By Mark Leibovich
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 8, 2006; C01

Before phones and e-mail, people wrote letters to each other. It has since become something of a lost art, except on Capitol Hill, where the ink still flies fast and furious -- really furious in the case of the epistolary donnybrook that flared Monday between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama over lobbying reform.

In his letter, McCain accused his Democratic pen pal from Illinois of "self-interested partisan posturing," adding that "I'm embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical gloss."

McCain was affronted by a Dear John letter from Obama dated Feb. 2 in which Obama thanked him for inviting him to a bipartisan meeting on ethics reform but urged McCain to support a bill co-sponsored by Democrats. McCain was also annoyed that Obama shared his letter with the media without first telling the Arizona Republican.

"I am puzzled by your response to my recent letter," Obama wrote to McCain Monday night, adding later that "I have no idea what prompted" it.

Letter-writing is a formal and proper means of communicating befitting important people doing important work.

The McCain-Obama contretemps consisted of three formal letters exchanged over four days between two parties who work in nearby buildings. A brief conversation might have sufficed. But then it's hard to share the contents of a phone call with the media, which goes to the crux of why letter-writing remains such a popular hobby in Washington.

"A lot of these letters are intended to be semi-public," said Republican strategist Mike Murphy.

Nooooo, really?

"Sometimes the press even gets ahold of them," said Murphy, who has close ties to McCain but had nothing to do with the Obama exchange. "That's mostly what the letters are for."

Oh, stop it before we get cynical!

After an exchange of phone calls, Obama finally reached McCain yesterday afternoon. They talked for a couple minutes. "No one backed down, but they agreed to move forward," said Eileen McMenamin, a spokeswoman for McCain. Neither senator cared to comment further about the dust-up, but if they change their minds, we can be reached at The Washington Post, 1150 15th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20071.

Sometimes lawmakers really go nuts with their franking privileges and send letters all the way down Pennsylvania Avenue. They were not shy, for instance, about offering suggestions to President Bush as he prepared his State of the Union speech last week.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) sent Bush a letter telling him about "the issues the people of Nebraska have told me they consider to be of primary importance to them." Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Max Baucus sent Bush a missive requesting "immediate Presidential action to address the problems" associated with his prescription drug program. That's not to be confused with the letter 19 House Democrats wrote asking Bush to "level with the public" in his speech about the "frustration the American people are experiencing" over his drug program.

"Some arrive, others are read about in newspapers but never seem to arrive," e-mailed White House spokesman Trent Duffy, writing generally about the hundreds, maybe thousands, of letters that members of Congress send Bush every year.

Alas, letters are not always the most reliable means of communication, even when they travel only a matter of yards. This point became apparent during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito when Ted Kennedy insisted to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter that he sent the Pennsylvania Republican a letter asking him to subpoena documents about an organization Alito belonged to at Princeton University.

"We actually didn't get a letter," the chairman said.

"You did get a letter," Kennedy insisted.

"Now, wait a minute: You don't know what I got."

"Yes, I do, senator, since I sent it."

After a few more minutes, Specter growled thusly:

"I take umbrage at your telling me what I received. I don't mind your telling me what you mailed. But there's a big difference between what's mailed and what's received. And you know that."

Either way, according to Kennedy's office, Specter didn't write back.