This morning Tom Geoghegan, author of The Secret Lives of Citizens, announced that he’s running to win the Congressional seat just vacated by Rahm Emmanuel, who officially resigned in December to become Barack Obama’s chief of staff. We learned from Gapers Block’s coverage of the announcement that Geoghegan is discussing the run with bloggers at Daily Kos.
The Secret Lives, though, offers an even more in-depth and personal look at the thought of this new candidate for the seat previously held not only by Emmanuel but also, as James Fallows reminds us, by our now-nationally-notorious Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Fallows notes, too, that this book, along with Geoghegan’s other works, are “masterful and original pieces of thinking and writing.”
Or, as Nicholas Lemann put it, it’s “part Catcher in the Rye, part The Road to Wigan Pier, part The Federalist Papers.” In short, far from your average book-by-a-newly-minted-politician!