Included here are two- to four-page retellings on topics such as those sleazy political bedfellows sex and corruption, slavery advocates, and money scandals and the scoundrels who made them happen, as well as those people who played fast and loose with both real and contrived laws. Some stories are familiar: Aaron Burr vs. Alexander Hamilton (1804), the Teapot Dome Scandal (1921), the Whiskey Ring (1875), and the adventures of modern-day politicos, such as Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry, Oregon Sen. Robert Packwood, and Richard Nixon's secretary of agriculture Earl Butz. However, most of these adventures concern lesser-known individuals and unhappy yarns describe the fate of innocent victims, such as 1972 Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Edward Muskie, and the ruined reputations of those whose punishments did not fit the crimes, notably Bess Myerson, the former Miss America who served in New York City mayor Edward Koch's cabinet.