The Press: On the Grid

For 50 Washington newsmen, peace finally declared itself last week. Slicked up in white ties & tails, they trooped with 500 bigwig guests (most of the hosts brought their bosses) into the swank Statler Hotel. There they revived a 60-year-old tradition, lapsed for four wartime years: the famed Gridiron Club dinners.

To the slightly jealous working press, the Gridiron is the "Hardened Arteries Club," top-heavy with conservative pundits and alumni who have grabbed fancy public-relations jobs. Its roster is sprinkled with able men, but some of them, like veteran Scripps-Howardman Tom Stokes, had...