Big Government

Ev Ehrlich spent four years in the White House Mess as Bill Clinton's Undersecretary of Commerce. Now, in the funniest literary debut since Christopher Buckley's, Ehrlich lets us know that everything we suspected about our government is true--and we don't even know the half of it. When the president--hugely popular but no longer having any fun--steps down to accept a better offer, he throws the field wide open, kicking off a frantic election year from top to bottom. The vice president is sinking fast, bunkered down, and desperate for more effective dirty tricks. Senators and congressmen scramble to put together new coalitions or reinvent the old ones with ever-slicker gimmicks. Special interests everywhere watch and wait to see which way to jump. Out of this electoral whirlwind emerge Lenny Keeler, a small-town hero who finds prominence thrust upon him while working for Congressman Ezra T. Wheezle . . . Dickie Vanderhaltz, an unemployed geology professor who fails upward far enough to become amajor third-party candidate . . . Col. Cody Clark, the evangelical TV investment advisor out to turn a quick profit . . . Laslo Schang, publishe