Tech Titans

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GOV 2.0 AND POLITICOS Curtis “Bob” Burns, social-media analyst, Transportation Security Administration. Writing under the handle Blogger Bob, Burns helps pen TSA.gov’s official blog, which is regarded as the best in the government and one of the few with both a devoted reader-ship and a thoughtful policy discussion.

Sheila Campbell, manager, General Ser-vices Administration’s USA.gov. Working with her colleague Bev Godwin, Campbell is a key player helping to move the federal government online.

Aneesh Chopra, US chief technology offi-cer, and Vivek Kundra, US chief information officer, the White House. The two men, both with local ties, are helping the nation spend its $80 billion–plus annual IT budget more wisely and inventively.

Linda Y. Cureton, chief information officer, NASA. The Howard graduate is a leader in the government’s push for cloud comput-ing services.

Regina Dugan, director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Trained as a mechanical engineer and an expert in explo-sives detection, Dugan in 2009 became the first woman to lead the Pentagon’s elite Clar-endon-based technology, Skunkworks.

Ed Felten, chief technologist, Federal Trade Commission. The Princeton com-puter-science professor and data-privacy expert started earlier this year as the first tech-nologist within Jon Leibowitz’s FTC, which

is taking a larger role in regulating and polic-ing the Internet.

Julius Genachowski, chairman, Federal Communications Commission. The appoint-ment of Genachowski, a veteran of the DC venture-capital world, was a signal to techies that the Obama administration was going to elevate and engage with technology policy.

Bob Goodlatte, US congressman from Vir-ginia. The ten-term Roanoke Republican is cochair of the Congressional Internet Caucus and a leader on high-tech issues.

Todd Park, chief technology officer, Department of Health and Human Services. The cofounder of Athenahealth, Park is at the forefront of the nation’s discussion about moving health-care information online.

Macon Phillips, White House director of new media. Since day one of the Obama administration, Phillips has been building an impressive team to bypass the White House press corps and speak directly to citizens.

Alec Ross, senior adviser for innovation,

Department of State. The driving force behind much of State’s digital-communi-cation initiative and Hillary Clinton’s “Net freedom” agenda, Ross cofounded the non-profit One Economy.

Patrick Ruffini and Mindy Finn, cofound-ers, Engage. The two GOP operatives scored big in the fall elections, helping several tea-party candidates to victory. They’ll likely be at the center of the Republican 2012 presi-dential race.

Nick Schaper, digital strategist, US Cham-ber of Commerce. House speaker John Boehner’s former top digital strategist is starting a new job boosting business’s use of new media.

Phil Weiser, senior adviser to the direc-tor for technology and innovation, National Economic Council, the White House. The President’s point person on “winning the future,” Weiser is a key liaison to the tech community.

DEALMAKERS Errol Arkilic, industrial-innovation program director, National Science Foundation. The grantmaker, who focuses on small businesses, has been a consistent presence on the local scene, including participating in DC Lean Startup Circle.

Peter Barris, managing general partner, New Enterprise Associates. Through a score of companies, including Vonage, Barris has an eye for worthwhile investments, but his

Our tech scene is the hottest it’s been since the dot-com glory days of the 1990s, with big investment by govern-ment in IT, surging green-energy programs, growing biotech research, and start-ups such as LivingSocial. Here are the people who are making this region grow.

Gov 2.0

Keith Alexander, director, National Security Agency. The head of the Defense Department’s cybersecurity efforts, Alexander leads a workforce that includes some of the best mathemati-cians and technologists on the planet.

Politico

Mark Warner, US senator from Virginia. The former governor and venture capital-ist has made technology a centerpiece of his agenda since the beginning of his career, when he made buckets of money helping to launch the cell-phone industry.

Opposite page, from bottom left: Ted Leonsis, Don Graham, Bobbie Kilberg, and Aneesh Chopra all shape the world of Washington technology.

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firm’s investment in the Chicago-based com-pany that spawned Groupon might make his backers the richest.

John Burton, managing general partner, Updata Partners. The cofounder of the Reston growth-stage venture-capital firm is head of the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association.

Brooke B. Coburn, managing director, the Carlyle Group. David Rubenstein’s Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm, remains one of the region’s biggest pocketbooks.

Carol Thompson Cole, CEO, Venture Phi-lanthropy Partners. The onetime DC mayoral aide now heads the prestigious philanthropy group founded by Mario Morino.

