With all of the election hubbub that has been clogging up the airwaves and

Internet, the sound bites spewing incessantly and the rhetoric amped up to

absurd levels so that everyone with any type of political opinion feels the

need to shout it from the rooftops, there is only one voice I wish I could

hear right now and unfortunately, I can't.

Back when I was a wet-behind-the-ears rookie at this paper, Dave Hamrick

was the grizzled veteran who knew more about everything than I could ever

hope for.

He was the one who would point out my mistakes, point me in the right direction

and encourage me when I needed it. We became pretty good friends and I learned

a lot from him.

One thing I really enjoyed was talking politics with him because we could

have civil debates, which is rare for a "Massachusetts liberal" and

a "conservative, Southern son of a preacher."

No one ever won our debates because they were never really over. The most

one could hope for was scoring a point here or there and making the other

one look at an issue from a different point of view.

I got more interested in following politics because of him. I'm still

not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Dave passed away in 2002. He has been missed by all of us here at The Citizen

and I'm sure he has also been missed by the many faithful readers of

his column.

I really wish that Dave were still here because these last few months would

have been full of good debates. I have often wondered if Dave, not someone

to always follow the party line, would be following the party line this year.

Since I can't talk to Dave, I decided to go