Dateline: above the garage in Portsmouth RI, 16 February 2005

Back home after the whirlwind trip. Flew out yesterday morning at 8am, arriving in Baltimore-Washington International. Grabbed a Dollar and drove to Union Station in DC, where I parked. Short walk to Russell Senate building.

Nice old hearing room (385). Talk began at noon. We put the screen in the well and Services came with a funky little projector. Room set up for about 60 in all, and maybe another 20 against walls and sitting on the floor. Staffers, but a lot of other USG people there, plus some print media. Went 1:20 and took questions until 1:45. Signed about half-dozen books. Saw some staffers I recognized from last summer. May follow up down the road with actual Senators, but won't hold my breath on that one.

Toshiyuki Ito, staff correspondent from The Yomiuri Shimbun is waiting for me outside the hall. We walk and talk to Longsworth, a House building on other side of Mall. He does about 30 mins Q&A on global posture changes with basing, holding small recorder up to my face the whole time. He says he's about halfway through PNM and it's hard for him in English. So I tell him to read the Japanese edition and save some time! We part outside of Longsworth.

Up in Longsworth on 5th floor I do 30 min office call on freshman Rep. Geoff Davis, 4th of Kentucky. Former Ranger, no less. He had really liked PNM and wanted to meet me. His people had contacted me by email, so we had the sit-down. By some accounts this guy has more military experience than the rest of the frosh class combined, and it shows. Very personable and very knowledgable. He and I share a big interest on the growth of religion inside the Gap and New Core. Bid him goodbye at 3pm, knowing we'd meet again at dinner.

Then spent hour in cafe in basement of Longsworth (they have that whole underground network among all the buildings) with Dan Forrester of Sapient corp, who is doing research article on "change agents" in the government. I had given him a slew of names to chase earlier, and now he was interviewing me. I will probably use this piece as cite in Vol. II.

At 4pm I make office call on Rep. Steve Israel, from Long Island NY. About an hour with him on military matters, discussing a group of thinkers he's putting together. Guy also just set up "center aisle" caucus group to explore more civility between Dems and Reps, so let's just say he's both ambitious and idealistic, which means I like him from the start. This one also set up out of blue by email through staff. Israel just really liked the book. They asked when I might be back, and I told them mid-April for another speaking gig, so we may set something up for members, if possible. All in all, another impressive guy.

At 6:30 I have a drink with The New Rule Sets Project's Advisory Board in a fancy local restaurant called "The Monacle" on D Street behind Capitol. Places is crawling with Reps and Senators. Watch Diane Feinstein depart.

Our Advisory Board right now is one Kevin Billings, a very interesting and connected guy in DC who's private sector but knows his way around just about everywhere. Kevin had set up nice dinner for me, him, a staffer and four House Representatives. Geoff Davis was one. Ken Calvert (44th, CA) was another. Plus Gary Miller (42nd, CA) and Ed Royce (40th, CA). Also Calvert's Chief of Staff, Dave Ramey.

All very impressive guys, and all with an amazing grasp of US history, especially the Civil War. All had done a lot of travel around the world, meeting key players and really getting to know key countries in the Gap and New Core. Since this was a self-selected bunch (they all came to talk foreign affairs and security with me over the meal), I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the quality of their knowledge and experience. I'm certain not all Reps are that on-topic as these four are, but it sure made a really interesting 3 hours of fairly spirited discussion. These guys could talk about damn near anything you could name: energy, trade, mortgage rates in Mexico, Hernando DeSoto, etc. Pick a subject, and they knew something, usually connected to serious on-the-ground investigation on a congressional delegation trip. Again, I know all Reps aren't that solid and I was getting a skewed sample here, but I was impressed.

As I always say, you meet people in these positions and then walk away from the meeting either wondering how such a dumbass got a job like that or feeling pretty good that such smart people are in such important posts. This quartet left me feeling awfully solid about their four seats, at least. Hopefully, I'll get to interact with them all in the future. They all told some amazing stories of trips overseas and stuff they had done over their careers. I mean, these guys really get around. Royce just went to Sudan with Don Cheadle and the Rwandan hotelier (Paul Rusesabagina) he plays in the movie "Hotel Rwanda." Bit of a PR stunt? Sure. But anyone who's making that effort on Sudan certainly gets my pat on the back. Plus, he just seems like a very nice man who goes out of his way to do more than just talk about suffering inside the Gap. He offered me a lot of good questions, as they all did.

Only problem with dinner was that it ended at around 10:15 and I wasn't in my car until almost 11pm. Trick was, I had to get to hotel in Williamsburg to hit the hay, so driving until 1:30am.

Nice hotel there, though, with a Tempurpedic-like bed that almost made the drive worthwhile. I was there for panel this morning from 10-12 with 2-star USA Gen I met at Airlie House and lady analyst from Congressional Budget Office. Event was big conference of Programming Analysis and Evaluation division of Office of Secretary of Defense (the green eyeshade people who count the beans, and thus are very powerful on budgets). Our panel discussion was all about "calculating risk." It was a good session with good audience questions. I was a bit out of it on the sleep, but did reasonably well, keeping it lively. The host called it an "incredibly provocative" session at the end, so everyone seemed happy.

Then 3.5 hour drive to BWI to catch scary flight home to Providence (big storm here).

On way back in plane read March issue of Esquire. More on that in two next posts.

Fun trip, but exhausting. Still, great to see the book getting such play in high places, and the personal connectivity established was just fabulous.