One of the major reasons that the Washington Post became nationally prominent was its coverage of the Watergate scandal, starting in 1972. It's a complex story but the ramifications continue to this day. (The Post's online operation has a pretty good special report, with a useful timeline.)

The key players in that story are dying, including the spokesman for the Committee to Re-Elect the President just last week; some of his more famous spins are included in the article. Other relatively recent Watergate deaths include Robert Mardian, E. Howard Hunt and Sam Garrison. I've written a good share of Watergate obits since 2003 -- Sam Dash, Fredrick LaRue, Rosemary Woods, among others -- but was brought up short by a colleague's comment when I was double-checking the date of Nixon's resignation. "I was born by then," he said.

In case anyone ever asks you why some people still have an anti-Nixon complex, here's a small reminder.

I'm writing about Harold Goldstein, a former Bureau of Labor Statistics man who died last week at the age of 93. (The obit will be in the paper and online in the next day or two). We get a lot of former government employees here in Washington, so it's nothing unusual, right? Except for the fact that an American president once personally attacked him and a colleague, seeing a Jewish cabal in their interpretation of unemployment statistics.