Chris Darby, CEO, In-Q-Tel. Not many government agencies have their own ven-ture-capital firm, but the CIA does—and if Darby spots promising technology, he has deep pockets to play with.

Miles Gilburne, managing member, ZG Ventures. A key ally of Steve Case, Gilburne—a former AOL vice president—has a particu-lar interest in biotech and life sciences.

Mike Lincoln, partner, Cooley Godward Kronish. Working with his colleague Adam Ruttenberg, Lincoln is the key mergers-and-acquisitions and venture-capital lawyer for Northern Virginia.

Art Marks, general partner, Valhalla Part-ners. Marks, who now works at Valhalla with cofounder Gene Riechers, has spent more than 25 years in local venture-capital circles and is still active in many deals.

John May, managing partner, New Van-tage Group. One of the only local “angels”

who provide key early-stage funding to start-ups, May is a must-meet for any budding entrepreneur.

Nigel Morris, former president and COO, Capital One. The cofounder of the credit-card powerhouse has moved on to being one of the region’s most prolific dealmakers and negotiators.

Kim Shanahan, Korn/Ferry. The leading headhunter for the Northern Virginia tech industry, Shanahan has many top executives on speed dial.

Ralph Terkowitz, general partner, ABS Capital. The former CTO/CIO of the Wash-ington Post Company hosts regular dinners that bring together a who’s who of the local tech scene.

ENTREPRENEURS Sid Banerjee, cofounder and CEO, Clar-abridge. The customer-feedback-mining start-up led by Banerjee—one of the first employees of MicroStrategy—is a big hit, as was his previous venture, Claraview.

James Bankoff, CEO, SB Nation. Bankoff is a former AOL executive and senior adviser at the private-equity powerhouse Providence Equity Partners. SB Nation has a network of more than 300 blogs that dominates the online sports conversation—and he hopes it’ll be global as he moves into European soccer.

Aaron Batalion, cofounder and CTO, Living Social. The head technologist for this rapidly growing company is a big local pres-ence and is helping to push the start-up scene forward.

Steve Case, CEO, Revolution. With his fingers in lots of deals and boards (includ-

ing LivingSocial), Case and his right hand, Tige Savage, are key drivers and funders of many projects.

John Crupi, CTO, JackBe. The rest of the company’s motto, “nimble and quick,” underscores what it sees as the key to Presto—real-time business intelligence on the compa-ny’s custom dashboards—which has helped the government’s own stimulus Web site, Recovery.gov.

Tom Davidson, CEO, EverFi. Fresh off $11 million in Series A funding from New Enterprise Associates and others, Davidson is set for a big expansion of his financial-lit-eracy programs.

Mark D. Ein, founder and CEO, Venture-house Group. The tech entrepreneur has a variety of projects, from the Kastle Systems security company to the pro tennis team he has named after it—the Washington Kastles.

Raul Fernandez, CEO, ObjectVideo. After taking his company Proxicom public and selling it for nearly $450 million, Fer-nandez is busy with his video-analytics company and his co-ownership of the Wiz-

ards, Capitals, and Mystics.Peter LaMotte, president, GeniusRocket.

Under CEO Mark Walsh, LaMotte, a vet-eran of the Corporate Executive Board, is the power behind the “curated crowdsourc-ing” site, which helps connect creatives and businesses.

Robert S. Marshall, CEO, Earth Networks. Best known for his Germantown-based com-pany’s WeatherBug, the University of Mary-

Dealmaker

Philip Bronner, Novak Biddle Venture Partners. Since Jack Biddle and Roger Novak founded it in 1997, NBVP has established itself as the area’s top venture-capital firm, and Bronner is the go-to for local start-ups, including Approva, Clear-spring, and Webs.

Entrepreneur

Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO, LivingSocial. The Georgetown grad is on top of the hottest thing to hit the local tech world since AOL, with an ever-growing valu-ation—helped recently by a $400-million venture-fund-ing round—and a staff that’s been expanding by six a day.

Dealmaker

Don Rainey, general part-ner, Grotech Ventures. A long-time Washington investor, Rainey has his fingers in many pots, from military projects to LivingSocial, a move that will make his partners at Grotech a lot of money.

1. Michael Edson, director of Web and new-media strategy, Smith-sonian Institution. The 20-year veteran of “the nation’s attic” has helped launch its first blog and adapt some of its collection for an alternative-reality game.

