Since the Amazon release, reader comments stress the sharp dialog, funny situations, and crazy characters.

• “The funniest political novel I’ve read in a long time,” from LA. “No matter how crazy the situation they find themselves in (and there are wacky situations aplenty in Rex Wriggly), you can count on the characters to fire off a hilarious one-liner or a sharp observation that puts everything in a new perspective. It’s a funny book, but it also gives an insightful look at human nature, the quirks of the campaign trail, and youthful idealism.”
• “Sit down, relax and be prepared to laugh,” from Georgia. ” Wriggly Rex:Amoral Leader provides a satirical view of our politicians and our political system.”
• “A hysterical look behind a campaign dream”,  from Florida,” Wriggly Rex… delivers laughs seasoned with reality….How could you not laugh?”
• “All in all it is a thoroughly entertaining book,” from Alabama. “Wriggly Rex: Amoral Leader by Lew Dodgson is a delightful satire poking fun at the election process…and politicians.”
• “If you’ve ever wanted to read a book about what a politician that should not be or what you wouldn’t want in the political office speaking for you, then you’ve got to read this book,” from Virginia.

Wriggly Rex is a novel about the funniest Senate candidate who ever battled a strait-laced young staffer, a bare-knuckled opponent, and Old  Beelzebub—all at once: an alcoholic lecher or a lecherous alcoholic, depending on his company and the time of day.

Idealistic young aide Ernst Funck thinks that electing a conservative is a dream job. But nothing could have prepared him for Rex’s string of embarrassing disasters.

When Rex holds a drunken press conference to roast his supporters and the press, Ernst realizes that he can’t win the election without controlling Rex.

Buck Cheatem, the oil millionaire who funded Rex’s campaign, wants his money back if Rex loses. Freddy Farnarkler, the conservative think tanker, wants a deeper relationship (don’t ask.) The Rat Squad makes an evil appearance.

Bunny, the office manager, is an equal-opportunity destroyer—riding her
wheelchair like a battle chariot. Porky, the campaign strategist, makes Ernst
a rival. Rex’s wife Blanche and girlfriend Angel both work in the campaign, as if Ernst needed another problem.

Will Ernst pull out a win in spite of Rex? Or will he have to find that witness protection program for losing campaign staffers? Their final confrontation provides the answer.

Senator Al Franken wrung out a few drops of humor as he questioned a Hudson Institute medical expert. His silences inparted a surprising humor to the dialog.

John McCain won an honorary Wriggly Rex Hypocrisy Trophy against stiff competition for his performance in the 2008 election. Picture this scene in your mind. In June, Barack Obama had just clinched the Dem nomination. To welcome Obama to the presidential campaign, Senator McCain spoke before a sickly green screen in New Orleans. See it here.

In this speech, McCain listed all of the blunders and sins of the Bush Administration and blamed them all on Barack Obama—before he had even been elected!

The GOP has followed McCain’s lead faithfully ever since, trying desperately to make America forget that the ballooning deficit and all of the other mementos of their eight years of rule are a Republican legacy.

This is truly a gift that keeps on giving.

After Republicans lost their majority in Congress in 2006, their leadership decided to sabotage the people’s business with procedural delays. Their reasoning? If they blocked all progress and Dems didn’t have any accomplishments, the Repubs could run against Dem incompetence in 2008. That might sound shaky to you, but John Boehner, the House Republican Leader, embraced the concept.

An example? In May 2008, after the House voted unanimously—412 to 0—to pass a Mother’s Day resolution “Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States,” 178 mindless Republican robots clanked slowly up to change their votes: Against the mothers!

The result? American voters were not fooled by those sophomoric hi-jinks. They might not have held Dem competence in particularly high regard, but they recognized that Repubs were worse in the 2008 elections.

We are still waiting for our Advance Reading Copies of Wriggly Rex: Amoral Leader, but early comments from some discriminating professionals focus on the comic dialog and funny scenes:

“I really love the dialog and the wacky situations,” from a college writing teacher.

“I thought Rex’s press conference was hilarious,” a publishing exec said, and “I loved the dynamic ending between Rex and Ernst.”

“Wow! Excellent humor throughout. Congrats,” from a Poet.

A creative writing coach found “masterfully done” prose and “snappy” dialog.

Real wisdom never goes out of style. Will Rogers said “It isn’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so.” True today as when he wrote it.

H.L. Mencken contributed “For every complicated problem, there’s a simple answer, and it’s wrong!”

Decades later we ask ourselves, “How did our species survive this long when so many blindly, stubbornly persist  in lining up at James Jones’s Koolaid stand?”

You can download the  free Wriggly Rex: Amoral Leader eBook until it is available  from Amazon or other booksellers, expected in early December, according to author Lew Dodgson. The download site is www.wrigglyrex.com.

A limited number of Advance Reading Copies can be ordered from the web site too.

Author Dodgson cautions readers not to fall into the trap that ensnared one  early reader. He was surreptitiously skimming the novel during church service, when he erupted in hysterical cackles, interrupting the service until  he regained control.

The minister, who had been warning against lascivious pleasures of the flesh, was not mollified until the reader pledged a generous tithe for the next year.

If hypocrisy is the funniest behavior, then politicians who campaign publicly on values they betray privately are the funniest  natural comedians. “Wriggly Rex” Wrigley is a study in hypocrisy, “With affection beaming in one eye and calculation shining out of the other,” as Dickens put it.

The story viewpoint is of Ernst, an idealistic young Midwesterner, who tries to reconcile Barry Goldwater’s  Conscience of a Conservative with the real world of politics. He joins a self-serving politician in a preposterous crusade. He meets a free market entrepreneur and his captive think-tank philosopher who want to roll back democracy.

Rex’s campaign captures cynical religious support from fundamentalists who scorn Rex’s private behavior. “Campaign strategists” overwhelm real issues with fabricated smears and money. And Rex’s opponents, who believe that “God helps those who help themselves,” supply snares and traps.

As the author, I found that the characters expressed their personalities in completely unexpected ways. Wheelchair-bound Bunny and Rex’s long-suffering wife Blanche were two of my favorites. I could never keep them under control.

I loved writing about Rex, the self-serving hypocrite, and the other characters trapped with him in his world. Political hypocrites have an endless capacity for fooling themselves. I hope Wriggly Rex gives readers a few more tools to keep from being fooled.

But of course this book is a work of fiction, and the characters bear no resemblance to actual politicians, who are much worse.