Representative Mom: Balancing Budgets, Bill and Baby in the U.S. Congress - Hardcover

Molinari, Susan

3.62

8 ratings by Goodreads

9780385492201: Representative Mom: Balancing Budgets, Bill and Baby in the U.S. Congress

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385492200 ISBN 13: 9780385492201

Publisher: Doubleday, 1998

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The touching, funny, and human story of an ordinary working mother's adventures in extraordinary places: Susan Molinari, the highest-ranking woman ever to serve in the U.S.  Congress, now host of "CBS News Saturday Morning".

She was the youngest person ever elected to the New York City Council.  After her election to the U.S.  Congress, she quickly rose to a leadership position, becoming the highest-ranking woman ever to serve in that body and one of the most popular politicians in the country.

Her appeal lay in her commitment and in her personality.  USA Today praised her as "one of the most visible baby-boomer advocates for women's issues." Entertainment Weekly said Molinari has "a smile so wide that her eyes have to close to make room for it on her face." She was the keynote speaker at the 1996 Republican National Convention, an early and forceful advocate for intervention in Bosnia, and a dedicated fiscal conservative deeply concerned with the welfare of women and children.

Yet at the height of her power, the woman the New York Times called "one of the Republican Party's most promising politicians" decided to take on a completely new challenge--anchoring a new major morning news program.

The ups and downs of Susan Molinari's remarkable life form the heart of this warm, lively narrative.  Bright, hardworking, and energetic, she took on challenges when no one thought she could succeed and painstakingly built a career, eventually rising to the summit of her profession.  She also met Congressman Bill Paxon, the man of her dreams, married him, and started a family.

In Representative Mom, Susan Molinari relates the pressures, joys, and complications of being a powerful woman in a traditionally male-dominated environment, and discusses--with humor and grace--the difficulties of balancing family life with professional responsibilities.  Her story mirrors the dilemmas and triumphs of a generation of American women.

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Review:

Despite the book's title, and its gushing dedication to her daughter Susan Ruby, ("I think of you, and I thank God (and my own mother)"), former congresswoman Susan Molinari's Representative Mom has more to do with political than family leadership.

And how could it be otherwise? Molinari came only recently to motherhood, not long before quitting politics in 1997 to pursue a career as host of a morning TV news show. She's been a political player since the age of 27, when she became the youngest person ever elected to the New York City Council. It was only a few years later that she was elected to the U.S. Congress, following in the footsteps of her father, Guy Molinari.

The younger Molinari's politics are an interesting hybrid. A pro-choice, feminist, Staten Island-raised Republican in the George Bush mold, she often found herself breaking ranks with her party on issues such as child care and gun control. Not surprisingly, she believes in the art of compromise. "I've never been one to win my issues by threatening to impale myself on a sword." she says of her political style. "Some people consider that a deficiency. 'Oh, Susan Molinari plays the game,'they say. They sorely misunderstand the nature of the political process."

This is a straightforward memoir that will be of interest to readers who want a more detailed picture of the meteoric rise of one woman in the political arena, as well as the leading figures with whom she worked. --Maria Dolan

About the Author:

Cowriter Elinor Burkett is the author of The Right Woman, a book about radically conservative women, The Gravest Show on Earth, about the AIDS crisis, and with Frank Bruni, Consumer Terrorism. She was nominated for a 1991 Pulitzer Prize for her work with the Miami Herald. She lives in Hobart, New York.

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