She is one of the most organized women I know. She calls a meeting at 10 a.m. and it starts at 10 a.m. She may stop and repeat all the points already discussed to a latecomer, but she never gets ruffled when a meeting goes off course. She brings it back on-track in no time, and finishes exactly at the moment she said we’d be finished.

[Editor’s note: The dean of all Washington political columnists, Robert Novak, is well enough to write occasional columns, of which the first since since his illness was announced is below.]