The event was to celebrate some big grant the magazine had just gotten, so my friend invited my wife Caryl and me to tag along.Īs Kennedy and the magazine’s top editors and other important personages spoke, I cased the joint ― how many other times was I going to get invited to Ted Kennedy’s house? I was especially struck by an autographed picture of Rose Kennedy, the senator’s famous mother, on the mantelpiece over the fireplace in the living room. Yes, you read that right.īut before you assume I live some kind of glamorous lifestyle, let me say this: The party was in honor of the American Prospect magazine, which was based in Boston, and where a good friend of mine from college had just landed a job. I distinctly remember running into Raskin in 2001 or thereabouts at a party at Ted Kennedy’s stately house, in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C. With time, I came to learn that Raskin, like me, lived in Takoma Park, so I’d see him around town every now and then and we’d chit-chat.

Raskin was very friendly, but more soft-spoken and cerebral. Gansler was a fun and colorful figure, and something of a braggart. I would see Raskin with Gansler at candidate forums, political gatherings and other events I was covering. I don’t remember exactly where and when I first met Jamie Raskin, but it had to have been in 1998, when his good friend Doug Gansler was running for Montgomery County state’s attorney. Capitol before the House voted to impeach former President Trump in January. Raskin (D-Md.) leads House impeachment managers on to the House floor in the U.S.

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