Frank Church, D.C., and Me

Bill Hall was a great editorial writer and columnist for the Lewiston (Idaho) Morning Tribune for many years, in the midst of which he took off to work for Senator and presidential candidate Frank Church. This memoir of that time (which sat in manuscript form for years before it was published) is just about the only long-form writing Hall has done, and it's everything his fans could want. It's an I-went-to-Washington story, with an end as well as a beginning (he returned to his old job afterward), but about the most enjoyable you'll find. Not least because Hall doesn't come away jaded. A bit enlightened about some things, maybe, but not jaded. His humanity and humor don't fail him, even on his ventures around the Potomac.

Twenty years after he left the U.S. Senate and 17 years after his death, many people have forgotten Idaho's Frank Church. In his day, Church was a nationally recognized U.S. Senator. In this book, Bill Hall looks back at one of the milestones of Church's career, his late campaign for President in 1976 in which he won five primaries and caucuses. For those who like politics, this book will take you behind the scenes of Chuuch's Senate office and campaign structure. Hall worked for Church in '76, and he recalls in detail the hopes, dreams, egos, conflicts, ambition, and exhaustion that are a part of any bid for the nation's highest office.Besides Church, interesting figures explored in the book are his wife and great supporter, Bethine, longtime friend and political aide Carl Burke, and his Senate chief of staff, Verda Barnes, one of the most powerful women on Capitol Hill during that time.We are fortunate that the Frank Church campaign is documented as it has been here.