Mud: A Political Satire

A POLITICAL SATIRE. An ancient member of the House of Representatives dies during a rant on the chamber floor, and so disappears his party’s one-vote margin. In a special election to determine the House’s majority rulers, one party sends to the boonies its secret weapon—“the most evil man in America,” a political consultant. To counter him, the other party sends its equivalent. Each sees and raises dirty trick for dirty trick, until both candidates are sufficiently slandered and ruined, each unworthy of a single vote. In the end, a near-literal deus ex machina arises to settle the national deadlock—well, for a moment.