Mr. Watkins requests your attendance

I just checked my mailbox at work this morning (yes, we still have those at Texas Lawyer), and what should I see but a fancy envelope with my name on it. It’s too early for the firm Christmas party invitations and too late in life for any of my friends to get married, so I’m thinking this better not be a tricked-up court summons. Nope. It’s an invitation to Washington D.C. to attend Governing magazine’s Public Officials of the Year 2008 awards. The list of honorees includes a bunch of people I’ve never heard of including Joshua Sharfstein, the city of Baltimore’s health commissioner, which I’m sure is a tough job judging by all the people who died of lead-bullet poisoning in that city in HBO’s great series “The Wire.” But at the very bottom of the list of award winners is one Craig Watkins (pictured), Dallas County district attorney. Well now. Not bad doings for a guy who’s been on the job for less than two years. That DNA exoneration thing seems to be working out for Watkins. I’d love to attend the Nov. 12 gala at The Willard InterContinental, but there’s one hitch: The bottom of the invitation says that dress for the awards dinner is “business attire.” Everybody knows that no newspaper reporter has owned a suit since 1948. So congratulations from afar, Craig.
-- John Council