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| Forewords | |
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| Introduction | |
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| What this Book Can Help You Do | |
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| How to Use this Book | |
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| Conventions Used in this Book | |
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| A note on names | |
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| Information on icons | |
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| How this Book Is Organized | |
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| What this Book Is Not | |
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| A Word to the Wonks Should Be Sufficient--I Hope | |
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| Considering the Two Chambers | |
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| Welcome to Congress | |
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| The Three Branches of Government | |
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| The congressional branch | |
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| The executive branch | |
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| The Supreme Court | |
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| Congressional Relationships | |
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| House-Senate relations | |
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| Executive-congressional relations through the years | |
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| Congressional-constituent relations | |
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| Your Role as a Citizen | |
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| Voting | |
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| Registering your opinion | |
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| Running Your House: The House of Representatives | |
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| Describing the House | |
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| Coming up with qualifications | |
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| Defining the congressional district | |
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| Finding a Lawmaker of Your Very Own | |
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| Doing the Job of Representative | |
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| Getting the most from a short-term contract | |
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| Diving into the congressional workweek | |
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| Doing Housework: The Responsibilities of the House | |
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| Taxing responsibilities | |
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| Considering legislation | |
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| Taking care of you, the constituent | |
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| Scoping Out the Senate | |
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| What It Takes to Be a Senator and How to Find Yours | |
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| Qualifying with experience | |
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| Setting forth a senator's duties | |
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| Finding and contacting your senator | |
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| Senatorial Responsibilities | |
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| Passing legislation | |
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| Proceeding to impeachment | |
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| Giving advice and consent | |
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| Looking at the Legislative Process | |
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| Introducing a Bill | |
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| Starting the Process | |
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| Dealing with the Players | |
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| Members of Congress | |
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| Staffers | |
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| Committee folk | |
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| Building a Bill | |
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| Starting with an idea | |
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| Looking at the types of legislation | |
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| Introducing a bill | |
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| Giving a bill an identity | |
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| Getting There is Half the Fun: The Legislative Process | |
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| Gathering cosponsors | |
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| Pushing through the committee jungle | |
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| Holding hearings | |
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| Making the markup | |
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| Meeting the Players, Setting the Schedule | |
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| Following the Leaders | |
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| Knowing who the leaders are | |
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| Putting age before beauty: The role of seniority | |
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| Elbowing into the Huddle: The Role of Caucuses and Delegations | |
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| Caucuses | |
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| Delegations | |
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| Timing is Everything: Congressional Schedules | |
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| The House calendar | |
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| The Senate calendar | |
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| Reaching the Floor and Beyond | |
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| Waiting to Debate | |
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| Snagging Attention with an Introduction | |
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| Playing by the Rules: The Role of the Rules Committees | |
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| Debating on the Floor | |
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| Speaking in a sedate and timely fashion | |
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| Timing is everything | |
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| Adding amendments | |
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| Voting | |
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| Struggling toward Yes: The Conference Process | |
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| Convening a conference | |
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| Compromising in conference | |
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| Closing the conference | |
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| Getting the President's Signature | |
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| Wielding the veto | |
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| Overriding a veto | |
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| Battling after Passage | |
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| Protecting newly passed legislation | |
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| Coping with change | |
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| Following the Money | |
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| Raising Revenues | |
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| Seeing the Sources | |
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| Acting on Taxes | |
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| Proposing | |
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| Disposing | |
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| Bearing the Burden: Taxation and You | |
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| Budgeting, Authorizing, and Appropriating Government Money | |
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| Holding the Purse Strings | |
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| Budgeting | |
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| Scheduling the money calendar | |
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| Checking out the players | |
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| Mandating the type of spending | |
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| Interpreting the language of the budget | |
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| Authorizing | |
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| Appropriating | |
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| Smoking out the Cardinals and their court | |
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| Appreciating the appropriations process | |
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| Being earmarked | |
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| Inserting Items in Appropriations Bills | |
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| Putting Your Political Contributions to Work | |
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| Contributing to the Candidate of Your Choice | |
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| Making an individual contribution | |
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| Limiting your contributions | |
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| Giving money early | |
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| Becoming a PAC-man or PAC-woman | |
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| Forming and forms of PACs | |
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| Leveraging your money into influence | |
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| Distinguishing Hard Money from Soft Money | |
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| Mastering the Nuts and Bolts of Fundraising | |
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| Feting candidates with fundraisers | |
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| Getting professional help | |
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| Providing Other Campaign Services | |
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| Lobbying from All Angles | |
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| Looking at Lobbying | |
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| Explaining the Basics | |
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| Categorizing Lobbyists | |
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| Defining and describing | |
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| Demystifying special interests | |
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| Getting Your Member's Attention | |
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| Evaluating Scorecards and Key Votes | |
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| Determining whether You Need a Professional | |
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| Choosing a Lobbyist | |
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| Finding a professional | |
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| Quantifying the qualifications | |
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| Working out a plan of action | |
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| Evaluating your lobbyist | |
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| Explaining Your Cause | |
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| Knowing What You Want to Achieve | |
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| Educating Yourself | |
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| Building Your Case | |
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| Defining your core issue | |
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| Practicing the fine art of compromise | |
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| Knowing Your Issue | |
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| Doing the research | |
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| Taking stock of your assets and liabilities | |
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| Putting together a packet | |
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| Gathering Support | |
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| Building coalitions | |
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| Courting a congressional champion | |
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| Testifying before Congress | |
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| Getting Down to the Nitty-Gritty: Lobbying Members of Congress | |
