Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley

From Barnes & Noble

President Donald Vanderdamp has had enough. One by one, the petty dictators of the Senate have been rejecting his candidates for the Supreme Court, citing reasons he can hardly fathom. To take revenge, the irate chief executive nominates the one jurist no red-blooded American male could refuse: Judge Pepper Cartwright, the super-hot, sharp-tongued star of television's most popular reality justice program. After sometimes tempestuous confirmation hearings, Pepper wiggles into her new job on the nation's highest court, where she faces constitutional crises of a whole new stripe. A hilarious, bipartisan uplift by the author of Boomsday and Thank You for Smoking.

From the Publisher

President of the United States Donald Vanderdamp is having a hell of a time getting his nominees appointed to the Supreme Court. After one nominee is rejected for insufficiently appreciating To Kill A Mockingbird, the president chooses someone so beloved by voters that the Senate won't have the guts to reject her — Judge Pepper Cartwright, the star of the nation's most popular reality show, Courtroom Six.

Will Pepper, a straight-talking Texan, survive a confirmation battle in the Senate? Will becoming one of the most powerful women in the world ruin her love life? And even if she can make it to the Supreme Court, how will she get along with her eight highly skeptical colleagues, including a floundering Chief Justice who, after legalizing gay marriage, learns that his wife has left him for another woman?

Soon, Pepper finds herself in the middle of a constitutional crisis, a presidential reelection campaign that the president is determined to lose, and oral arguments of a romantic nature. Supreme Courtship is another classic Christopher Buckley comedy about the Washington institutions most deserving of ridicule.

The Washington Post - Lisa Zeidner

You don't read a Buckley novel for the depth of character development. With her rodeo slang and cowboy boots, Pepper is Texas-trite, but no matter. You'll be belly-laughing through Buckley's byzantine plot, which includes Peester v. Spendo-Max Corp., a case in which a male shoplifter stuffing merchandise into a burqa sues the Reno police force for racial and religious profiling, and ends with the Supreme Court deciding a presidential election. As the president sighs, "It's not as though we haven't been there before." Last go-around, it wasn't quite so uproarious.

The New York Times - Blake Wilson

Once again, Buckley returns to his pet theme: the vanity and perfidy of the capital's ruling elite. And once again he delivers serious insights along with antics…part of Buckley's charm is that he seems to wink every time he sends off a groaner. But at his best he is very, very funny. The novel's main courtroom set piece—Cartwright's handling of her first oral argument—succeeds not only as comedy but also as an effective parody of a singular and sometimes bizarre ritual.

Publishers Weekly

It's a delicious prospect: what if a beleaguered president decided to nominate a TV judge to the Supreme Court? Buckley effectively ransacks the Washington political machine for his newest novel, disarmingly read by Anne Heche. No stranger to controversy herself, Heche takes a special glee in depicting media gone mad. For Pepper Cartwright, the "plain ole girl from Plano" who finds herself on the bench, Heche effectively channels Annie Potts. Yet Heche is equally effective delivering the rest of the overwhelmingly male characters, ranging from the Midwestern President Vandercamp to a patrician fixer and Pepper's flashy producer husband. Supreme satirical novelist Buckley gives the narrator plenty of clues, and Heche delivers the annoying laugh and calculating tones of justice wannabe Senator Mitchell with hilarious exactitude. Despite the preponderance of men in Supreme Courtship, it is the brilliant casting of Heche-who keeps Pepper present at all times-that gives this audiobook an edge over the print edition. A Twelve hardcover (Reviews, June 9). (Sept.)

Valerie Piechocki - Library Journal

When the Senate Judiciary Committee shoots down two of his Supreme Court nominees, lame duck president Donald Vanderdamp nominates a feisty, tell-it-like-it-is Texan who's also the star of a reality show. What follows is a laugh-a-minute story from New York Times best-selling author/genius political satirist Buckley (Boomsday) that practically screams "Hollywood box office hit." Actress Anne Heche superbly portrays the zany cast of characters, some who bear an uncanny resemblance to real inhabitants of Capitol Hill. One of the funniest books of the year; highly recommended for public libraries and politicians with a sense of humor. [Audio clip available through www.hachettebookgroup.com; from the review of the Twelve hc, "Buckley is a master at setting up ridiculous relationships, and he doesn't disappoint here," LJ7/08.-Ed.]

Kirkus Reviews

As before, Buckley (Boomsday, 2007, etc.) blurs the line distinguishing the historical, the plausible and the preposterous amid the political circus of anything-goes Washington. The satiric scenario has plenty of potential, but sketchy characters and slapdash plotting result in a split decision. On a Supreme Court as divided as the country, President Donald Vanderdamp finds his first two nominees to fill a crucial vacancy rejected on the shakiest of grounds (one wrote a grade-school review of To Kill a Mockingbird and found parts of the movie "kind of boring"). With his popularity at an all-time low and with no intention of running for a second term, the president then dares the Senate to reject his third nominee, America's most popular jurist, Pepper Cartwright of television's highly rated Courtroom Six. After she sails through the confirmation process, both the new justice and the novel seem to lose their way. Instead of relying on the common sense and colloquial language that have made her such a hit as a TV personality, she tries her best to apply legal precedent befitting the Supreme Court, thus alienating many of her fellow justices and most of the public. She also becomes estranged from her husband, a reality-show producer, and involved with the chief justice, whose wife left him for a woman immediately after the court sanctioned gay marriage. After a politician-turned-TV-actor challenges for the presidency, the novel inevitably reaches its climax as the contested race is left to the court to decide. Yet questions remain: Why is the president so unpopular? (He vetoes every spending bill, which would surely enrage Congress, but shouldn't upset the public.) Why does Pepper take allthe heat for every split decision? (Four other justices vote with her, and the court had a history of 5-4 decisions before her arrival.) Why does Buckley think it's enough to give his characters funny names (Blyster Forkmorgan, Esquire, et al.) rather than develop them?Even Buckley fans might suspect that he's begun to crank them out a little too quickly. Agent: Amanda Urban/ICM

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