To all God's beloved in Washington

To make an impact on people, it isn't necessary to be a power person who serves others, but a servant person who empowers others.

Throughout the year, millions of letters pour into Washington, D.C. Some go to Congress, some go to the White House, some go to the governmental agencies best known by an alphabet soup of acronyms: NASA, HUD, DOD, NIH, HHS. These epistles complain, compliment and cry out for help, and they are directed to Washington because the city is a center of power. It is a city that has power to make things happen, for good or for ill, across this country and around the world.

How can this power be defined? It is surely more than a set of duties and responsibilities described by the U.S. Constitution. As much as anything, it is seen in the "power people" within the beltway that fill the federal buildings and law firms of the nation's capital, "power people" who push legislation and pull strings to make things happen, "power people" who trade opinions and favors and access to people even more powerful than themselves.

Can you guess the identity of this person, a consummate Washington insider?

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