A hungry-for-knowledge Derek Kilmer was summoned to the boss’ office back in the summer of 1993. It was his last day interning for Rep. Al Swift, an “old-school” Democrat.
“This is something people in this town would kill to learn, and I’m going to teach it to you,” Kilmer recalls his boss saying, as he pulled out a cigar and showed him how to smoke it.
Those “grab a cigar, grab a martini” days on Capitol Hill are gone, says Kilmer, now a Democratic congressman from Washington state himself. But part of his purpose in Congress is to figure out what relationship-building — not to mention internships — should look like in the present day.