2. Sean Glass, venture partner, Novak Biddle. A former game-com-pany founder backed by Richard Branson, Glass is seen as a leader of the next generation of local ven-ture capitalists.

3. Ginny Hunt, head of public-sec-tor projects, Google. People inside and outside of government are coming to know Hunt as Google’s “DC fixer.”

4. Clay Johnson, creator, Big Window Labs. A veteran of the Howard Dean presidential cam-paign and the Sunlight Foun-dation, Johnson has launched an incubator for companies

hoping to disrupt “what’s core to Washington”—politics, govern-ment, and media.

5. Charles W. Steger, presi-dent, Virginia Tech, and 6. Steven Knapp, president, George Wash-ington University. Both universi-ties are making big tech plays, with GW increasing the size of its Loudoun research center and Vir-ginia Tech expanding into a large Ballston facility focused on health technology and cybersecurity.

7. Jim Long, cameraman, NBC News. By day he’s a mild-man-nered cameraman, but on Twitter and at tech conferences he trans-forms into @NewMediaJim, one of the area’s favorite tech thinkers.

8. Catharine McNally, founder, Keen Guides. Deaf since she was eight months old, McNally worked at the Kennedy Center and the Freer and Sackler Galleries before

starting a company focused on captioned video tours.

9. Robert Musslewhite, CEO, Advisory Board Company. While the David Bradley–founded com-pany is known for its health-care consulting and “best practices” research, it’s pushing to become more of a software company.

10. Chitra Ragavan, senior coun-selor, Palantir. A former legal-affairs reporter for U.S. News and an NPR correspondent, Ragavan is helping sell one of Silicon Val-ley’s most intriguing companies—backed by PayPal founder and Facebook funder Peter Thiel—as it expands into providing analy-sis and software to the intelligence community.

11. Katharine Zaleski, Digi-tal News Products head, Wash-ington Post. One of the original staff at the online Huffington Post,

Zaleski—who spends her free time crisscrossing the country rock-climbing—is helping to speed the Post into the digital age.

12. Christine A. Varney, assistant attorney general for antitrust, Jus-tice Department. The respected former head of Hogan & Hartson’s Internet-law division, Varney is at the center of the discussion about whether Google is too large.

13. Frank Baitman, chief informa-tion officer, Social Security Admin-istration. The former IBM business strategist is rethinking how one of the government’s biggest pro-grams and data sets can be more efficient, responsive, and useful.

14. Adam Sharp, Twitter. The microblogging site’s first Washing-ton hire, formerly an executive pro-ducer at C-SPAN, is just months into his new role guiding politicians and policymakers through the site.

Here are those who might very well make the next Tech Titans list

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land grad operates the world’s largest weather and lightning observation system.

Hooman Radfar, cofounder and CEO, Clearspring. After some growing pains, the McLean-based firm has seen its social-sharing widget, AddThis, make it one of the largest Web sites in the world—and one that pos-sesses an enormous amount of valuable data on user behavior and preferences.

Michael J. Saylor, founder and CEO, MicroStrategy. The long ride of MicroStrat-egy hasn’t been steady for Saylor—who lost billions when the tech bubble burst—but it’s going gangbusters now and looking the best it has in years, thanks in part to the hard work of COO Sanju K. Bansal.

Chris Schroeder, CEO, HealthCentral. The Washington Post Company has helped launch many a career locally, and the former Washing-tonpost.Newsweek Interactive CEO’s is one. His health-care information provider has an A-list team of backers, from Barry Diller to Sequoia Capital to the Carlyle Group.

Pete Snyder, founder and CEO, New Media Strategies. The Rosslyn-based com-munications firm has been singled out for its success by Virginia governor Bob McDonnell and continues its recent hiring spree.

Daniel Yates, founder and CEO, Opower. His Arlington-based energy-efficiency start-up, perhaps more than any other outside of LivingSocial, seems poised for a big IPO down the road.

ENTREPRENEURIAL COUPLES Phillip and Caren Merrick. The cofounders of webMethods, which was the most successful software IPO of its time, have their own proj-ects now—with Phillip overseeing the online résumé site VisualCV and Caren running for the Virginia state Senate.

Bradley and Sheryl Schwartz. The hus-band-and-wife team that runs Blue Can-opy—a government-tech contractor founded in 2001 that has twice made Inc. magazine’s list of the 500 fastest-growing private US companies—both came to the start-up with extensive corporate backgrounds.

