It was mid-October of 2005 and Dallas Morning News White House Correspondent David Jackson and I were walking in hard-pounding rain following a briefing at the presidential residence. Our discussion was one just about everyone who covered George W. Bush was having: his controversial nomination of White House Counsel Harriet Miers to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

In the weeks since Bush had named Miers to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the Texas lawyer and close friend of Bush did not exactly set senators who would vote on her confirmation — or the conservative base that supported the president —on fire. Even Republican senators privately voiced doubts about whether Miers was up to the job.

Knowing that Jackson knew Bush and Miers (whom he had covered during her stint as a Dallas city councilwoman) quite well, I asked him what she would be like if she made it to the high court.

"She’ll vote as she thinks Bush would vote if he were on the court," my colleague replied without hesitation, "She’ll want to please him."

Would that be enough for the Republicans who comprised a majority in the Senate to confirm Miers, I inquired.

“Probably not,” he shot back.  Then, his signature black trenchcoat and tan cap soaked with rain, Jackson waved goodbye as he got to his next stop.

Sure enough, on October 27, Miers asked Bush to withdraw her nomination. A few days later, when I shared Jackson’s observation with Sen. John Cornyn, R.-Tex., he agreed with him and told me "he was right. The [conservative] base stuck with the president in ’04 in large part because of the Supreme Court and the assurance they felt they had he would appoint someone they were confident of when they had a vacancy.  Harriet’s nomination did not give them confidence." [Her replacement, present Justice Samuel Alito, did just that for conservatives].

That was one of scores of reminiscences I had about David Jackson, who became USA Today’s reporter at the White House briefings after leaving the Dallas Morning News, upon learning of his unexpected death last week at age 66.  “Action” Jackson, as George W. Bush nicknamed him at briefings in the White House, had the contacts, the insight, and the political acumen to not only get a story right but have a pretty good idea of how situations would play out down the road.

"You have to get out and go on the road, and not stay in the office," he told me while soliciting my vote to be president of the White House Correspondents Association in 2010, "It’s whole different world out there."

David didn’t need to do much soliciting to get my vote. I quickly promised to support him and then sought his advice and some political matters coming up.

Initially a sports reporter at The Times and Democrat in his hometown of Orangeburg, South Carolina, Jackson moved on to newspapers in Augusta (Georgia) and Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) before moving to The Dallas Morning News.

Bush knew Jackson well, liked him and often included him in a select group of reporters to whom he would break a particular story—notably his budgets.  Whenever he discussed matters from his native Lone Star State, he would inevitably make reference to the Morning News correspondent in one of the front rows.

When former Texas Gov. Ann Richards (the last Democratic governor of the state, whom Bush unseated in 1994) died in September 2006, President Bush paid tribute to her "charity, wit, and vitality" and added that “in a state known for its colorful politicians, Ann was right up there.  And anyone who knew her knew that—like Jackson over here."

When USA Today secured an interview with President-elect Barack Obama in 2008, Jackson insisted on wearing his weather-beaten black rain coat. 

"I had to basically order him to take it off before the soon-to-be president arrived," USA Today’s editor Susan Page recalled. "It was part of his general persona – of the dogged reporter, pursuing the news, loving the chase, and being fascinated by politics."

In an era when many Washington reporters become minor celebrities as guests on Sunday talk shows, David Jackson was cut from an earlier cloth of a newshound to whom the quality of a story was sacrosanct and how one looked or sounded meant next to nothing.  In effect, he was fearless newsman Diz Moore—played in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington by Thomas Mitchell, who actually was a reporter before becoming an actor—come to life. 

"I had dinner with David last Sunday night, days before I heard the sad news,"
Sirius Radio host Julie Mason told Newsmax, “He was talking about places he’d travel and how anxious he was to go to the [White House Correspondents Association] dinner on Saturday [April 25].”

Jackson was at the annual dinner he loved in spirit — and those who knew and loved him and had reminiscences were there in large numbers.  "Action" Jackson was not — and surely will not be — forgotten.

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.