Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren Programming Note: We’ll be off this Monday for Juneteenth but will be back in your inboxes on Tuesday. We hope absence makes the heart grow fonder. Every few years, there’s a book that takes an anthropological look at Washington and the people who inhabit it. This year, it’s Washington Post feature writer BEN TERRIS who is taking a stab. Terris spent two years reporting out his new book, “The Big Break.” Starting with the early months of JOE BIDEN’s presidency and concluding with his first midterm elections, he chronicled the behind-the-scenes staffers that make Washington, well, quirky. Terris spoke with West Wing Playbook about how Washington has (or hasn’t) changed with the Biden administration, his reporting process and who really throws the best holiday party. Here’s an edited version of the conversation. The book focuses on a few main characters who are everyday Washington types (a Hill aide, a former CPAC staffer, etc.). How did you pick them? I cast a huge net. I did a lot of reporting on people that never actually became characters. I spent a bunch of time with (Arizona Rep.) Ruben Gallego, and he’s not really in the book. I spent time with (Texas Rep.) Dan Crenshaw, and he’s a sentence in the book. Because you didn’t find the politicians as interesting? If you can be around people who are actually able to be human around you, that’s just better material. It’s more interesting. It’s more honest. I think Ruben Gallego is a very interesting politician. He was maybe one of the most candid politicians that I’ve been around. And yet he was still just a politician. Everything felt calculated in a way that is true for some of the regular people, but the regular people aren’t quite as practiced at it. You open up the book in 2021 with scenes from dueling holiday parties. Matt and Mercedes Schlapp host Republicans at their mansion in Virginia and Leah Hunt-Hendrix hosts progressives at her D.C. townhouse. Who throws a better party? Honestly, I did not have fun at either of them. But people were definitely having more fun at the Schlapp party. I think it’s because there was sort of a nihilism going on with the Republican Party. Their stock was low and they could see it rising and they felt like they were all going to get rich off of the next Congress. Democrats — they were in control, but it felt very tenuous. It was hard for people to fully celebrate because they were so worried about what was coming next. There’s something to be said about that between Democrats and Republicans in Washington. You have some great details from parties (like when Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida asked you not to write that he was wearing the same red blazer as Greta Van Susteren). Some people assume a level of anonymity at these kinds of events. Did anyone get upset with you for writing about them? Somebody called me very angrily about being quoted at one of these parties. I made the case that I thought that the person they might actually be angry with wasn’t me, but the host of the party. These hosts know I’m writing about them. These are public people going to public places filled with journalists. It would be very easy to invite me to the party and say, ‘Hey, this has to be off the record.’ And I would not go. Did that ever happen? I got invited to go to a (Florida Rep.) Maxwell Frost party at the Wharf. I walked all the way there from the Capitol and when I show up, his comms person says, ‘Oh, yeah, of course you can come in, but you know, everything is off the record.’ And I was like, ‘No, I'm not doing that. I’m not here to have a good time.’ And so I left. Do you think Washington has changed since Biden took office? It’s definitely different. The people that have come in the door are different. Trump revealed a lot of things about Washington that were true before he came. People act like Trump showed up and made no sense in Washington. But people here have always been self promotional and ideologically malleable. It’s just that all that stuff has exploded to be 10 times what it was before. I finished the book and felt pretty down about Washington. Was I supposed to feel that way? It’s a depressing and ridiculous time here. But I also do think there’s hope. It’s still mostly filled with people who come here to do good things. There’s this tension that people get when they come here between remaining idealistic and becoming cynical. But it does attract idealistic people and they still go to work on the Hill, at think tanks and in the administration. They don’t get paid well, they’re not necessarily treated well. And yet people keep coming and doing these jobs trying to figure it all out. MESSAGE US — Are you MARK LEIBOVICH? 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