Bob Corker was not the inside man that, certainly, Senator [Jeff] Sessions was. And he doesn`t telegraph what`s going on. He`s been much more discreet about that.

When it came to political power, blacks need not apply. Add to this steaming stew the growing tensions over the Vietnam War and the movement for civil rights, and you had plenty of elements to fire the imagination of a novice journalist.

Socially, Philadelphia was still a fairly provincial city, its business community governed by the mores of the Main Line. Politically, it was a cauldron of ethnic rivalries, dominated by competing Irish and Italian constituencies.

Washington was not just a city of marble buildings and smoke-filled rooms and power brokers, but also a town full of people who do care about each other, in good times and bad.

[Bob] Corker was an early endorser.

Bob Corker was not the inside man that, certainly, Senator [Jeff] Sessions was. And he doesn`t telegraph what`s going on. He`s been much more discreet about that.

They put me on the shift where they thought I could do the least harm, midnight to eight in the morning. Although the hours were lousy, they were perfect for an apprentice reporter.