For three years while serving as a senior adviser to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce--one of the most powerful committees in Congress--Bruce C. Wolpe kept a diary, a senior staffer's look at how committees develop and promote legislation. With its insider's view of the rough-and-tumble politics of cap-and-trade, healthcare reform, tobacco, oversight, and the debt ceiling agreement, The Committee...