From the Publisher

By Elizabeth P. Valk

It was during a recent flight over Arkansas that Margaret Carlson realized one of the ironies of being deputy chief of our Washington bureau, a job she assumed in July. Margaret was aboard a small plane to interview Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, now a Democratic presidential hopeful, when a thunderstorm hit. "Clinton loved it," she says. "But I'm a white-knuckle flyer even in clear skies." As the plane bucked and lurched, she recalled that it is one of her duties to assign stories to the bureau's correspondents -- but she had assigned this one to herself.

Then again, placing herself on demanding stories is also one of Margaret's pleasures. The job of deputy chief requires her to help keep watch over one of TIME's most crucial bureaus. But her feel for day-to-day journalism ensures that she spends much of her time reporting and writing as well. And what writing. Carlson's flavorful prose, lucid, tart and funny, is the hallmark of a journalist who sees even the biggest stories in distinctly human terms. "Being a reporter in Washington is like talking across one big backyard fence," she says. "Congress, the White House, the people at the agencies -- they're always trading stories with each other and with the press."

Carlson made a detour into journalism in 1980, after getting her law degree from George Washington University. By 1987 she was acting managing editor of the New Republic and joined TIME in 1988. As deputy bureau chief, she helps decide which events we should cover. This week's NATION story on the abuse of congressional privileges is one example. Some members of Congress have been grumbling that the episode is being overblown. Not so, insists Carlson. "It says something important about the cocoon of privilege that members of Congress live in."

You can sample Carlson's interview technique in this week's issue by reading her Q. and A. with veteran Manhattan prosecutor Linda Fairstein. With her new duties, Carlson has to apportion her reporting time more carefully than ever -- even when keeping to her schedule means taking a bumpy flight. "I can't say, 'I'll catch up with you later,' " she laughs. "I have to get on the plane and fly through thunder and lightning."