WASHINGTON — Jack W. Germond, the portly, cantankerous columnist and pundit who covered 10 presidential elections and sparred with colleagues on “The McLaughlin Group,” has died. He was 85.
Germond died Wednesday morning. He had recently finished his first novel, “A Small Story for Page Three,” about a reporter investigating political intrigue, being published Friday. The Baltimore Sun, where Germond worked for many years, reported that he died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at his home in Charles Town, W. Va.
“He went peacefully and quickly after just completing this novel, a tale he had pondered while writing columns, campaign books, a memoir and covering our politics and politicians,” said his wife, Alice Germond, in a note to his colleagues.
She said Germond “was fortunate to spend his life working at a job he would have done for free during some halcyon times in the newspaper business.”
With Jules Witcover, Germond co-wrote five syndicated columns a week for nearly 25 years, most of that time spent at The (Baltimore) Evening Sun until it went out of business and then The (Baltimore) Sun.
He was in many ways emblematic of his generation of Washington journalists: He was friendly with the politicians he covered, and he cultivated relationships with political insiders during late-night poker games and whiskey-fueled bull sessions.
“Before politics was fed into computers and moveable maps came out, Jack Germond had it all in his head,” said Walter Mears, the former political writer for The Associated Press and a friend and competitor of Germond.
“He was a walking encyclopedia on politics and politicians,” Mears said. “He worked the telephones — before they were cellphones — and the opening usually was pretty much the same: What do you hear? His style of political reporting was an art form. Sadly, it is becoming a lost art.”
Germond, Witcover and Mears were among the “Boys on the Bus” chronicled in Timothy Crouse’s seminal account of reporters in the 1972 presidential election.
Later in his career, Germond became arguably the best known of the “Boys,” thanks to his irascible appearances on “The McLaughlin Group,” where he offered a liberal alternative to conservative host John McLaughlin and fellow panelist Robert D. Novak.
He also appeared on TV’s “Inside Washington,” and was a political analyst for NBC and CNN.
