Advise and Consent
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- For the legal principle, see Advice and consent
| Author | Allen Drury |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Political fiction |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| Released | 11 July 1959 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) & Audio Book (Cassette |
| Pages | 616 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-385-05419-X (hardcover edition) & ISBN 0-380-01007-0 (paperback edition) |
Advise and Consent is a political novel written by Allen Drury, published in 1959.
The book explores the reactions of those in and around the United States Senate to the controversial nomination of a former Communist Party member, Robert Leffingwell, to be United States Secretary of State.
Contents |
[edit] Background
The novel's title comes from the United States Constitution's Article II, Sec. 2, cl. 2, which provides that the President of the United States "shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consults, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States...."
The book's theme is based loosely on the Alger Hiss and David Lilienthal controversies.
Advise and Consent won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1960. Drury wrote five sequels, none of which achieved the success of Advise and Consent.
[edit] Plot Synopsis
Warning: spoilers follow
The novel details how a U.S. President (who goes unnamed, but who bears a strong resemblance to Franklin Roosevelt and is a fictional contemporary of the Eisenhower era) decides to name a new Secretary of State in an attempt to reach a rapprochment with the Soviet Union. The nominee is Robert Leffingwell, who is the darling of the "liberal" media establishment and academia. Leffingwell is viewed as an appeaser to the Soviet Union by more hard line members of the Senate, who must vote on his nomination. Shepherding the nomination throught the Senate is Majority Leader Robert Munson, who is trying to ensure that the President gets his nominee confirmed while also massaging the egos of his fellow Senators, both in the Majority and the Minority. Drury never uses the words "Democrat" or "Republican" in any of his novels, but given the fact that the Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate for all but 4 years during the 1940s and 1950s and throughout the 1960s and 1970s, it can be assumed that Drury means Democrat when he says Majority and Republican when he says Minority.
Leffingwell's nomination is proceeding smoothly, despite tough questioning from hawks such as South Carolina's senior Senator Seabright (Seab) Cooley, when the Foreign Relations sub-committee that is handling the nomination summons a Herbert Gelman to testify. Under oath, Gelman states that he and Leffingwell belonged to a Communist cell while in college. The cell consisted of four men, one of whom is dead, Leffingwell, Gelman, and a man named James Morton. Leffingwell is allowed to cross-examine Gelman, demonstrating that Leffingwell had gone out of his way to help Gelman obtain Federal employment even after Gelman had suffered a nervous breakdown. The sub-committee deems that Gelman's testimony is rather far-fetched, and the chairman, Senator Brigham Anderson of Utah, is about to send the nomination to the full Foreign Relations Committee when a man who is currently in the President's sub-cabinet calls Senator Anderson to tell him that at one time he was known as James Morton.
Anderson decides to continue his sub-committee hearings, enraging the President, who instructs Majority Leader Munson to "get something" on Anderson to make him cease and desist. As it turns out, Anderson does have something to hide. While he was in Hawaii for R&R late in World War II, Senator Anderson had a month-long affair with another serviceman. The novel never uses the word homosexual or gay (that word was not widely used when the book was published in 1959), but it is clearly obvious that Senator Anderson has been struggling with his sexuality throughout his life, despite having a wife and child and being a Mormon. The only evidence of this affair is a picture the two men took together in Hawaii, which Anderson's wife, Mabel, gives to him along with some other items she had cleaned out of the attic. The picture is in a sealed envelope, so his wife, Mabel, has no idea about his past liaison, although she has complained tearily on several occasions that she "does not feel loved" in their marriage. Anderson is taking the photograph for disposal, when while driving to the Capitol he picks up Associate Supreme Court Justice Tommy Davis. Davis is solidly behind the Leffingwell nomination, and gently chides Anderson about any opposition he might have about Leffingwell. As Anderson drops off Davis at the Supreme Court, the envelope with the picture falls out of the car. Davis picks it up, opens it, and realizes that he has the weapon needed to make sure that Anderson allows Leffingwell's nomination to go forward.
All the principal characters attend the White House Correspondents' dinner on the following evening, where the President departs from tradition and tells the assembled reporters that he will have news for them that evening. In firm tones he states that he stands 100% behind his Secretary of State nominee. He then departs the dinner and invites his somewhat bumbling Vice President, Harley Hudson of Michigan, back to the White House for a nightcap. Majority Leader Munson and Senator Anderson are also invited, and the President finally discovers what information Anderson has about Leffingwell. Amazingly, the President decides that the best course of action is to get Mr. Morton out of town while the nomination goes forward. Anderson vehemently objects, stating the honorable thing to do at this point is to withdraw the nomination. The President appears to agree with this sentiment, but as Anderson and Vice President Hudson leave the White House, the President orders Majority Leader Munson to stay behind. During the Correspondents' dinner. Associate Justice Davis had slipped the President a note, letting him know that he had given the Majority Leader "a picture of Brig that you ought to see". Munson reluctantly gives the President the picture, who in turn gives it to Senator Fred Van Ackerman of Wyoming, who is head of the Committee On Making Further Efforts for a Russian Truce (COMFORT), and who bitterly despises Anderson for the respect and prestige he enjoys in the Senate.
