Feb. 7, 2005

WASHINGTON - A very fun town indeed.

I've been to Washington several times throughout my life, visiting relatives in the area. But something is distinctly different and about striking out into the city with the "young professional" mindset. I'm eager to begin all that I've got to learn and do.

For the record, I'm in Terry Michael's Washington Semester for Politics & Journalism, a program offered to 13 students across the United States and abroad for a seminar-style program in politics coupled with an internship at a DC news bureau. The internships are very diverse: the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Bloomberg News, the Wall St. Journal, to name a few. And my fellow interns come from all over as well: San Francisco, Boston, Montana, even Ottawa, Canada. We all have gotten along really well, and our first meeting with Terry Monday went really well.

My assignment is with Congress Daily, the insider's newspaper on the issues Congress faces each day. At first I thought I would spend the day being shown around the Watergate office, however my executive editor, Keith White, gave me a different type of orientation; he handed me a list of press rooms in the Capitol and the names and locations of field reporters for Congress Daily. He then said "I want you to go to the Capitol and, well, get lost." So that is what I did. I rode the Metro to Capitol South and proceeded to get press credentials for the Capitol. I was issued a nifty card that basically gave me access to the entire Capitol building. I was totally enthralled to be given such privilege!

I met the field reporters and discussed their individual beats and some politics as well. Then came the most exciting part of the day. Keith asked me to check out a regular event at the Capitol; party leaders meeting with the press after a policy lunch session. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., spoke at noon before the lunch, and I simply watched him answer questions. It was almost surreal to see him in person.

But the surprises didn't end there: Senator Rick Santorum, R-Pa., spoke first after lunch. The questions reporters asked were varied: questions about Social Security, the new budget, the gay marriage amendment, even farm subsidies. I mustered the courage to speak up, and asked a question about Medicaid that I had read earlier in the day. He spoke very calmly and gave a very " politician-esque" answer, but nevertheless it thrilled me.

Afterwards I asked a question to the Senate Minority Whip, and then listened to Sen. Reid answer some other questions. All in all, the first few days have been nothing but reality-check after reality-check. I'm frequently finding myself trying to prove it's a dream, because I'm able to stake out Washington as if I had been doing it for years. I'm very happy to be part of the program and be able to do the things I'm doing.

More to come.

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