Casual

...No, I had in mind a destination of some minor importance with a hint of intrigue (East Berlin) or an interesting place that gets along well with Washington (Nicosia...

...But explaining my membership in something like the Society of King Charles the Martyr, or my ownership of a white 1967 Morris Minor sedan, or the monocle I purchased in the summer of 1978 (and keep in a desk drawer) to the satisfaction of a dozen hostile legislators was clearly impossible...

...Where once I might have advertised myself as a typical American joiner with multiple memberships and long lists of clubs and organizations— none of this "bowling alone" business for me—I would face the example of poor Judge Alito, whose unremem-bered check made out to Concerned Alumni of Princeton led to a full day of angry accusations, close questioning, personal insults, and threatened subpoenas...

...George ("Declare victory and go home") Aiken of Vermont asking one would-be diplomat to name the sheriff who shot Billy the Kid (Pat Garrett...

...I knew, in an instant, that my own inimitable appearance, wardrobe, hairdo, hobbies, choice of automobile, leisure interests, and various clubs and organizations could never pass Senate scrutiny...

...He once told me that he wasn't giving his mother a Christmas present because she hadn't used the one he gave her last year...

...I would ponder the merits of this or that American embassy...

...PHILIP TERZIAN...

...Worse still was the fact that Judge Bork's response was added to the bill of particulars against him...

...Some people agonize over what to do with their future lottery winnings...

...A cemetery plot...

...Such questions would not have been troublesome to an autodidact such as myself...

...I can still remember the moment when I realized not only that Judge Bork's cause was doomed, but that my visions of public service prior to retirement were reduced to ashes...

...In those days, the business of Senate confirmation seemed more like a lark than a painful, even insurmountable, obstacle...

...I knew, of course, that the plums—London, Paris, Tokyo— were out of the question, and I certainly didn't crave a strategic assignment (Moscow, Tel Aviv, Beijing...

...I had already worked out means of rationalizing intemperate remarks in print—I was young, Senator, and didn't fully appreciate the breadth of your statesmanship when I wrote that—and knew that I could plausibly deny any insensitive jokes told in the elevator...

...I dread to think what Teddy Kennedy would do with that one...

...It was bad enough that such an inane question could be asked without laughter breaking out...

...Howell Heflin of Alabama—known to his constituents as the Towering Bowl of Jell-O—asked Bork, in all seriousness, why he wore a beard...

...It was when Sen...

...He would come outside around midnight, stand in his driveway, and smoke a cigar...

...I always noticed that when somebody was arrested— whether for a violent crime or a white-collar transgression—the people next door would be canvassed for stories about the accused...

...Most of my associations, I believe, are pretty innocuous—Virginia Historical Society, Association of Literary Scholars and Critics, American Council on Germany, etc.—but a few might be considered eccentric (the aforementioned SKCM), regionally suspect (Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War), or prove awkward to describe (I am listed in Who's Who as an "honorary whip [of the] Wolver Beagles...

...What was that...

...My first intimation of trouble came in my reporting days...

...I could well imagine some White House functionary phoning me out of my torpor one wet afternoon with these words: "Phil, for your decades of selfless and uncritical service to the political interests of two generations of the Bush family, the president has asked me to inquire whether you would be willing to accept an ambassadorship...

...I remember Sen...

...I could well imagine the anecdotes that might stick in the memories of my neighbors: "He told my wife that the best day to go shopping was Super Bowl Sunday...

...To be specific, a diplomatic appointment was what I had in mind...

...In the absence of a suitable embassy, I was also willing to consider some amenable post of the second rank: consul-general in Edinburgh, say, or delegate to some UNESCO commission...

...but in 1987, when Judge Robert Bork was nominated to the Supreme Court, the tone and tenor of the process underwent a transformation, and not for the better...

...In the Eisenhower era, J. William Fulbright of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee used to ask wealthy campaign contributors to identify the prime minister of the country to which they had been appointed ambassador...