Note To Self...

Next time listen to Randall -- anything with "PR" in it is HIS job!

Fitz's Nina Totin' Bag

Endearing himself further to the Volvo-driving, latte-sipping, NPR listening liberal left (guilty on counts myself), Patrick Fitzgerald last night participated in the public radio quiz show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me."

"Fitzgerald blushed when asked about his inclusion in People magazine's 'Sexiest Man Alive' list."

"In commemoration of the event, Sagal presented Fitzgerald with a child's scooter engraved with, 'To Patrick Fitzgerald, USA, This one will stay where you put it.'"<more>

Note to R.S.: Please issue press release DID NOT BLUSH.

Not My Job..!

Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!

Patrick Fitzgerald, the Chicago-based U.S. attorney, will make an appearance on Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!, the Chicago-based Saturday comical hour on National Public Radio.

With national fame earned from his role as special counsel in the leak of a CIA agent's identity and his prosecution of former White House aide Lewis "Scooter'' Libby for obstruction of justice in that investigation, Fitzgerald will take a seat on the nationally broadcast radio program as someone pressed to talk about something he knows nothing about.

In the "Not My Job'' segment of the show, celebrities are quizzed out of field. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer faced questioning about the habits of rock stars. Elizabeth Edwards, wife of the former senator from North Carolina, John Edwards, seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, was asked about celebrity rehab treatment. Ted Koppel, the longtime host of ABC's Nightline, was quizzed about the box-office bust, Sahara.

“Several times recently I thought about getting tickets to go watch it, but never got it done,” Fitzgerald is quoted as saying about the show. “Now I know I have a seat.”

While Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! takes the show on the road sometimes, its home base is Chicago. And Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, will be close to home when it’s taped this week in the city’s Millennium Park.

The show is aired by 425 member stations -- the first media appearance for Fitzgerald since Libby's conviction and then commutation of his prison time by the president.

"We're going to subject Patrick Fitzgerald to the rigors of our quiz, and whether he wins or loses is entirely up to him,” says show host Peter Sagal. "Of course, if he does lose, we expect the president to intervene and change the result. It'd only be fair, right?"

Airing the weekend of July 21-22 on NPR Member stations nationwide. It will be available as an NPR podcast beginning Sunday, July 22, at 7 p.m. at www.NPR.org.

Can Hollywood be far behind? ;)

Respect..!

Judge Rose Above a Troubled Youth

NPR - "Running the trial is Judge Reggie Walton, who has a story of his own.

Walton grew up near Pittsburgh in a steel mill town, and survived a tough period as the industry declined and the mill finally closed. His father was unemployed for two years before finding work as a janitor.

Walton got in trouble with the police, ending up in juvenile court three times for fighting. He also had a struggle to get through school. Despite poor reading skills, he managed to get to college and then law school.

He worked as a public defender in Philadelphia, where he says his first client accused of murder had confessed after being beaten by someone working for the police. On the other hand, he defended a young man accused of brutally beating an elderly woman. Walton convinced the jury that there was a reasonable doubt that his client had committed a crime. Leaving the courtroom, he says, the young man said, "we beat that one, didn't we, brother?"

Sickened by that experience, Walton became a federal prosecutor and later was appointed his first local DC judgeship by Republican President Ronald Reagan, although Walton was a Democrat. Today, he declines to identify his party affiliation, saying it shouldn't impact a judge's work.

As a teen, Walton thought his ticket to success would be pro football, but under the guidance of an 11th grade teacher, he realized that he was too small for that to be a realistic goal. He worked hard, but gives a lot of credit to affirmative action programs for giving him a boost into law school.

Walton says he sits in judgment on a lot of young black men, and sees himself in them, and he spends a lot of time going to YMCA's and juvenile lockups, trying to inspire them, to help them the way others helped him." <audio>