Slow learner

Emily will tell you that one of my most consistent (and probably most annoying) habits is punctuality. I hate it when people I am meeting are late, and can't stand to be late myself.

I come by this trait naturally. My Dad actually used to make "reconnaissance trips'' to unfamiliar destinations ahead of time so that he would be on time. His life would have been simpler had GPS's been invented.

Nevertheless, in the world of government and politics, things seldom come off on time. Yet when I saw today that the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus dinner was set to start at 7 p.m. and that former Congressman Harold Ford of Tennessee was scheduled to speak at the dinner, I decided I had to be there at 7.

Big mistake. At 7, people had barely started to filter into the hall. Once they were seated, there were endless introductions, speeches, entertainment, etc. By the time I left at 9:30, after standing up for most of that time (hard for me these days) he hadn't spoken yet.

Similar things have happened to be over and over through the years. I might have literally torn my hair out when the Senate, before Joe Bruno became majority leader in 1995, would regularly start at least an hour past the scheduled time.

One time, though, it paid off. When I and a bunch of other reporters were traveling with Gov. Pataki in Hungary in 1995, his pr woman told us to meet in the lobby at 9 a.m. to catch our ride to get to the events of the day. Oh sure, we reporters thought. Pataki was notoriously late for almost everything.

But I got there on time, and, surprise, the governor was right behind me. We got into a van, even though a couple of reporters were not accounted for. We tried to get the driver to wait, but his English wasn't any better than our Hungarian. The tardy reporters had to catch a cab and missed the first event.

So the moral of the story is, I guess, once every 15 years or so, it pays to be on time. Just not tonight.