Because his father worked for many years with Hubert Humphrey (Mayor of Minneapolis, US Senator, Vice-President), he was perhaps more attuned than most of his friends to what took place in official Washington (where they moved when he was just two years old). His earliest memory of non-entertainment television was of what was called the Army-McCarthy Hearings. They pitted rabid anti-Communist Sen. Joseph McCarthy against a long line of perceived opponents, including, memorably, the kindly lawyer Joseph Welch. McCarthy's was the politics of fear -- gaining power by seeking out enemies, whether real or imagined.