Praise for
THE CYNIC
“While MacGillis writes with the passion of a convert, he isn’t some liberal hack whom Republicans can coolly dismiss. He is a thorough and well-trained reporter happily unburdened from the dispassionate constraints of he-said-she-said journalism. . . . In The Cynic, MacGillis constructs his profile around interviews with long-lost friends, colleagues and enemies—more than 75 of them for this slim volume—who have known the subject since their provincial early days.”
—The Washington Post
“The best portrait of McConnell.”
“Not many people have a clear idea of who McConnell is, or how he evolved, or why he does the things he does. . . . This is the story Alec MacGillis tells in his concise, fast-moving [book] about McConnell, The Cynic. It’s full of things I hadn’t known. . . . He also helps explain how someone without the obvious political gifts of speechmaking or glad-handing has stayed in national office for 30 years and is favored to be there at least six years more. And if you’d like even more firsthand evidence of what has happened to the Senate, you’ll find it here—all in less than two hours’ reading time.”
—James Fallows
“MacGillis’s book serves as a great reminder of how McConnell became the Senate leader he is today—and how much every elected official tends to change the more they learn about Washington and their polarized constituents.”
“As Alec MacGillis’s excellent new book on McConnell makes clear, the Kentucky senator’s top priority has always been not ideology but his own political advancement and survival.”