When I first learned that I would be spending most of my final yearin graduate school working on Capitol Hill as an APSA CongressionalFellow, I really did not know what to expect—other than that Ineeded to hurry up and finish my dissertation! Since most of mytraining was empirical in nature, with a smattering of formal theoryhere and there, the one thing I knew for certain was that I was infor a novel experience. After all, there are few substitutes foracting as a participant observer to uncover a different perspectiveon a subject.I want to thank CharlesBullock, Jeff Jenkins and especially Dave Rohde for helping meget into the Fellowship Program.