Includes index.

"New York Times Bestseller"

The Plame affair -- Political beginnings -- Cub reporter -- From Omaha to 'Naptown -- Advice from Ezra Pound -- Joining the Journal -- Emperor of the Senate -- Driving with Kennedy -- New Frontier -- LBJ hosts a wedding reception -- The odd couple -- The Goldwater revolution -- The agony of the GOP -- The Great Society in ascent -- The Great Society in descent -- Clean Gene, Bobby and LBJ -- Realignment 1968 -- Den of vipers -- Vietnam -- The frustration of power -- "Amnesty, abortion and acid" -- Watergate -- The Ford Interlude -- Reagan's rebellion -- Jimmy who? -- The Snopes clan in the White House -- Supply-side and China -- A young congressman from New York -- The birth of CNN -- The Reagan revolution -- A near-death experience -- The slowest realignment in American history -- "I'll try Ollie North" -- The last days of Reagan -- Blowup -- Believing their own spin -- Yeltsin up, Bush down -- Clinton = Republican tsunami -- "Will success spoil Newt Gingrich?" -- Conversion -- The rise of George W. Bush -- Death of a partner -- Attacking Iraq and attacking Novak -- The Plame affair II -- Farewell to CNN -- A stirrer-up of strife.

" In this sweeping memoir, Novak offers a full account of his involvement in the Valerie Plame CIA leak affair, while also telling the story of his remarkable life and career, a singular journey through a half century of stories, scandals, and personal encounters with Washington's most powerful and colorful people. Novak has been a Washington insider since the days when the place was a sleepy southern town and journalism was built on shoe leather and the ability to cultivate and keep sources (not to mention the ability to hold one's liquor). He has covered every president since Truman, known (personally and professionally) virtually all the big movers and shakers in DC, and broken a number of the biggest stories. Here, he puts it all into perspective. He also reveals the extraordinary transformations that have fundamentally remade Washington, politics, and journalism--and his own role in those transformations.--From publisher description.