I still remember the day, 45 years ago, in the summer of 1962, when I was a newly minted UPI bureau reporter fresh out of journalism school at the University of Illinois. And I thought I was some sort of hot shit.

One day I was assigned to go over to the Iowa state capitol (I was assigned to the Des Moines bureau) and see about building up a story based on a visit there by the governor of Mississippi, the late Ross Barnett.

I barged in on the governor's office, got to talking to one of the men there who seemed fairly knowledgeable about news coverage and told him:

"You must be the AP guy around here."

His response all but put me flat on my ass:

"Actually, I'm the governor around here."

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI

After reading the comments to the original piece, and the comments on the post that reposted it, I have to say Arnold, yours is the best by far, and an even better story than the march through the green zone that started this.

MA, thanks for the lift.

The best part of it was that I learned something valuable from that innocent verbal exchange 45 years ago in Des Moines, Iowa. The worst part was that I still am compelled to remember it. How's that for paradox?

His name was Norman Erbe, by the way. A Republican, he lost his re-election bid that November to a relatively unknown Democrat names Harold Hughes; to no small degree, over the liquor-by-the=drink issue, then a hot ticket item in Iowa. Some of the local GOP snickered about "Who's Hughes?" He showed them exactly who he was, serving three terms compared with Erbe's one term.

Erbe was a good guy, who had served in the US Army as an infantry officer, then in the US Army Air Force as a pilot. He was a big, genial fellow with a sense of humor; which he certainly used effectively to put a brash young reporter in his place.

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI