Every Thursday, the Spy hosts a conversation with Al From and Craig Fuller on the most topical political news of the moment.

This week, From and Fuller discuss the results of the primary election in Georgia and assess Donald Trump’s impact of voters.  Al and Craig also talk about the recent mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and the political prospects of meaningful gun control in its aftermath.

This video podcast is approximately nineteen minutes in length.

To listen to the audio podcast version, please use this link:

Background

While the Spy’s public affairs mission has always been hyper-local, it has never limited us from covering national, or even international issues, that impact the communities we serve. With that in mind, we were delighted that Al From and Craig Fuller, both highly respected Washington insiders, have agreed to a new Spy video project called “The Analysis of From and Fuller” over the next year.

The Spy and our region are very lucky to have such an accomplished duo volunteer for this experiment. While one is a devoted Democrat and the other a lifetime Republican, both had long careers that sought out the middle ground of the American political spectrum.

Al From, the genius behind the Democratic Leadership Council’s moderate agenda which would eventually lead to the election of Bill Clinton, has never compromised from this middle-of-the-road philosophy. This did not go unnoticed in a party that was moving quickly to the left in the 1980s. Including progressive Howard Dean saying that From’s DLC was the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

From’s boss, Bill Clinton, had a different perspective. He said it would be hard to think of a single American citizen who, as a private citizen, has had a more positive impact on the progress of American life in the last 25 years than Al From.”

Al now lives in Annapolis and spends his semi-retirement as a board member of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (his alma mater) and authoring New Democrats and the Return to Power. He also is an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School and recently agreed to serve on the Annapolis Spy’s Board of Visitors. He is the author of “New Democrats and the Return to Power.”

For Craig Fuller, his moderation in the Republican party was a rare phenomenon. With deep roots in California’s GOP culture of centralism, Fuller, starting with a long history with Ronald Reagan, leading to his appointment as Reagan’s cabinet secretary at the White House, and later as George Bush’s chief-of-staff and presidential campaign manager was known for his instincts to find the middle ground. Even more noted was his reputation of being a nice guy in Washington, a rare characteristic for a successful tenure in the White House.

Craig has called Easton his permanent home for the last five years, where now serves on the boards of the Academy Art Museum, the Benedictine School, and Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  He also serves on the Spy’s Board of Visitors.

With their rich experience and long history of friendship, now joined by their love of the Chesapeake Bay, they have agreed through the magic of Zoom, to talk inside politics and policy with the Spy every Thursday.

One way the Spy thought it could best honor the late (and very great) George Merrill, our Sunday morning columnist for the past eight years, was to check in with Wilson Wyatt a few weeks ago to discuss a suitable successor. Wilson is the publisher and driving force behind one the region’s great literary gems, the Delmarva Review, and it was his kind recommendation that led us to George in 2014. 

Back then, I was looking for a unique voice to anchor our Sunday edition. Eager to depart from our weekday pieces on politics and local matters, George’s spiritual, almost transcendental, subject matter was a perfect way for the Sunday edition of the Spy to challenge its readers with the unexpected musings from a creative writer rather than an opinion maker.

The Spy’s goal after George’ passing, which was shared by Wilson, was not to find someone who could replicate his themes or voice but to use this slower Sunday morning space to explore and celebrate writing itself. And on the top of his list was the author and writing teacher, Laura Oliver.

With that as background, the Spy is delighted to announce that Laura Oliver will be our Sunday columnist starting today.

Laura is an award-winning book editor and writing coach who has taught writing at the University of Maryland and St. John’s College. She is the author of The Story Within (Penguin Random House), named by “Poets and Writers Magazine” as one of the best writing books ever published. Oliver’s own fiction and essays are published in national newspapers, magazines, and top-tier literary reviews such as The Washington Post, Country Living Magazine, The Writer Magazine, The Sun Magazine, Baltimore Review and Glimmer Train.

A graduate of Washington College and with an MFA from Bennington College’s highly regarded writing program, Laura has called Annapolis her home for most of her adult life. I hope that the Spy’s readers will join me in welcoming her to her new virtual home every Sunday and enjoy her deeply engaging essays for many years to come.

Dave Wheelan
Publisher and Executive Editor 

It seems like everyone and their brother (or sister) has an opinion about the recent leak of an United States Supreme Court draft opinion suggesting that Roe v. Wade would be overturned soon. And in the case of the Spy’s publisher, it is my brother-in-law who certainly has had his own thoughts on the matter. But unlike many, if not most, in-laws, Tom Metzloff actually does know what he’s talking about.

A former Supreme Court law clerk under Byron “Whizzer” White, a classmate at Harvard Law with now Chief Justice John Roberts, and a professor at Duke University School of Law since 1985, Tom has been a student of the Court his entire professional career. And over the years, I have always enjoyed the moments during family gatherings when he was willing to forgo his more typical commentaries on his historically long-suffering Buffalo Bills and talk about his day job.

One of those times was many years ago when Tom was the first to alert me that Roe v. Wade was considered to be severely, and potentially fatally, flawed by many legal scholars, entirely independent of whether they were pro-life or pro-abortion. While the majority of the Court had been successful so far in protecting the decision, Tom contended that a day might come when the constitutional protections of Roe v. Wade would face a serious challenge.

As everyone now knows, that day arrived a few weeks ago in the form of the leaked opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating that a majority of the Court would indeed vote to overrule the 1973 decision.

Rather than wait for another holiday gathering to talk about this stunning development, Tom agreed to sit down with me for the Spy newspapers using our long-form interview format to talk about the case, his related experience working at the Supreme Court, the now-famous leak, and the future of Roe v. Wade and the Court itself.

This video is approximately 15 minutes in length. 

 

Pam Watroba freely admits that art and art creation have always been front and center in her life. Still, the realities of life, including raising a family, deferred that passion until she retired as a healthcare professional a few years ago. With her husband cheering her on, Pat returned to art far later in life than she had hoped, but thankfully, she still has the same passion she had growing up in Baltimore.

The result of that personal rebirth can now be seen at the Main Street Gallery in Cambridge and RiverArts in Chestertown, where Pam displays a remarkable range of her creations, including both abstract and figurative uses of glass to create images as diverse as Chesapeake Bay sunsets to human skulls that celebrate el Día de Los Muertos.

The Spy caught up with Pam in Cambridge last week to talk about her work.

This video is approximately minutes in length. For more information about Main Street Gallery please go here. For RiverArts please go here.