but when you claim to be above that, you're not going to be very effective. one of the characters in my book, ed flynn, who was very close to franklin roosevelt and was sort of raised by tammany. he had a word for people and it was the worst word you could possibly use -- amateur. >> it would have been an amateur that would have walked into tammany hall that said hey, i have a plan to get back at this mayor. it involves hurting the voters and leaving them stuck in traffic for hours and end. there's no one at tammany hall that wouldn't have said you're absolutely crazy. >> if you're going to create a scandal, make sure it's a scandal people don't understand. and people understand traffic jams. >> the important book is called "machine made -- tammany hall and the creation of modern politics. it takes us all the way to the presidency of fdr. you will not understand fdr. you don't know where the minimum