And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN, the Axviles, with your

host, David Axelrod.

Nobody has rattled more cages in Washington than Maureen Dow, the Pulitzer Prize-winning

columnist for the New York Times.

Her columns have vexed succeeding administrations and presidents and people who work there.

I can attest to that as one of them.

But she's also one of the great writers in American journalism.

And she's just published a book of her columns, The Year of Voting Dangerously, about this

year's election, which is worthy of literature.

We sat down in Washington recently to talk about the campaign and her career in journalism.

Maureen Dowd, good to be with you.

So many people come to Washington.

Like that people say, well, I came to Washington when, and I, you didn't come to Washington.

You've always been a Washingtonian with some exception, but you grew up here.

What was Washington like for you when growing up?

Hi, David.

The first memory in my memory bank is actually the Capitol at night because my mom and I were

going down to pick up my dad from work.

He was a DC police detective who was in charge of Senate security.

You know, he was there for the Puerto Rican terrorists.

He chased one, he ran over to the house and chased one of them to the ground.

This was when the Capitol was invaded.

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