WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate historian Donald Ritchie is stepping down from his “front-row seat to the best show in town.”
That is the tradition, scandal and scholarly debate of the United States Senate, which Ritchie has observed and written about for all four decades the Historical Office has existed.
“He’s the guy you see on TV you see explaining the historic significance of events like swearing-in ceremonies and inaugurations,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in bidding Ritchie farewell. “I don’t think any of us would want to face him on ‘Jeopardy.'”
Consulted by reporters, senators, staff and luminaries alike, Ritchie has authored more than a dozen books, including three textbooks, said Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Author Dan Brown contacted Ritchie for his best-seller, “The Da Vinci Code,” and biographer Robert Caro did likewise for his voluminous writing President Lyndon Johnson.