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| Writing to Your Representative and Senators | |
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| Crafting written communications | |
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| E-mailing for every issue | |
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| Sending snail mail | |
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| Nixing faxing | |
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| Meeting Face to Face | |
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| Making an appointment | |
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| Making the most of face-time | |
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| Following up | |
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| Conveying Your Cause | |
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| Taking a Walk on the Dark Side: Going Negative | |
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| Giving Gifts, Travel, and Entertainment | |
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| Gift-giving guidelines | |
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| Travel | |
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| Entertainment | |
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| Keeping the Pressure On | |
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| Getting the Job Done: Congressional Staff | |
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| Making Contact | |
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| Surveying Congressional Staff | |
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| Personal staff | |
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| Staff positions | |
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| Staff principles | |
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| Office structure | |
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| Getting Down to Personalities | |
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| Acknowledging Committee Staff | |
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| Committee staff | |
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| Leadership staff | |
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| Recognizing Auxiliary Support Staff | |
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| Congressional Budget Office | |
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| General Accounting Office | |
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| Library of Congress and the Congressional Research Service | |
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| Other support staff and services | |
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| Making the Most of the Media | |
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| Understanding the Relationship between Congress and the Media | |
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| Getting Your Story Straight | |
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| Seeing the shades of gray | |
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| Working the congressional beat | |
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| Making the News | |
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| Lobbying the Media | |
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| Working with editors and producers | |
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| Working with reporters | |
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| Writing and Distributing Press Releases | |
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| Writing a good press release | |
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| Distributing a press release | |
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| Following up on your press release | |
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| Organizing a Press Conference | |
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| Booking a venue | |
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| Organizing the event | |
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| Working with Television | |
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| Broadcasting on Radio | |
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| Browsing through Internet Media | |
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| Paying for Space | |
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| Using Celebrities | |
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| Delineating the types of celebrities | |
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| Preparing your celebrity | |
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| Keeping your celebrity on a tight leash | |
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| Conducting a Demonstration | |
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| The uses of demonstrations | |
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| Planning a demonstration | |
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| Working with Various Media | |
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| Delineating Daily Print Media | |
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| The big-three national dailies | |
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| USA Today and The Washington Times | |
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| Local dailies | |
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| Cozying Up to Columnists | |
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| Making the Most of Magazines and Periodicals | |
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| The newsweeklies | |
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| Ideological periodicals | |
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| Regional and city periodicals | |
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| Courting Capitol Hill Media | |
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| Newspapers | |
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| Congressional Quarterly | |
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| National Journal | |
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| Burning Up the Wire Services | |
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| National services | |
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| Specialized, industry, and trade media | |
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| Trumpeting Broadcast and Cable Television | |
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| The broadcast networks | |
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| The cable networks | |
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| Talk shows | |
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| Tuning in to Radio | |
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| Investigating Internet Media | |
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| Going Abroad with Foreign Media | |
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| Putting the Practical Side to Use | |
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| Making Use of Congressional Services | |
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| Helping Out with the Feds | |
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| Intervening with federal agencies | |
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| Expediting your passport | |
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| Intervening in Local Issues | |
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| Putting in a Good Word | |
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| Getting an academy nomination | |
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| Serving Congress as a page | |
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| Interning in the Capitol | |
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| Visiting Congress | |
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| Visiting the Capitol Campus | |
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| Finding out what's where | |
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| Touring the Capitol | |
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| Adhering to security restrictions | |
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| Visiting the Capitol Visitor Center | |
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| Making Your Way to the House Side | |
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| Distinguishing the House office buildings | |
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| Making the most of other features | |
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| Seeing the Senate Side | |
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| Holding a Function at the Capitol | |
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| Dining on Capitol Hill | |
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| The Part of Tens | |
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| Ten Tips for Conducting a Lobbying Campaign | |
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| Knowing Your Core Issues | |
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| Knowing What You're Trying to Achieve | |
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| Assessing Your Assets and Liabilities | |
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| Knowing Whereof You Speak | |
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| Building Coalitions and Alliance | |
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| Helping Your Friends and Frustrating Your Enemies | |
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| Being Open to Compromise | |
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| Not Expecting Quick Results | |
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| Finding a Champion | |
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| Being Patient, Persistent, and Persevering | |
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| The Ten Commandments for Dealing with Congressional Staff | |
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| Being Prompt | |
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| Knowing the Goal of the Meeting | |
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| Preparing the Ground | |
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| Doing Your Homework | |
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| Being Courteous and Calm | |
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| Commanding the Facts | |
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| Respecting the Staff | |
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| Being Ready to Offer Assistance | |
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| Giving them Something to Remember You By | |
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| Always Following Up | |
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| Ten Tips for Dealing with Journalists | |
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| Assume the Best | |
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| Strive for Accuracy | |
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| Don't Pick a Fight with Anyone who Buys Ink by the Barrel | |
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| Realize that the Only Bad Question is the One that Isn't Asked | |
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| You Don't Have to Comment but Never Stonewall | |
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| Understand the "Public" in Public Figure | |
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| Avoid Source Remorse | |
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| Keep Things in Perspective--They'll Wrap Fish in It Tomorrow | |
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| Don't Fall for "Trust Me, I'm a Journalist" | |
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| Return Journalists' Phone Calls First | |
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| Not Even Ten Suggestions for Improving Congress | |
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| Get a Toll-Free Number | |
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| Gather Voting Records Online | |
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| Post Appropriations Online in a Timely Fashion--Like Immediately | |
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| Hire a Historian for the House | |
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| Upgrade the House Web Site | |
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| The Appendixes | |
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| Glossary of Congressional and Political Terms | |
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| Committees of the 107th Congress | |
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| Senate Standing Committees | |
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| Senate Select and Special Committees | |
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| Joint Committees | |
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| Index | |