I'm Bill Moyers. It's good to have your ear. This week on Moorings & Company.

Forget Republican red or Democratic blue. The power color in Washington is the cool green of cash.

Mark Leibovic of the New York Times has written about the city's bipartisan lust for power, cash, and notoriety,

in a book that everyone who's anyone in the nation's capital is talking about.

This is the story of how Washington became an occupied city all in the name of crony capitalism.

If you can sell yourself as someone who knows how Washington works, someone who has these

relationships, someone who can get on the phone and get the President to the United States

to pardon your fugitive client, that's a very, very marketable commodity.

If you are seen as someone who knows how this town works, you can dine out for years.

That's why no one leaves.

Thanks for joining us.

I want to tell you about a book you simply have to read. I promise you will laugh and cry,

and by the end, I think you'll be ready for the revolution. The title is, This Town. An

up-close look at how our nation's capital

really works. I can tell you, it's not a pretty picture. The story of a city's bipartisan

lust for power, cash, and notoriety so overpowering that everyone and everything else get

sucked into its undertow. Government becomes no longer the servant

of the people, but in the thrall of big money, lobbyists, and a media happy to live off

its fancy leftovers in a feeding frenzy of gossip and shallow speculation. How appropriate that

a capital built on a swamp has sunk so low into the stinking mud. Mark Lieberich

is the chief national correspondent for the New York Times Magazine and is the author of this

town which has everyone who's anyone in Washington talking and whispering. What a tale it is.

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