USNews.com: Inside Washington: Paul Bedard: : This is one heck of a <i>Confession</i>

September 15, 2006

This is one heck of a Confession

Coming to a TV news show and bookstore near you this week is something the Democrats need like a hole in the head: New Jersey's ex-Gov. James McGreevey, who quit his job and left his wife and kids after revealing his secret life as a gay man, goes public with the whole sordid affair to pitch his book, The Confession. According to reports, the guv tells us way more than we need to know. Here's just one excerpt uncovered by the AP where he describes sex with the man he claims threatened to expose his double life:

"We undressed and he kissed me. It was the first time in my life that a kiss meant what it was supposed to mean–it sent me through the roof," he wrote. "I was like a man emerging from 44 years in a cave to taste pure air for the first time, feel direct sunlight on pallid skin, warmth where there had only ever been a bone-chilling numbness." More: "I pulled him to the bed and we made love like I'd always dreamed: a boastful, passionate, whispering, masculine kind of love."

The week will open like a Broadway hit: on Oprah and Letterman. He's already taped the Oprah session where he appeared with his new lover. Those who've seen it say the two men kiss as Oprah enters. Look for Democrats to shy away from talking about the onetime party favorite, worried that all it will do is draw attention to the more liberal-leaning in a party taking pains to show its middle-of-the-road muscle going into the fall midterm elections.

Posted at 10:00 AM by PaulBedard

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WHAT IS THIS?

Have you ever wondered what reporters do with all the stuff they collect but never write about? Well wonder no more. The bosses here pay me a good chunk of change and haven't ever choked on my Amex bill so it seems only proper to dump out my notebook every week. It won't be just news we didn't use. The blog will sometimes write about the process of getting stories-like why we choose Charlie Palmer's (quiet, spacious) for source lunches on Capitol Hill over Bistro Bis (crowded and noisy). Or why it's hard to get reporters at U.S. News to answer their phones on Fridays (it's our deadline, silly.) We'll even include pictures of our travels. Don't hesitate to applaud or criticize. We might just run your comments. Go ahead and email me at pbedard@usnews.com.

HISTORICAL STUFF

In Washington Whispers One Year Ago: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy can be one of the Senate's blustering best, but we found him in a candid moment last week when he sized up his speech this week at the AFL-CIO convention in Chicago. "You're gonna miss a great speech there," he said with a chuckle. "Same one I've given for 40 years. It's going to be breathtaking."

Five years ago: Vice President Dick Cheney knows how to keep reporters happy. Flying home on Air Force Two from an energy policy town hall meeting in Pittsburgh, his press corps asked stewards for beer. Breaking with practice, the jet was dry. Scribes whined to Cheney who found two bottles of vino, red and white, to give the pampered pressies.