When I came back to Washington to be The Times' chief congressional correspondent in 1991, I was looking for a book subject, and Ted Kennedy stood out for two reasons.

When I came back to Washington to be The Times' chief congressional correspondent in 1991, I was looking for a book subject, and Ted Kennedy stood out for two reasons.

Gore speaks to America as if English is its second language; George W. speaks as if English is his second language.

Another thing that's quite different in writing a book as a practicing newspaperman is that if you look at what you've written the next morning and you think you didn't get it quite right, you can fix it.

Ted Kennedy's achievements as a senator have towered over his time, changing the lives of far more Americans than remember the name Mary Jo Kopechne.

I thought writing about somebody current would be a little closer to what I'm used to doing.

There's a Washington standard of casually putting things off the record. It's really gone too far. I don't know an easy way to turn it back.