Jim Geraghty of National Review told Newsmax TV on Thursday that his new work of fiction,
"The Weed Agency," was one tough assignment — but not because he's an issues columnist who normally deals in reality.
A satirical portrait of a non-essential but unsinkable government office — the imaginary USDA Agency of Invasive Species — and the people who try to comprehend it, "The Weed Agency" challenged Geraghty to bring literary life to an occupational black hole.
"Let me tell you: It's not easy to write a novel about a place where nothing ever seems to change," Geraghty told "America's Forum" host J.D. Hayworth in a chat about the book, subtitled "A Comic Tale of a Federal Bureaucracy Without Limits."
"We see these federal programs," said Geraghty. "They start out as a small pilot program and then they find, 'Oh! They're desperately underfunded! … And it grows and it expands, and it's very difficult to get rid of — very difficult to uproot."
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Geraghty's creation has a real-world counterpart called
The National Invasive Species Council, an inter-agency working group drawn from a whopping 13 larger U.S. departments.
"Including NASA, by the way," said Geraghty, "so I suppose they're on the lookout for space weeds."
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