Writers, journalists were the stars as the public looked for answers
Four Republican-back propositions in Louisiana all went down to defeat
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It was a line worthy of Disney World.
I've spent some time in lines over the years, like when tickets went on sale for the Jimmer Game in 2010, or one of the state title games during the Joe Girard era, or when the Adirondack Red Wings played to standing room only crowds in the 1980s.
We've all stood in a few lines in our lifetimes, but this one was the mother of all` waiting experiences. But here is the thing, when an event is worthy, when we are passionate about its purpose, we're prepared to wait all night, and maybe here is an greater lesson about the times we are now living, this line was for the opening night of the New Orleans Book Festival to see a bunch of nerdy journalists from The Atlantic magazine.
That should give us hope because for too long too many of us have been ambivalent about elections, issues and where we are going as a town, city and country.
After all we are, "We The People."
It was my own fault I was late Thursday. I should have left earlier and when two streetcars passed me by filled with the tourists that drive the New Orleans economy, it forced me into an Uber and another 10-minute wait.
When I arrived just before the start the time of the book festival event, I estimated the line on the Tulane University campus to be three football fields long. It was far longer than any line I have waited in to attend a football game
But here again, things seemed amiss.
The line was not filled with fresh-faced young students or drunken football fans, but those waiting were of an age group reserved at one of my own book events at the Queensbury Senior Center.
We were middle aged and beyond, dressed nicely, patient and a little excited.
We were there to hear from The Atlantic's Jeff Goldberg and Anne Applebaum and two other journalists I never heard of before. When I first heard about the book festival two weeks earlier, I decided to skip the opening night act in favor of more celerity-driven authors later in the weekend.
But Signal-gate happened that week and suddenly The Atlantic editor was the center of the universe even if he was three long touchdown runs away from where I was standing.
It was already 5 p.m. - the time the event was scheduled to start - and we remained quiet and absorbed with that hopeful excitement that comes with a new experience.
And then the line started to move.
There is something exhilarating about a long line that is finally moving, about doing something our country is not doing now - making progress.
Somewhere along the way, it was relayed that McAllister Auditorium held 1,800 seats and that there was an overflow room as well.
Hope flowed through the line on a balmy spring night.
The line snaked past the Devlin Fieldhouse - the Tulane basketball arena where I've never stood in a line - and past the student center when it abruptly stopped.
The auditorium was filled.
The overflow hall was at capacity to hear how The Atlantic editor became a subject of national conversation.
At 5:45, I got back in a much shorter line to see if I could get in to the second event for another speaker I did not know.
As people trickled out of the auditorium, the line started moving again. They let in 10 at a time. And at 6 p.m., I entered the auditorium and was shown to a seat in the first 10 rows with The Atlantic crew still on stage.
The event had started late and the appreciative crowd didn't seem to want it to end.
The one thing connecting every single event over three days at the book festival was what was happening in Washington.
What was supposed to be about literature, reading, publishing and journalism, was ultimately about the fear for our country. I suspect it was why so many were content to wait in those lines. They were looking for assurances that it wasn't as bad as it seemed.
The television coverage later showed Goldberg and The Atlantic crew getting standing ovations.
At one point after I settled into my seat, Goldberg, prodded a reporter named McKay Coppins to tell a story about reporting he did in 2014 about Donald Trump's political ambitions and visiting Mar-A-Lago titled "36 hours on the fake campaign trail with Donald Trump."
"I just remember Trump leaning in to me and saying, `There are a lot of good looking women here (at Mar-A-Lago),'" Coppins said to the amusement of the crowd, but then he got serious.
He talked about Trump's "deep need for the elites to take him seriously. It's tragic how desperately his need is for elite approval. He has a deep hostility towards the establishment."
And then I believe it was Applebaum who chimed in, "But he is the establishment now."
Coppins started that story 11 years ago like this:
"Donald Trump is sitting in the passenger seat of a black SUV packed with four well-dressed yes-men — and me — as we wind through the snowy roads of Manchester, New Hampshire, on a quiet Tuesday morning in January. He has just finished a series of speeches and interviews at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics designed to stoke speculation about his political ambitions. His most recent gambit has been to make noise about running for governor in New York, but none of the students, activists, and local politicos he just spent the morning glad-handling seemed interested — a fact he notes with a tinge of frustration as soon as we get in the car.
"They didn’t ask one question about running for governor,” Trump tells his aides, rubbing his hands together as the vehicle fills with the alcoholic scent of hand sanitizer. “They didn’t care.”
It reminded me of an old story about George W. Bush. When he owned the Texas Rangers baseball team in 1992 and was appointed acting baseball commissioner after Fay Vincent resigned.
But when Bush failed to land the commissioner job permanently, he ran for president.
How the country might be different if he only had been appointed commissioner.
In this case, how different would things be if Trump had run for governor of New York.
With that, Goldberg chimed in with one last thought, "You should subscribe to The Atlantic" and the crowd responded with another standing ovation.
For the next three days, any mention of Trump was greeted with boos and any panelist willing to express criticism of the new administration saw the audience rise to its feet in appreciation.
I suppose you could conclude this is another one of those liberal college campuses filled with the elites from a big city.
