Women on the Run: Gender, Media, and Political Campaigns in a Polarized Era

States’ current combat situation with ISIS in Iraq and Syria shows President Obama acting despite Republican hearings. Exceptionally lively and attention-grabbing is chapter six, “Investigations in the Age of Obama” (210), because it is so up-to-the-minute. The authors demonstrate striking developments here. As they point out, a “resurgence” (38, 214) of hearings occurred, both in number and in intensity. Among their examples, few hit home harder than the Benghazi hearings (233–42). In this chapter, Professors Kriner and Schickler fully discuss the origins and creation, in 2014, of a House Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi (241). They point out that “Clinton’s use of a [private e-mail server] during her tenure as secretary of state was first discovered pursuant to a request for records by the Benghazi Committee” (242)—surely a major example of investigative significance. Professors Kriner and Schickler contrast a list of congressional hearings (224) with what they view as how, legislatively, “the 112th and 113th Congresses have been routinely derided as do-nothing Congresses” (244). There is much truth in that observation, yet the subject calls for nuance. It is true that this period does show powerful procedural tools in play that stymie action. An in-depth study of recent legislating shows that the Hastert Rule paralyzes compromise in the House, whereas more frequent triggering of 60-vote requirements stalls the Senate (Tiefer 52–111). Yet in the past half-dozen years, Congress has fashioned certain tools to try to get something done: Senate Democrats reduced to 51 from 60 the number of votes needed to confirm executive officials and lower court judges.Much policy at least gets proposed, and sometimes even enacted, as provisions in appropriation bills, as shown by an intensive current analysis of Congress (147–170). For example, President Obama fought throughout his entire administration to close Guantanamo, but lost out to a Congress wielding the power of the purse. The authors acknowledge this example’s importance (81). Investigating the President is a major step forward and an invitation to further study, especially as the next presidential term unfolds. The authors’ statistics on investigation days, interviews of subjects, and work with presidential polls all build confidence in their findings. However, as shown by their decision to wisely devote a full-length chapter to just the Obama administration, this subject will always need fresh study.