Van Ackerman leaks the photo to a couple of columnists, and makes mention of it in a speech he gives at a COMFORT rally, which is televised nationally. Pushed to the wall, Anderson admits his past to his wife, and begins to contemplate suicide. The next morning, the editor of the Washington Post pays Anderson a visit. He has a copy of a column that does everything but flat-out state that Anderson had a gay affair while in the Army. The Post editor tears up the column in front of Anderson and states that the paper won't run it, and neither will any other paper in Washington (there were 3 dailies in DC during the 1950s). But, the editor says, sooner or later some small town paper will run the column, prompting the wire services to pick it up, and then the Post and others will be forced to either run the story or simply carry the wire service story without comment. At this point, Anderson decides that he must committ suicide in order to maintain his honor and dignity. He goes to his Capitol office and shoots himself.
[edit] Anderson's Suicide and Aftermath
The death of Senator Anderson turns the vast majority of the Senate against both the President and the Majority Leader. Orrin Knox, senior Senator from Illinois and Anderson's best friend, becomes de facto leader, and vows to defeat the Leffingwell nomination. The Senate votes unanimously to censure Van Ackerman for contributing to Senator Anderson's death; after the vote, Van Ackerman fades into obscurity. The President summons Knox, a two-time presidential candidate, to the White House and promises to back him for the party's nomination next year if he will let the Leffingwell nomination go through. Knox dares him to put this promise in writing, and the President does so. The President also tells Knox that the Soviets have just launched a manned mission to the Moon and that he will need a good Secretary of State to deal with the Soviets after this technological triumph. Knox takes the note and discusses its contents with his Senate colleagues, but he ultimately decides to stick to his principles and oppose the Leffingwell nomination. Before the Senate votes on Leffingwell, the Soviet Moon-mission cosmonauts address the world via radio, stating that the Soviets now have a permanent station on the Moon and stand ready to repel all "capitalist imperialist invaders". The Soviet leader then invites the President to Geneva for a summit. The United States launches its own Moon mission, and the President addresses the nation and the world to tell them that no one owns the Moon, and that he will go to Geneva to meet the Soviet leadership at a summit. The Senate then votes on the Leffingwell nomination, which is defeated by a vote of 74-24. Shortly after the vote the President collapses and dies of a heart attack, making Harley Hudson President of the United States.
Hudson addresses a joint session of Congress after the dead President's funeral, stating that he will not be a candidate for his party's nomination next year, that he will honor the late President's promise to go to Geneva, and that he will nominate Orrin Knox to be his Secretary of State. The book ends with the speedy confirmation of Knox and the departure of President Hudson and others for the Geneva Summit.
[edit] Drury's Novel and History
Allen Drury was a staunch anti-Communist and had great disdain for most of the news media of his day, which, in his opinion, favored appeasement over confrontation of the Soviet Union. The Leffingwell nomination and the alleged revelations of a Communist past are taken directly from the Alger Hiss affair of the late 1940s. The Soviet landing on the Moon ahead of the U.S. draws on the shock that engulfed the United States when the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik on 4 October 1957. Brigham Anderson's gay affair and its exposure, along with his suicide, was taken from a particularly nasty episode during the McCarthy era. Senator McCarthy threatened to expose a homosexual scandal in Senator Lester Hunt's family. Senator Hunt, from Wyoming, committed suicide, showing Drury just how rough politics could get (Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives).
[edit] Motion picture
Advise and Consent is a 1962 Columbia motion picture starring Henry Fonda as Robert Leffingwell, Charles Laughton as Senator Seab Cooley, Don Murray as Senator Brigham Anderson, Walter Pidgeon as Majority Leader Robert Munson, Peter Lawford as Senator Lafe Smith, Gene Tierney as Dolly Harrison, Franchot Tone as the President, Lew Ayres as Vice-President Harley Hudson, Burgess Meredith as Herbert Gelman, Eddie Hodges as Leffingwell's son, Paul Ford as Senator Stanley Danta, George Grizzard as Senator Fred van Ackerman, Inga Swenson as Ellen Anderson, Edward Andrews as Senator Orrin Knox, Will Geer as Minority Leader Warren Strickland, and Betty White (making her film debut) as Senator Bessie Adams.
It was adapted for the screen by Wendell Mayes, based on the Allen Drury novel, and was directed by Otto Preminger.
It marked the first time a post-WWII American audience saw a gay bar in a movie. Frank Sinatra was given voice credit in the film for the playing of one of his records in the bar.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Advise and Consent at the Internet Movie Database
- An analysis of the Fictional Senate in Advise and Consent, including an addendum summarizing the plots of Drury's five sequels to the novel.
| Preceded by: The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor |
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1960 |
Succeeded by: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee |
