B. U. G. S.

Many plays start with a single person on the stage.

I feel sorry for them.

When you go to a live play you are with people and all the talk has been very real. Five

minutes after the play starts you are into it. But when that one actor goes on stage you

are still very much in the real world, and that actor has a hard time making you into into

HIS world.

I had the same sensation every time I went into John Ashbrook’s office. He was a newpaper

publisher by profession, so he just kept doing the corresponce while a staffer told him what

he was there about. So I wold knock on the door, not wait for any resposne, and stand there

in front of his desk while he never looked up. While I talked he would be writing.

Usually he never even lifted his head while I was there.

This was his standard procedure. He heard every word I said. I watched him finish up two

or three letters, look, make corrections or sign, while I stood there for no more than five

minutes giving him the story.

He would make comments and ask me questions as I spoke, just as if he were looking at me. If he had called me into his office, he would give his directions while working.

I had to know when he was finished. He told me what I wanted. I seldom had to ask questions, but if I did, he would answer them all straight and short.

I had to know when I had gottent he answers I needed. If I told him him what I wanted to do, he would say OK or sometimes not even reply. He always remembered. Then I would leave.

If I left before we finished, he would have stopped me. The fact that I walked out meant I had gotten what I wanted. I was a senior staffer. I was expected to know when I had gotten what I wanted.

He never once called me back.

We did plenty of talking, but after hours or in his home district. When congress was in sesssion and he had pile of correspondence, my job was to get whatever else came up done, period, and bother him as little as possible.

This experience shook up the most hardened staffers. While I was there he took over the Education and Labor Committee staff, so experienced people had to see him for the first time.

Normally when a senior staffer walked into a congressman’s office, he would sit down and the senator or congressman would look at him and suspend other activity. So I would try to warn people new to working for Ashbrook about this srange experience.

Almost invariably they would say something like, “Bob, I’ve been on the Hill X years. I know how to talk to a congressman.”

Every one of them came back talking about what a STRANGE experience it was. A couple asked me why I didn’t WARN them. This is why Jack Anderson wrote a column saying that John Ashbrook was the hardest man in the House of Representatives to work for.

I didn’t have a problem with it once I got the drift. I was senior staff. I was also very busy myself. I didn’t want to waste my time, and, more important, I didn’t want to waste HIS.

They would knock on the door and wait. Finally someone wold tell them to go on in. Then they would stand there waiting to be asked to sit. After theys stood there a full minute, John would say, “So what’s up?” and continue doing his work.

You see, John could walk and chew gum at the same time, whichis why he was never eleced tot

he Leadership. They were used to dealing with Gerald Ford, who was.