Wesley Mouch

Aliases: "Mouch the lobbyist"; "the Top Coordinator"; "Mr. Mouch."

Role

Originally Hank Rearden's Washington lobbyist; promoted by political pull through the Bureau of Economic Planning to "Top Coordinator" of the National Resources, the regime's de facto economic czar. Architect of the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule, the Equalization of Opportunity Bill, and Directive 10-289. The novel's most fully drawn middle-rank looter.

Personality / energy

Doughy, cowardly, evasive. Speaks in qualifications and never commits to a clear sentence. The pure type of the bureaucrat who will sign anything that protects him next week.

Physical description

Middle-aged (~50). Below average height (~5'8"), heavyset, soft. A bald spot at the crown; thin sandy hair around it. Sodden, lumpy face — Rand's words — slack jaw, small pale eyes, thin colorless lips. Sallow complexion. Hands soft.

Outfit

• Office: rumpled gray three-piece suit, tie pulled loose, shirt cuffs rolled in late hours
• Press appearances: an ill-fitted dark suit and a soft hat
• At the Wayne-Falkland (Ch. 28): evening clothes worn uneasily

Visual motifs

• A green-shaded desk lamp at a paper-strewn Washington table
• An ashtray of crushed cigarettes
• A nervous hand on a telephone
• A row of file cabinets behind a sweating face

Power signature

Not applicable. His "signature" is a green-shaded desk lamp on a paper-strewn table at midnight.

Chapter appearances

3, 12, 16, 17, 25, 28, 29.

Source references

• Wikipedia — Atlas Shrugged: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged
• SparkNotes — Atlas Shrugged character list: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/atlasshrugged/characters/

Confidence

Medium-high — Mouch's physical description ("sodden, lumpy") is in the text but less precisely drawn than the principal characters.