One reason why more D.C. reporters should come from smaller papers out in the country: This is not surprising to me in the least. https://twitter.com/jestei/status/1361712083956604935

As a reporter at an 18,000 circ paper in the Pacific Northwest, the *biggest* story we had all year was whether or not our local Congressman could get an earmark to fix the industrial water line.

It was made of wood in places, running through marshy areas, and if it failed, it would take down the locally owned paper mill, probably forever.

I vividly recall arguing with my editor, who wanted to add a quote from the Kiwanis meeting about how Rep. Norm Dicks had finally secured the earmark to the top of my story.

The quote: "We'd be up a creek without Dicks."

I was like, man, you cannot write that in my story. He nodded sagely and changed it to:

"Without Dicks, we'd be up a creek."

For national political reporters who have only covered D.C. from D.C., it seemed obvious that earmarks were just useless pork that greedy pols brought home to win re-election, and dumb Teapot Museums were a fat target.