Amy Senger and Steven Mandzik. Found-ers of the consulting firm 1X57, they’ve become influential in Gov 2.0 circles—and have helped usher the CIA into the age of social media.

Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova, founders, Imangi Studios. Their small-game development company has churned out a number of popular iPad and iPhone apps, including the game Harbor Master.

Jesse Thomas and Leslie Bradshaw, cofounders, Jess3. The creative geniuses behind one of the region’s hottest agencies, they helped an astronaut check into Four-square from space and helped C-SPAN estab-lish itself as a digital innovator.

INDUSTRY LEADERS Reggie Aggarwal, founder and CEO, Cvent. A leader in the Indian high-tech world, he heads an 800-plus-person event-management software company that has helped put together more than 275,000 events worldwide.

Deborah H. Alderson, president, SAIC’s Defense Solutions Group. While she oversees a workforce of 12,500, Alderson has made mentoring women a focus of her energies and developed SAIC’s Women’s Network.

Anne Altman, general manager, Global Public Sector, IBM. The experienced IBM leader continues to rise, most recently taking over all of the giant’s public-sector work.

John Becker, CEO, Approva. The com-pany has embraced a lighthearted market-ing campaign targeting “control freaks” with its access-control software, which has become the industry standard for most of the large audit firms.

Wes Bush, CEO, Northrop Grumman. The decision by the new head of Northrop to move the company’s headquarters to the Washington area—creating a bidding war among Virginia, Maryland, and the District, eventually won by Falls Church—was a coup. It was also a recognition of the importance of the government IT sector, where Linda Mills heads Northrop’s $8.4-billion-a-year informa-tion-systems business.

Edward J. Casey Jr., CEO, Serco (North America). A former energy executive, Casey has led Serco through two successful acquisi-

tions since 2006 and has grown the company into more than a billion dollars in revenue.

Michael L. Chasen, CEO, Blackboard. The education-services provider continues to grow, allowing Chasen increasing flexibil-ity to involve himself in other local start-ups and deals.

Pablo Chavez, managing policy counsel, and Mike Bradshaw, director of Google Fed-eral, Google. Google’s presence is expand-ing yearly in Washington—its $5.2 million in lobbying expenses last year was up by nearly a third from 2009. Chavez, a former John McCain aide, is one of the leading Silicon Valley voices on Capitol Hill, and Bradshaw is the face of Google in the federal sector.

Lynda Clarizio, CEO, Invision. The former head of Advertising.com for AOL and a onetime Arnold & Porter lawyer, Clarizio is among the foremost experts on digital advertising.

James F. Coakley, CEO, Power Loft. The Prince William County data center is one of the area’s largest storage facilities and a green model for similar projects.

Matthew J. Desch, CEO, Iridium. As head of one of the world’s largest mobile-satellite companies—relied upon by mariners, explor-ers, and even the Defense Department—Desch helped take the company public in 2009.

Amr ElSawy, CEO, Noblis. The nonprofit consulting firm—which traces its history to MIT’s World War II efforts to help the gov-ernment solve complex problems—remains a force in federal circles.

Nelson M. Ford, CEO, LMI. The health-care

executive turned undersecretary of the Army now heads the nonprofit management con-sultancy born of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s frustration with the Pentagon’s business practices 50 years ago.

Linda Gooden, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions. With more than $10 bil-lion in annual sales, Gooden oversees a busi-ness roughly the size of Cambodia’s GDP.

Walter P. Havenstein, CEO, SAIC. The newish leader of the region’s biggest gov-ernment-technology contractor, with 17,500 local employees, is seen as a breath of fresh air, raising employee morale. He’s also a leader in education, chairing the nonprofit FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).

Fred Humphries, vice president, US gov-ernment affairs, Microsoft. The top represen-tative of the Redmond, Washington, software giant is, along with Ed Ingle, a powerful voice in DC.

Sudhakar Kesavan, CEO, ICF Interna-tional. The green-tech consulting firm—perhaps best known for helping launch the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program—has developed into a global leader under Kesavan, who has worked at the firm since 1983 and is now vice chair of NVTC.

Jeong Kim, president, Bell Labs. More than a decade after he made many millions on the sale of his tech start-up to Lucent Tech-nologies, Kim has settled into his role as head of the storied Bell Labs.

