Got a penny? How Low Can the Price of a House Leader’s Memoir Go?

By Edward Epstein, CQ Staff

How about a penny, plus $3.99 for shipping and handling. That’s the lowest price right now on Amazon.com for a used copy of the 2004 autobiography, “Speaker: Lessons from Forty Years in Coaching and Politics,’’ by former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

That bargain-basement price for an ex-Speaker’s memoir extends to another Republican as well. “Lessons Learned the Hard Way: A Personal Report,” the 1998 autobiography by Newt Gingrich of Georgia (1979-99), is going for one cent.

. . .

A former Democratic Speaker from Washington is doing much better, though. “Honor in the House: Speaker Tom Foley,” which Thomas S. Foley (1965-95) co-wrote with Jeffrey R. Biggs, goes for a whopping $18.88.

And what about Republican leaders who might have wanted to be Speaker? Things are a little slow for their books at the moment.

For example, this year’s “No Retreat, No Surrender: One American’s Fight,” by former Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas (1985-2006), starts at 89 cents.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/09/how_low_can_the_price_of_a_hou.html

Ha!

I am sure Hastert has some laying around.