Fools on the Hill

The Hooligans, Saboteurs, Conspiracy Theorists, and Dunces Who Burned Down the House

By: Dana Milbank

Narrated by: Dana Milbank

From inside the chamber, bestselling author Dana Milbank exposes the petty, inchoate, and dysfunctional state of the Republican House—a confederacy of dunces racing to the bottom, without shame and certainly without the ability to get anything done.

On January 3rd, 2023, a slim Republican majority took control of the House of Representatives, and the dysfunction began immediately, when they needed fifteen ballots to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker—the longest since the eve of the Civil War. They would then dump McCarthy and spend a month in the wilderness searching for a replacement, only to threaten the understudy with the same fate. This is more of a circus than a caucus: from Majorie Taylor Greene to George Santos to Jim Jordan, this crowd could find conspiracies everywhere, in space aliens, in the “war” on gas stoves, and in Hunter Biden’s artwork. They would turn Americans against each other, attacking immigrants, members of the LBGTQ community, and even the US military, and they would hijack every bill imaginable with far-right fantasies and crazy ideas. And, yet, they would achieve practically nothing; rather than enact legislation, they would consistently fall into fratricide and petty squabbles, doing everything but the fundamental work required of them: paying bills, keeping the government running, and protecting national security.

Dana Milbank spent a year reporting from the Capitol and what he witnessed was beyond imagination. It would prove to be the most insane and incompetent Congressional session in living memory. Fools On the Hill is the first book to pull back the veil, and expose all the shenanigans, chaos, and tomfoolery that defines the modern GOP. It is simultaneously horrifying and laugh-out-loud funny—yet, sadly, all true.

©2024 Dana Milbank (P)2024 Little, Brown & Company

Critic reviews

“Dana Milbank is one of the most exhilarating writers covering Washington today. When I see his by-line in my morning paper, I know my day is getting off to a bracing start.”—Christopher Buckley, author of Thank You For Smoking

“Who better to unpack the unserious insanity of the MAGA shock jock caucus than Dana Millbank, the D.C. columnist with the wryest wit and sharpest insight of them all? Dana will have you laughing while you cry for our republic.”
—Joy-Ann Reid, TV host and author of The New York Times bestselling Medger and Myrlie

"If you crossed Dante's Inferno with Hieronymus Bosch's paintings of depravity you would get Dana Milbank's astounding account of the Fools on the Hill who have sacked America's House of Representatives. Milbank, a seasoned political columnist for the Washington Post, is a wonderful writer and his eye-witness reporting on the meltdown of democracy is mesmerizing. Equal parts funny and horrifying, it will make you both laugh and weep."—Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money and Chief Washington Correspondent, The New Yorker

Glad someone has tracked all of this

He writes in a light hearted way that is easy to listen too which is important because these people running our country must have skipped their civics class in high school and have justified their lack integrity. The sad part is we keep electing them. Americans no longer have the luxury of ignoring politics to live in a free country. We have to fulfill our civic duty now.

One should vote Democrat for decent government.

The idiotic behavior of the late Republican Party was displayed in all it tragic idiocy for all to see. Will they ever recover. I’m not sure they can.

Just when you thought Congress couldn’t get crazier…

…Wait for it.

Having been a politics junkie for years, I thought I’d heard it all. Turns out, it is so much worse.

This book is both entertaining, pretty informative and sort of disturbing. Highly recommend, if you like American politics and/or people is suits doing dumb things as a group.

If you weren't paying attention

If you hadn't been paying attention to politics the last several years, this would be a fun book. If you had, then this is pretty much just a re-hash of MAGA idiocy.