It was poignant that Don Lambro — prize-winning journalist and best-selling author who exposed considerable waste in the federal government — died just as the Republican-run House of Representatives enacted a measure that began to deal with the national debt by rolling back some costly programs.
This was what Lambro, who died at age 80 on April 24, was all about. Beginning as a United Press International reporter in the 1970s, he exposed many programs funded by federal dollars that did little or nothing to address the problems with which they were created to deal.
His exposés were compiled in a critically acclaimed book titled "Fat City: How Washington Wastes Your Tax Dollars." One reader who was captivated was future President Ronald Reagan.
In 1980, candidate Reagan often quoted "Fat City" on the campaign trail. Soon after moving into the White House in 1981, he handed out copies of Lambro's book to every member of his Cabinet and told them to read it and start cutting fat from their departments.
People magazine credited Lambro "with being a crucial influence on candidate Reagan's budget promises and on the President's fiscal program."
For Lambro and "Fat City," 1981 was a banner year for other reasons. The Conservative Political Action Conference awarded Lambro its "Outstanding Journalist Award" for the book. He launched an investigative series on federal spending programs entitled "Watching Washington," and was twice nominated by UPI for a Pulitzer Prize. He was also named the Heritage Foundation's Distinguished Journalism fellow.
Lambro later wrote "Washington — City of Scandals," dealing with wasteful federal spending, in which he offered suggestions for reducing waste. A book review in The New York Times hailed "City of Scandals" as "an unsparing chronicle of hypocrisy, fraud and inefficiency in our government" and "a valuable insider's view of the government."
With his unforgettable FM voice and ever-ready quiver of quips, Lambro also was a natural for radio and TV. He was a frequent guest on talk radio and in 1982 launched a one-hour TV documentary on waste and spending called "Star Spangled Spenders" that was broadcast nationwide.
In 1995, Lambro was the host and co-writer of the nationally televised PBS documentary, "Inside the Republican Revolution," a behind-the-scenes report on the first 100 days of the first Republican-controlled Congress in 40 years.
Of Lambro's many awards for journalism, perhaps the most fitting the Warren Brookes Award For Journalistic Excellence. He received it in 1995, four years after the crusading anti-government waste reporter Brookes died at the age of 62. In many ways, Brookes and Lambro were comrades in arms, and Lambro carried on for him after Brookes was gone.
"The best political economic reporter in Washington today" is how economic analyst and Trump administration official Larry Kudlow characterized Lambro.
The son of Albanian immigrants, Lambro was born in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and earned a degree in journalism from Boston University in 1968.
After five years with the Boston Herald Traveler, Lambro joined UPI and covered state politics in Hartford, Connecticut. It was an exciting time for political reporters in Hartford, when, in 1970, Tom Meskill became the Nutmeg State's first Republican governor in 16 years and immediately clashed with the Democratic-controlled state legislature over issues ranging from a state income tax (which came nearly two decades later) to gun control.
Lambro covered it all and went on to report on presidential candidates.
For many years, even as his health began to decline, Lambro would often join my editors and me for lunch at Washington's storied Irish Times pub. The columnist inevitably had stories — some of them funny, some of them not-so-funny — that he would offer us in his signature velvet voice.
Often, he would come to lunch just from the tennis court, where he played with a passion.
Don Lambro was a true crusading reporter and, to the end, a gentleman.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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