baker of "the new york times," michael duffy of "time" magazine, john harris of politico, and karen tumulty of the "washington post. plus a final salute to one of our own, charlie mcdowell. >> awarding-winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens. live from our nation's capital, this is "washington week" with gwen ifill, produced in association with "national journal". corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> i volunteered. >> i was drafted. >>i enlisted. >> i was nervous. >> and there i was in asia. >> europe. >> the gulf. and i saw things. >> incredible things. >> and people you never forget. >> i did my job. >> for my country. >> my buddies. >> for total strangers. >> and i was proud. >> so grateful. >> for my family. >> my freedom. >> for all who served and all who serve, we can never thank them enough. there's one thing dave's always wanted to do when he retires. keep working. but for himself. so as his financial advisor i took a look at everything he has. 401k, insurance policies, even money he's invested elsewhere. we're building a retirement pla

congressional correspondent major garrett, "new york times" national political correspondent jeff zeleny, karen tumulty, and npr host michelle martin. goodness. thank you all for joining us. okay. it seems to me that this has been a trip that seems a little off kilter. that where everybody's back here going, who's going to be the majority leader, are they going to get jobs, are they going to talk about the deficit, and he's dodging volcanic ash in indonesia. does it strike any of you like that? >> it's off the point. we've all been there. we've all planned these big, you know, takeouts for the sunday paper and then a big news story happens and we say, what are we doing? this is what that's like. >> when you're down in politics, everything becomes a metaphor. and so he gets volcanic ash. >> i think he's probably not, he's probably happy he's over there. who wants to be here in washington with the leadership fight and the house, among house democrats? so the volcanic ash, isn't probably quite as bad. >> the director of communications said part of this is the schedule. we have to go to the asia-pacific ec