Reaching out for a profile interview is not unlike vying for a first date.
It takes persistence, spunk and just enough charm to convince someone that you’re a perfectly likeable yet harmless human being.
It also requires a certain ability to know that sometimes, only sometimes, you’ve been rejected.
Such was my reckoning when after a month of courtship, Department of Education officials said that Kathleen Tighe, their inspector general extraordinaire, would not chat with me on the phone, much less meet me for coffee in Dupont Circle (she was traveling.)
Inspectors general, federal agencies’ internal watchdogs, are rarely in high demand. But I could have expected as much from Tighe. Only confirmed March 17 by the Senate, the former false claims prosecutor probably keeps some long hours these days. Congress awarded her department $100 billion under the recovery act, and somebody has to keep track of where that’s all going. There’s the $54 billion for the state stabilization fund, the $4.3 billion for Race to the Top, the $650 million grant program to spur new teaching practices. I could continue.
It’s the reason I gave her an out when I called the department in mid-April. “If she’s not up for it,” I said, “or can’t make my deadline, just let me know. I’ll move on, and I’ll find someone else.” (As many can attest, I possess a familiarity with this phrase.)
But I was assured that Tighe was interested, just currently booked. Besides, the prospect of being the first reporter to interview the woman who keeps tabs on “Arne Duncan’s Slush Fund,” as several Hill staffers called Race to the Top last February, was a bit too alluring.
So I waited a week and called again. And again. Then returned a missed phone call from Tighe’s flack, Catherine Grant. By mid-May, the situation started to resemble that time a girl wrote her number on a cocktail napkin at a Chicago music hall – that dinner never happened.
Still, I convinced myself this wasn’t a game. An office spokeswoman said her boss wanted to talk to me. That meant her boss wanted to talk to me.
Then on May 24, I received a phone call. Tighe would spend the week touring Education’s district offices – there are a lot of them, Grant reminded me – and she planned to take this week off. Monday was, of course, Memorial Day.
“Not even five minutes?” I asked. “No,” Grant said.
Apparently, those in charge decided the publisher of my profile had not covered enough of the other, better-known, inspectors general in Washington to justify a profile on Tighe. Besides, she’s only been in office for two months, Grant said.
Let’s assume Tighe didn’t needlessly string me along for six weeks, the type of game that does irreparable damage to a young (reporter’s) soul. Let’s assume she was honestly intrigued by the idea, but after six weeks of saying this week’s no good, she found something better.
I suppose that’s been the hardest part of my time here in Washington: knowing that sometimes a story just isn’t worth the time during a cramped 10-week quarter. Sometimes you need to move on and realize it’s not going to happen.
Perhaps I can take solace in Grant’s parting words, the sort of conciliation prize mutual friends dole out when a set up goes sour.
“We’re not blowing you off forever,” she said. “I think it’s a great opportunity. I know she thinks it’s a great idea.”
Until then, Kathleen S.Tighe. Until then.
Danny Yadron covers education for the Medill News Service. Washington Reporting 2.0 is an opinion blog where Medill reporters dole out useful advice for their fellow reporters in the nation’s capitol.