But what I remember are those long lines filled with mature, serious people who are frightened.
That never ended all weekend.
That told me people were worried, not political.
That told me they were looking for answers, and maybe a little hope.
After Coppins had finished his story about Mar-A-Lago and Anne Applebaum had reminded everyone that Trump WAS the establishment, I think it was Goldberg who pointed out, "He (Trump) has the power to tear it all down."
Nobody stood up for that.
Is that him?
At one point during the weekend, I found myself standing outside the merchandise tent at the New Orleans Book Festival where a man with snow white hair walked up to an official looking person from the book festival and asked about many people had come to see Dr. Anthony Fauci speak that morning.
It was best-selling biographer Walter Issacson.
I wanted to ask him if Steve Jobs was really such a jerk or how hard it was to do research on Leonardo DaVinci?
It was the type of close encounter that would repeat itself during the entire weekend.
Didn't happen
There is this great scene in All the President's Men where Woodward and Bernstein find out President Nixon is directly involved in the Watergate cover-up.
Bernstein insists they have to inform Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee immediately,m even though it is 2 in the morning.
They show up at Bradlee's front door and with him standing in his bathrobe, they tell him what they know.
In the movie, Bradlee tells them to go home, take a bath, rest up for five minutes and get back to work because the only thing at stake is the reputation of the Washington Post, the First Amendment and the future of the country.
Pretty dramatic stuff.
But Woodward said Saturday, that is not what Bradlee said.
"What he really said was, `What the hell do we do now?'"
Signal-gate
Bob Woodward praised The Atlantic's Jeff Goldberg for the way he has handled the Signal-Gate reporting.
"Jeff Goldberg has handled that so responsibly well," Woodward said. "He's made the news industry look incredibly responsible to the public."
Then Woodward showed a tinge of jealousy when he jokingly asked, "My reaction to him being on the phone call was: Why not me?"
Washington Post
Woodward was also asked about Washington Post owner Jeffrey Bezos' involvement in the newsroom.
"As owner, he can do that," Woodward said. "There is so many uncomfortable things going on. Some of it is very disheartening, but in the end it comes down to what you believe in. The news media has a passionate belief in free expression. Limiting it, I find shocking."
Note from Graham
Woodward shared a note he received from The Washington Post's legendary publisher Katherine Graham after Nixon resigned as president.
"Nixon is gone and you did reporting that is responsible for that. Don't think too highly of yourself. My advice is beware of the demon of pomposity."
Woodward let the words hang in the air.
"What great advice," he said.
Interesting vote
It was Election Day in the state of Louisiana where the new Gov. Jeff Landry is a mini-Donald Trump.
On the ballot were four controversial propositions, including one that allows the Louisiana Supreme Court to discipline out-of-state lawyers for legal work in Louisiana (See abortion issue) and allows the Legislature to create specialty courts not constrained to existing parish and judicial boundaries."
That one was voted down with 64 percent of voters opposing.
Three other ballots - all right-wing proposals that mirror Project 2025 initiatives went down with not one clearing 40 percent of yes votes. And this is in a very red state.
There may be some meaning here.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
Now I'm jealous; New Orleans, books, authors, essayists and, undoubtedly, warm weather. I was gifted with The Atlantic by the current Town Supervisor, Jim Nolan, when he took office. He had skillfully managed to defeat the MAGA who had defeated me. It's one of the greatest gifts I have ever received. I have always loved editorial writing. I got that from my dad, a Rockefeller Republican, who read every night in his recliner before falling asleep after the never ending work on our 100 cow, 300 acre farm in Washington County. He had bought the land for $10,000 in 1940. Shortly before his death, he said he regretted not going to war. But he had a farm to run, and farmers got a pass. He was a Tom Friedman fan and read most of his books. Eric Severide was his favorite TV commentator. In his late 80's and 90's he bought a computer and became adept at reading the news there. In the last two years of his life, he lived in the assisted living section of Pleasant Valley in Argyle. He shared a mealtime table with another Greenwich resident who was a rabid conservative. I won't mention any names. They would get into arguments at the table. After the meal my dad would go to his computer, search and find a source that factually verified his point of view, print the article off and give it to his nemesis. I'm not sure why I'm writing all this. I guess I simply got triggered by books and the likes of Jeffrey Goldberg and Bob Woodward. Thank you Ken Tingley for The Front Page.
Your description of staff writers at The Atlantic as "nerdy journalists" is spot on. Though, at times, some of them put out quirky, funny and touching articles. For example, Tom Nichols has had a full range. From writing about defense and Russia, to the loss of his beloved cat, Carla, to a discussion about music. I find it well worth the subscription price.
I also hope that the voting results in Louisiana have some meaning. Yesterday, about a dozen Republicans joined Democrats in the House of Representatives and bucked Republican leadership demands to vote down allowing proxy voting for new parents. Of course, Stefanik was not one of those Republicans. After the vote did not go his way, Speaker Johnson had a hissy fit and canceled bringing other pieces of legislation to the floor that were scheduled for a vote this week.
It was good to see that for all of Musk spending millions in Wisconsin that it did not go the way he and Trump wanted it to. Hopefully the elections in November 2026 will reflect that also.