We’re Gum on D.C.’s Shoe
The day after I quit my columnist job at the Salt Lake Tribune, I got an ego-stroking e-mail. Bill O’Brian, an opinion section editor at the Washington Post, asked me to contribute with eight other U.S. newspaper columnists to a Sunday feature.
The assignment was truly sweet. We were asked to write 250 words describing how people in our hometown/state view Washington D.C. As in, when Utahns hear the words “Washington D.C., what do they immediately think?”
O’Brian told me to be witty, acerbic, downright provincial. What? Did the guy read my mind or something? Talk about an assignment right up my alley.
In the interest of disclosure, I told O’Brian I had just quit my job. I mean, I had no more standing as a paid newspaper blowhard. No status.
His approximate reaction: “That’s exactly why I called you.”
Well, see what you think. At least I’m in good company. Brian Dickerson, a Detroit Free Press columnist, is a friend of mine from 30 years back. Connie Schultz won a Pultizer Prize in 2005 for her Cleveland Plain Dealer columns, and has become a favorite e-mail friend of mine. Connie took a leave of absence from the CPD last year to avoid any charges of conflict of interest while she campaigned for her husband, Sherrod Brown. Brown was elected to the U.S. Senate in the big Democratic sweep.