Deals and Wheels
Lahr, Anthea
Deals and Wheels A Percentage of the Take, by Walter Goodman. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 225 pp. $6.95. Reviewed by Anthea Lahr "HPhe tale of the amicably vicious alliance that feeds upon our...
...Crooked activities gave a power and celebrity to the people who took part...
...Marcus had got his position through his friendship with John Lindsay...
...The rest of the time it's live and let live with us . . . You see, we differ on tariffs and currencies and all them things, but we agree on the main proposition that when a man works in politics, he should get something out of it...
...He relayed 'just highlights' of his activities...
...A Percentage of the Take has a moral for all who pad their expenses and delight in "getting something for nothing...
...Goodman describes these men: "Not quite full-time criminals, yet free of the inhibitions of honest men, they can be found on the fringes of deals, as finders, bargainers, go-betweens, doing their odd job for a percentage of the take...
...Marcus's arrest and imprisonment are certainly not a clean sweep of the city halls, the Mafia, or the contracting industry, which seem to enjoy a pretty cosy relationship...
...Political collusions, not dogmatic differences, are the real obstacle to reform...
...All this would be amusing, were it not a farce at the expense of the taxpayers...
...Reviewed by Anthea Lahr "HPhe tale of the amicably vicious alliance that feeds upon our cities does not begin and end with James Marcus and Herbert Itkin...
...As Goodman describes it: "Cutting a corner, slipping through a loophole, making a killing, putting one over, we squeeze what we can out of each other...
...And Goodman emphasizes that their social progress is American too: "The advancement of a Corallo from dope pusher to judge briber is yet further evidence of the openness of American society...
...As new scandals break, we know that we are still being defrauded by the very civil servants we elect and pay...
...Goodman reminds us of Lord Bryce's maxim that there are "no politics in politics"—especially at the municipal level...
...This quotation is from the introduction of Walter Goodman's witty and pertinent book about the Jerome Park Reservoir bribe and the Consolidated Edison conspiracy that brought about the downfall of New York City's commissioner of water supply, gas and eleo tricity...
...Then we fight tooth and nail...
...Perhaps it is because much of the challenge and danger has been eliminated from modern corporate life that a career in crime is so attractive...
...Unfortunately, Mayor Lindsay refused to talk about his friend to Walter Goodman...
...This is not face-tiousness, because all the actors in this shady drama believe in the pluck and luck of the American dream and the democracy they were double-crossing...
...Senator Plunkett of Tammany Hall explains the American realpolitik like this: "When Tammany's on top, I do good turns for the Republicans...
...otherwise he was supremely unqualified...
...Itkin's espionage gave him a sense of pride in his work, so that his wheeling-dealing became, for him, a vocation...
...Profitable it may sometimes be, but flat and stale it surely is...
...When they're on top, they don't forget me...
...Itkin was able to feel that he was serving his country by his informing, and the racketeers had more excitement than they would as honest businessmen...
...But Goodman does not agree: "if this story is at all representative, we don't even find much pleasure in the game...
...The slimiest character is Marcus's accomplice and seducer, Herbert Itkin, who claims to have been working for the FBI or the CIA throughout...
...But his book belies this, sardonically showing us a scenario as exciting as most Bogart movies...
...The complicated plot stars James Marcus and Herbert Itkin...
...He was just as intrigued by the machinations as by the money...
...But Goodman succinctly writes: "Such was the delicacy of his relationship with the FBI that during their five years together he was able to collect tens of thousands of tax-free dollars from illicit operations...
...in cameo roles, various officers of Consolidated Edison and owners of contracting firms...
...In fact they are being very American—working for a monetary incentive...
...Me and the Republicans are enemies just one day in the year—election day...
...in supporting parts are union president Daniel Motto and racketeer Tony Ducks Co-rallo...
...The victims, the citizens, are complacent, not only because they feel they are helpless and because they know that every man has his price, but because they suspect that this is how the West was won...
Vol. 35 • April 1971 • No. 4
