The democratic party's most eloquent statesman in a triumph of heart, mind, and voice delivers a vivid rebuke to the radical Republicans running riot in Washington.

Forthright in confessing his party's own failings, Cuomo is remorseless in dismantling the opposition, using the floodlight of his clear prose to reveal the evasion and show the inadequacy of the now-famous, celebrated Contract with America. In its place, he offers a hopeful vision of what we the people might achieve if we can only learn to remember "we're all in this together."

Written with a depth of understanding drawn from twenty years of daily involvement with local, state and federal government and six decades as the American son of quintessential immigrants, Reason to Believe is Cuomo's tribute to the uncompromising wisdom of people like his parents and the parents of his wife, Matilda, seekers and believers who taught him the lesson America needs so badly now: "that what is right is usually also what is necessary; that in helping one another we almost always help ourselves."

Mario Cuomo is the former three-term governor of New York. He is now a partner in the law firm Willkie, Farr & Gallagher.