record keeping

Patty Weiss claims that her 35 years as a journalist was training for service in Congress. It really isn't. I have worked in the House, Senate, and executive branch. I was press secretary for Vice President Hubert Humphrey and professor of political communications in the Louisiana State University School of Journalism. I have known some of the brightest journalists in my time, including Walter Lippman, Walter Cronkite and Bill Moyers.
They and others would laugh at the idea that what they did prepared them for public office. I have known many members of Congress. The best of them were teachers, lawyers and businessmen, almost all with prior political service. The only journalist among them was Jesse Helms of North Carolina; a TV anchor of experience, but no sense of decency. Weiss may have good qualities that qualify her for public office, but her career is not one of them.
Norman Sherman
Tucson