Bruce Klein, senior vice president, US public-sector theater, Cisco. One of the larg-est providers of networking products to the government, Klein manages an extensive portfolio.

Marne Levine, vice president, global public policy, Facebook. The arrival of Larry Sum-mers’s chief of staff from the National Eco-nomic Council as the social-networking site’s lead policy person shows how seriously the company is now taking Washington.

Mark D. McLaughlin, president and chief executive officer, VeriSign. The Web-secu-rity firm’s relocation last summer to North-ern Virginia was a sign of the energy in the

tech sector regionally.Donna Morea, president, CGI US, Europe,

and Asia. Just about the entire world except Canada now falls under the purview of this 25-year veteran of the IT industry.

Matthew O’Connell, CEO, GeoEye. High-quality satellite images once were the exclusive domain of a handful of governments, but now

GeoEye’s work is provided through Google, Yahoo!, and Bing to any computer user in the world.

Gary Shapiro, CEO, Consumer Electron-ics Association. The longtime head of the powerful trade association is taking a bigger role in policy, arguing in his new book, The Comeback: How Innovation Will Restore the American Dream, that the United States needs to rethink its strategy for economic competitiveness.

David W. Thompson, cofounder and CEO, Orbital. The commercial space-launch com-pany, which has its own space facility off of

Entrepreneur

Ted Leonsis, entrepreneur/investor. Now owner of the Verizon Center and its teams, Leonsis is a fan favorite for his stewardship of the Capitals and perhaps the biggest player in the local tech com-munity—from his SnagFilms start-up to fast-rising Groupon, in which he invests.

Entrepreneurial Couple

Jen Consalvo and Frank Gruber, founders, Tech Cocktail. Their start- up, which began as a local networking group, has be -come a national gathering point for budding entrepre-neurs, attracting thousands at the South by Southwest Interactive conference.

Industry Leader

Teresa Carlson, vice president, global public sector, Amazon Web Ser-vices. The move of the influ-ential vice president of Microsoft Federal Services to Amazon in December showed how seriously the retailer took cloud computing.

Industry Leader

Donald E. Graham, CEO, Washington Post Com-pany. As a regular Face-book user, a board member of the social-media power-house, and overseer of the print newspaper business’s transition to a multi-platform media experience, Graham is at the forefront of technologi-cal change. Products such as Trove, built by his team and led by CDO Vijay Ravindran, are causing excitement in media circles.

Community Leaders

Zvi Band, founder of skeevisArts, and Michael Mayernick, cofounder of Giv.to. Hoping to spur more collegiality among the local community, the two ener-getic techies launched a Web site, Proudly Made in DC, that showcases start-ups.

Thinker

Andy Carvin, social-media strate-gist, NPR. Beloved in the local tech com-munity, the prolific tweeter has become a worldwide resource as the hub of first-person accounts about the unrest and revolution across the Arab world.

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Maryland’s Eastern Shore, will grow only more critical as NASA wraps up the space-shuttle program.

Steve Trundle, CEO, Alarm.com. The one-time MicroStrategy CTO now runs a hot secu-rity company that allows users to connect to their home security systems remotely.

John B. Wood, CEO, Telos. The head of the cybersecurity firm is proving a key booster of Loudoun County growth with his forma-tion of the local CEO Cabinet to advise poli-cymakers on economic-development issues.

THINKERS Robert D. Atkinson, president, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. With “innovation” becoming a major policy area, Atkinson has been at the forefront of pushing it as a cornerstone of economic development.

Rod Beckstrom, CEO, ICANN. The body that governs Internet addresses and names (such as .com and .us) is headed by Beck-strom, an author and entrepreneur.

Edward Black, CEO, Computer & Com-munications Industry Association. Head of one of the industry’s top trade groups since 1995, Black was involved with the State Department and is active in other govern-ment projects on tech policy.

Vint Cerf, vice president and chief Internet evangelist, Google; Steve Crocker, board-of-directors vice chair, ICANN; and Robert E. Kahn, president, CEO, and chairman, Corpo-ration for National Research Initiatives. Not too many people can claim to have invented the Internet (and Al Gore’s not one of them), but these three can. Decades later, all are still leaders in the industry.

Leslie Harris, CEO, Center for Democracy & Technology. The Georgetown Law grad turned policy wonk has helped establish CDT as a key resource for privacy rights online.

