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by Robert B. Reich
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Product Description
Locked in the Cabinet is a close-up view of the way things work, and often don't work, at the highest levels of government--and a uniquely personal account by the man whose ideas inspired and animated much of the Clinton campaign of 1992 and who became the cabinet officer in charge of helping ordinary Americans get better jobs. Robert B. Reich, writer, teacher, social critic--and a friend of the Clintons since they were all in their twenties--came to be known as the "conscience of the Clinton administration and one of the most successful Labor Secretaries in history. Here is his sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant chronicle of trying to put ideas and ideals into practice.
With wit, passion, and dead-aim honesty, Reich writes of those in Washington who possess hard heads and soft hearts, and those with exactly the opposite attributes. He introduces us to the career bureaucrats who make Washington run and the politicians who, on occasion, make it stop; to business tycoons and labor leaders who clash by day and party together by night; to a president who wants to change America and his opponents (on both the left and the right) who want to keep it as it is or return it to where it used to be. Reich guides us to the pinnacles of power and pretension, as bills are passed or stalled, reputations built or destroyed, secrets leaked, numbers fudged, egos bruised, news stories spun, hypocrisies exposed, and good intentions occasionally derailed. And to the places across America where those who are the objects of this drama are simply trying to get by--assembly lines, sweatshops, union halls, the main streets of small towns and the tough streets of central cities.
Locked in the Cabinet is an intimate odyssey involving a memorable cast--a friend who is elected President of the United States, only to discover the limits of power; Alan Greenspan, who is the most powerful man in America; and Newt Gingrich, who tries to be. Plus a host of others: White House staffers and cabinet members who can't find "the loop ; political consultant Dick Morris, who becomes "the loop ; baseball players and owners who can't agree on how to divide up $2 billion a year; a union leader who accuses Reich of not knowing what a screwdriver looks like; a heretofore invisible civil servant deep in the Labor Department whose brainchild becomes the law of the land; and a wondrous collection of senators, foreign ministers, cabinet officers, and television celebrities. And it is also an odyssey for Reich's wife and two young sons, who learn to tolerate their own cabinet member but not to abide Washington.
Here is Reich--determined to work for a more just society, laboring in a capital obsessed with exorcising the deficit and keeping Wall Street happy--learning that Washington is not only altogether different from the world of ordinary citizens but ultimately, and more importantly, exactly like it: a world in which Murphy's Law reigns alongside the powerful and the privileged, but where hope amazingly persists. There are triumphs here to fill a lifetime, and frustrations to fill two more. Never has this world been revealed with such richness of evidence, humor, and warmhearted candor.
Amazon.com Review
On the face of it, here's an improbable book: a memoir of four years as Secretary of ... Labor. Well, in this case it works because the author is Robert B. Reich, a warm and lively writer who because of his 'Friend Of Bill' status and his strong positions on economic issues was inside virtually every political and ideological tussle of the Clinton administration's first term. What puts the book over the top though is that its author retains his humanity even after walking through the looking glass of official Washington. We experience, for instance, the angst of having to let his two sons and wife go back to the family home in Cambridge because he can't quite yet leave the struggle for such improvements as an increase in the minimum wage. Throughout it all, Reich keeps the sharp eye of the outsider. Witness for example this comment about Newt Gingrich: "His office is adorned with figurines of dinosaurs, as you might find in the bedrooms of little boys who dream of one day being huge and powerful."
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Locked in the cabinet, 2008-06-30
Robert Reich gives a human touch to the deliberations with high levels of government and how the president is sometimes trapped by congress and his advisors and not able to follow his compaign promises. It also presents the frustations of a cabinet secretary working to improve the staus of those working for minimal wages and all the time loosing to the desires of big business. He describes what one gives-up of himself to serve in a president's cabinet. It is very readable, much like a diary and follows the cronology of Clinton's first 4 years. Mr. Reich is also humorus and not afraid to relate his foibles as secretary of commerce. An enjoyable and informative read
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
The Hobo Philosopher, 2008-04-28
Robert Reich was the Secretary of Labor in the first Clinton administration. This book is written in the "Dear Diary" type of format. "Locked in the Cabinet" is real, personal, family, exciting, funny, lovable and though I hate to use the term ... cute. Whether you are Right or Left I think if you read this book, you would agree that Mr. Reich is a man who has his heart and his priorities in the appropriate positions.
Mr. Reich has a beautiful simplicity about what he has to say and what he suggests. You don't have to be Albert Einstein to understand what he is suggesting or where he is coming from. He is an excellent spokesman for his side of the story. And he breaks the issues down so that the reader can clearly distinguish one choice from the other. He makes the issues clear.
If you are a Political buff you will find all types of insider personality profiles. He is very outspoken and blunt. He doesn't seem to be the least bit afraid of making enemies - he might be naive but he has been around long enough that we all know that he should know better. But then he says it anyway.
What I really liked about this book is that it is not just politics - it is a literary effort also. It is a story; it's a novel; it has a beginning, a middle and an end. It's good. It's easy reading. It is insightful, thoughtful and emotional.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Useful Foundation Book for any Future President, 2007-12-20
When I devised my policy grid of 12 areas where any President must have integrated forward-thinking sustainable policies, the Economy was one of them, and this book was helpful to me.
Unfortunately, Cabinets represent organized stake-holders, not We the People, and they not only do not know who to "do" open source intelligence and decision-support, they spend more of their time defending budget share.
The next President needs to demand that every American be a member of a labor union or professional association, and that the economy be managed of, by, and for We the People.
See also, with reviews:
The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism: How the Financial System Underminded Social Ideals, Damaged Trust in the Markets, Robbed Investors of Trillions - and What to Do About It
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill
Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future - and What It Will Take to Win It Back
War on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War onthe American Dream and How to Fight Back
The Working Poor: Invisible in America
Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
still a classic!, 2006-12-13
I continue to use this book in my "Intro. to Public Policy" course. I ask my mostly first- and second-year students at the end of the semester if they like the book and if they think it is useful even though it's now almost 9 years old. They thoroughly enjoy it and appreciate gaining a better understanding of the Clinton administration and events in the 1990s that happened when they were only 6-12 years old. Highly recommend.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Reveiling the other side of the Clinton Administration, 2006-04-13
So far, I've read three other memoirs from the Clinton Administration; those of Mr. & Mrs. Clinton and Bob Rubin.
"Locked in the Cabinet" exhibits a sharp contrast to all other three in that it is the more casual and down to earth recollection of what was happening behind the Democrat-"Putting People First" - disguise of the Clinton Administration, where, in the face of Bill Clinton's indecisiveness, some of the key cabinet members and the Federal Reserve's chief continued to put big businesses and Wall Street first, at the expense of working class America which the Labor Secretary represented. Reich describes some of his cabinet colleagues, plus the President, the First Lady and Greenspan, in an unprecedented light.
He also well explains his ideal fresh from den being constantly challenged and often destroyed by political balance of power and reality. He does so with passion, wit, colloquialism, and the sense of forgiveness.
As a reader in Japan where (from wive's point of view) what traditionally makes a good husband is a big bread winner who is hardly home, the detailed descriptions of the author's struggles against his family missing him badly is too alien to me. The author who held a highly respected cabinet position away from family would have made a most desirable husband in Japan.
I would like to read how his family life developed after he was reunited. Hope he is happy in Berkeley now.
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