Sentence:  Such fascinating novelties in the score as the fugual treatment of `` On the Side of the Angels '' and `` Politics and Poker '' were handled splendidly , and I thought Rudy Bond and his band of tuneful <WSD>ward-heelers</WSD> made `` Little Tin Box '' even better than it was done by the New York cast ; all the words of its clever lyrics came through with perfect clarity . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends