EMA Journal • Fall 2024 • Legal Briefs

I’m writing this on a beautiful mid-August day in D.C., almost a hint of fall in the air. A wonderful break from the hottest summer in my 55 years living here. (55 years!)

I came to D.C. in August 1969, early in Richard Nixon’s second term (he was a crook). I worked on the McGovern campaign at the Watergate office. “Watergate” became one of the strangest political episodes in U.S. presidential history, following Lyndon B. Johnson’s announcement that he would not seek another term due to the nation tearing itself apart over the Vietnam War by only a few years. But the “Donald Trump Show” we’ve all been watching for the last eight years makes the Johnson-Nixon years seem positively boring.

Each morning when I get off the Metro on my way to work, I always look right to two buildings up Connecticut Avenue, which was once the ABC News Bureau, where Sof started working after our honeymoon in September 1971. The Bureau moved across Connecticut Avenue to Desales Street in 1982. President Reagan cut the ribbon. I remember ABC News President Roone Arledge shutting down Sam Donaldson, who was hassling Reagan. (“Mr. President, Mr. President!”)

From his inaugural speech declaring the end to “the great American carnage” — what he was referring to remains unknown to this very day — to his raging on crowd size. And Sean Spicer, his press secretary, who had to lie and challenge the very clear facts (where the term “alternative facts” came from). I volunteered for Trump’s inauguration with the National Park Service and can testify that the Mall was empty in front of my tent, next to the Old Smithsonian Castle. It was, however, packed at the Capitol (where Trump was), where Sof joined Bill Herdrich and his daughter as guests of Vice President Mike Pence.

For the last eight years, Trump has held this nation in thrall like no other U.S. president. Not even FDR, who had most of the country in the palm of his hand, could do that! He has dominated the news cycle, for good or for ill, that there is little room for anything but him. His fans deify him, and his opponents demonize him. Almost no one views him with equanimity.

As I said at the beginning of this piece, I’ve been in Washington for a long time. Under 10 (five Republicans and five Democrats) administrations, none were comparable to Trump’s — from his nomination run to his administration to the last three-and-a-half years. While governing this nation is frequently tumultuous, I don’t think this city has ever seen this protracted level of craziness.

With all this attention on Trump, we may have missed — or at least diminished — several major world, U.S. and Washington events.

First, we’ve gotten through the only pandemic in my lifetime. With 1.15 million U.S. deaths, COVID-19 wreaked havoc on our people and country. The magnificent sacrifices of our wonderful health care community and the brave steps of our federal, state and local governments to address COVID-19 were, albeit sometimes inadequate, a tribute to what a populace can rely on its government to do.

The latest inflation numbers show that the economy is finally returning to “normal” after shaking off the effects of the “demand-push inflation,” caused by more than $1 trillion pumped into the economy to combat COVID-19’s effects as well as supply chain glitches also caused by the pandemic.

There are so many vacant buildings in downtown D.C. (a vacancy rate of 22.4 percent) and so few people downtown that the three CVS branches closest to my office have closed. (The big one in my uptown neighborhood 2.5 miles north is still going strong.) And they just began leasing apartments in the first converted office building three blocks west of our office. (They also resurrected the Black Rooster. It was always one of my favorite bars on that site.)

The work change that has led to an office space glut: “Working remotely” has caused a fundamental change in our established work patterns. Let’s see how and if it morphs.

And perhaps major geopolitical changes in Eastern Europe and the Middle East with Ukraine invading Russia and the chance for an end to the war in Gaza (one can always hope). New maps may have to be drawn.

While it’s still crazier in D.C. than it usually is, the capital, the country and the world go on.

So, I’ve been in D.C. for 55 years, went to law school, got married, started a law firm, met some truly great people and raised two sons. (I remember wheeling a 2-year-old Zack in his stroller to Explorer’s Hall in the National Geographic building just around the other (17th Street) corner from my office. He loved the big globe they had.) I’ve had way too much fun. I love this crazy, beautiful town and hope the Good Lord will give me several more years to enjoy it. Come visit!