Better than now …

... or at least more interesting: At 50, a D.C. Novel With Legs. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The story centers on the nomination of a new secretary of state, made by a beguiling, ailing president. The nominee, Robert Leffingwell, is a smug, unctuous, University of Chicago liberal (before they were neocons) who is revered by the press. Leffingwell lies under oath to conceal that he once ­belonged to a campus Communist cell. The man who turns out to almost unwillingly stand in the way of confirmation is an unflinchingly honest young senator from Utah who has concealed a wartime homosexual tryst. Are the deceits ­comparable?