Jim Lehrer, faux Okie

Finished Jim Leherer’s Mack to the Rescue, you know Jim Leherer

from his PBS television show, Newshour. What you probably don’t know is he seems to be able to hide out unobserved in the halls of Oklahoma’s state capitol, amid our politicians, observing their foibles and antics and report back to us through his hilariously funny political satire using 

One-Eyed Mack, Oklahoma’s fictional second in command to get his point across.

When the Governor “Buffalo Joe” Hayman calls for unilateral privatizing of state government, as he puts it on Sooner Sam Screams at Noon, Oklahoma’s primiere talk show, the notion of taking “government out of government” doesn’t set too well with One-Eyed Mack,  our second in command, Lieutenant Governor.  Mishaps occur to our poor Lt. Gov. and an unexpected and accidental, not to mention completely wrong, heart bypass surgery lays him low, before he can run against “Buffalo Joe” and counter his crazy ideas.

There’s an interesting commentary on tort reform, using his law suit against the hospital who did Mack wrong, also commentary on the salacious and destructive use of slander in political campaigning. Lehrer makes us think, and for us folks in Oklahoma, he gives us plenty to think about.  If Lehrer isn’t an Okie, he’s the next best thing.   

This is the eighth One-Eyed Mack book, you’ve also got to read Sooner Spy and Crown Oklahoma.

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