McCain, Trump

The day I made the front page

June 25, 2025 Just rediscovered this in a box in the basement. In 2001, as the Senate correspondent for the Voice of America, I covered an informal press conference by the late Senator John McCain. That’s me sitting in the lower left. I believe the woman next to me is the Post’s Helen Dewar, one… Continue reading The day I made the front page

2020 election, gun violence, history, U. S. Capitol

The Capitol I knew

January 7, 2021 One afternoon in the summer of 1998 I was sitting in my cramped broadcast booth in the Senate Radio & TV Correspondents Gallery in the Capitol, where I spent my days reporting on Congress for listeners all over the world on the Voice of America. I had just filed a routine story… Continue reading The Capitol I knew

2020 election, Clinton, history, Politics, Trump, War

A statesman speaks

When you're a reporter covering Congress, you listen to an awful lot of speeches. Many of these breathless bulletins concern vital issues like National Cub Scout Month and the renaming of post offices. Speeches can be pompous, sanctimonious, badly reasoned, highly partisan, dull, hypocritical, long-winded, or all of the above. They're sometimes thoughtful or heartfelt.… Continue reading A statesman speaks