A new Washington political thriller

It's like a novel (because no one would believe this is non-fiction):

Here's what it says on the back cover:

The Washington power struggle continues -- and the Supreme Court is at the center of a battle between the forces of good and Republicans.  Every player has a stake in the Supreme Court nomination...

The President -- Vicious, vindictive, venal, and vain, his remaining faithful followers expect him to deliver a Supreme Court majority with his picks. And he just wants to be liked, loved, and adored, and to keep his base happy and gullible, his choice must be the key to a monocultural Christian society, even if they'll overlook his own record of sins and scandals to get them there.

The Senate Majority Leader -- Malevolent, Machiavellian, manipulative, magisterial, he has twisted the Constitution and the rules of the Senate into a Möbius band that has only one side -- his. His brash political gambling and gamesmanship has taken him to this point, an achievement he treasures above all others, his legacy.  And he'll do whatever it takes to make sure it happens.

The Speaker of the House -- Once thought a nimble politician, now he's a spineless wimp. Ignore him because he doesn't matter at all. He's getting out of Dodge with his tail stuck into his butt crack.

The Senator on the Committee -- Once he spoke for justice as he prosecuted a President. Now he speaks for unfairness, partisanship, misogyny, and malfeasance. And every single day, he looks more gay, but he can't admit his hidden passions.

The Nominee -- A child of privilege and a student at a prestigious private school, the nominee achieved the top of his law school class and an esteemed judgeship despite a fondness for beer and baseball tickets. No one disputes his legal mind and his conservative Republican bona fides, but now his past may return to haunt him, and deny him the position he covets and thinks he deserves.

The Accuser -- As a young woman, she and the Nominee had violent sexual encounter she tried for decades to forget. Rebuilding her life in California and academia, she was haunted by the memory, and told her story in the privacy of a physician's office.  But circumstances forced her story, and herself, into the news, and now she must determine what she can remember, and decide if she can face the man she never wanted to see again -- in front of Congress and the American public.

The Witness -- A famous alcoholic and a high school drinking buddy of the Nominee, the Accuser said he witnessed the encounter and managed to stop the Nominee before it went too far.  Now the Witness says he can't remember and doesn't want to, yet he can verify the Nominee's pretty boy, party boy life in high school, and everyone knows he can. The Witness is the wild card that can keep the Nominee from ascending to ... THE FIFTH SEAT.

Realizing the danger that the Witness poses, the Senate Majority Leader makes an untraceable phone call to a contact known only as "Davy Crockett".   "Davy," the SML says in his slow, infuriating rural Southern accent, "can you still hit a dime-sized knot in a pine board from 100 yards with Ol' Betsy?  If you can, I might have a job for you..." 


Read THE FIFTH SEAT -- because the last chapters have yet to be written, and reality is even stranger than fiction.

(Unfortunately.)