Walt Mossberg, personal-tech colum-nist, Wall Street Journal. Mossberg’s reviews are considered definitive by many, and his expanding empire of projects, such as All-ThingsD, keep him influential.

Lynn St. Amour, CEO, Internet Society. Her organization, based in the United States and Switzerland, works on increasing Inter-net access to developing countries and setting standards to ease communication.

COMMUNITY LEADERS Shashi Bellamkonda, director of social media, Network Solutions; Peter Corbett, founder, Twin Tech; and Justin Thorp, community manager, Clearspring. Online and offline, these three are among the tech communi-

ty’s top cheerleaders and boosters, helping to forge connections, deals, and friendships.

Mark Bisnow, founder, Bisnow on Busi-ness. His networking schmooze-fests and speaker series, a spinoff of his e-newsletters, have been a big success.

Phillip J. Bond, CEO, TechAmerica. For nearly 20 years, Bond has moved back and forth between government and the private sector. He now leads one of the most pow-erful industry voices.

Allyson Kapin, founding partner and exec-utive creative director, Rad Campaign. Kap-in’s Women Who Tech conference and her boundless energy helped lead Forbes to name her one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter.

Alan Merten, president, George Mason University, and Bob Templin, president, Northern Virginia Community College. The IT world continues to hunger for employees, and these two higher-education leaders are

providing thousands of educated students.Shireen Mitchell, CEO, Digital Sisters/

Sistas. University of the District of Columbia graduate Mitchell—who goes by the name Digitalsista online—works to deliver technol-ogy to underserved women and children.

Jill Stelfox, founder and president, Accession Point. The serial entrepreneur now runs a consulting firm to encourage others’ ideas and is respected for her energy and connections.

Community Leader

Bobbie Kilberg, CEO, Northern Virginia Technology Council. Kilberg has led the region’s most influential tech trade group for more than a decade—and her Hot Ticket Awards event, hosted at her McLean house, is the com-munity’s event of the year.

Tech Titanscontinued from page 71

Editor Garrett M. Graff can be reached at [email protected].

are not talking about a bunch of eggheads in tweed jackets and pipes. We are talking about real people in your district who not only share our broad views but who are financially sup-porting us.”

Feulner is all but a cheerleader when it comes to talking about Heritage’s new pro-file—with the added presence and savvy, he is quick to note, of Addington. Its footprint on Capitol Hill is growing. The think tank not only is housed in two spacious buildings on Massachusetts Avenue, a few blocks from Senate office buildings and the Capitol, but it also purchased a building in 2008 on Penn-sylvania Avenue, Southeast, spitting distance from the House office buildings.

“We are not halfway downtown like Cato,” Feulner says. “We are not all the way down-town like AEI or out Embassy Row like Brook-ings. I am not saying necessarily that particular factor makes us better, but I am saying it makes us different because we know precisely what our primary target audience is, and it is right over there,” meaning Capitol Hill. “That is another reason Ad dington is such a neat, inte-gral player and [fits into] what we are about—because he has been on both the House and Senate staff and he knows how that works as well as knowing how downtown works.”

Addington’s second act dovetails with Heri-tage’s effort to be more muscular on Capitol Hill. “We want independent thinkers who are also team players, and this guy is the perfect combination,” Feulner says. “In the confines of his office, he tells it to me straight out, but when our board comes to a decision, he is a great colonel in the Army. He salutes and says, ‘Forward march,’ and on we go.”

Addington makes clear that success in his first year can be measured in a tangible way. Three of the think tank’s priorities fall in his area of responsibility: to win substantial cuts in federal spending, to succeed in repealing “Obamacare,” and to make the temporary tax cuts passed during the Bush administration permanent. “Success is defined as all three,” he says. “Progress is defined as two.”

As for Addington’s take on where he is now after the fights he’s taken on over the years, just for a moment he allows an outsider in and becomes a little introspective: “The meaning-ful life. Somehow, you’re 80 and rocking on the front porch and thinking about what did you do with your life. The best you can hope in the end is that you lived it properly and accomplished something useful. That so much outweighs the ups and downs and in-between struggles.”

Kirk Victor has covered the White House and Congress for National Journal, collaborated with Senator Ernest “Fritz” Hollings on Hollings’s book,

“Making Government Work,” and currently is a contributing writer at the Fiscal Times and a con-tributing editor at National Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].
