Anthony R. Dolan — “Tony,” to one and all — passed away earlier this month. He was Reagan’s chief speechwriter (“evil empire”). And a distinctive personality.

I used to pump him for Reagan stories. Don Regan vs. Nancy! I always pumped the Reagan guys, for stories. Almost all of them are gone now. But the stories are in my head.

Tony was a Nutmegger, i.e., from Connecticut. He was born in 1948. When he was but a tot — 16, actually — he volunteered for Goldwater. He later went to Yale. He met Meryl Streep there, somehow. (More on that in due course.)

In 1970, Tony was the deputy press secretary on the Buckley for Senate campaign. That was Jim Buckley — James L. Buckley — an older brother to Bill. He would become “the sainted junior senator from New York,” in Bill’s formulation.

By the way, Tony did a very good impression of WFB. Once, he left a message on Bill’s answering machine, in that WFB voice. Bill was both nonplussed and impressed, I think.

Tony spent some years in journalism — at the Stamford (Conn.) Advocate. Won a Pulitzer Prize in 1978, for reporting on municipal corruption.

He was not all politics and public affairs. He wrote and recorded folk music (of a political nature, to be sure). (Ever heard of a right-wing folk musician? Tony was, as I have said, distinctive.)

Post-Reagan, he did a variety of things, always staying close to the political game, when not directly in it. He had roles in the Bush 43 and Trump administrations. He helped Ted Cruz in the 2016 primaries.

Tony had a common habit, telling the same stories, the same anecdotes — but he was wonderfully self-mocking about it. He’d say, for example, “When I started that story again yesterday, I could see the desperation in their eyes.”

We had a running joke — a few of them, actually. One was that he would tell me about Hollywood and Washington — feeding me gossip, letting me in on the glamour — while I educated him about “haute culture,” as he put it. How did Tony get acquainted with Hollywood? I can’t quite remember.

Anyway, here is a typical note from him:

Who is abbado?

And what is lucerne?

And why wasnt i told?

Also:

Who is this helene grimaud? And why havent i heard about her until recently?

Another of your consorts i suppose

(Alas.)

On another occasion, he asked whether I knew a particular fellow in Los Angeles, who had feet in both the movies and politics. I answered (kiddingly),

Yes, he told me about your Hollywood days. Swanning around the best hotels, etc.

Tony answered,

Recruiting for my bible study group

All right, back to Meryl Streep. Tony had a role in starting her in show business and she was ungrateful for this. She never acknowledged her debt to him. She would be nowhere without him. At any rate, this was our legend.

A mutual friend and I loved to tease Tony about this. “Tell us again,” we would say, “about that ingrate Streep? Why does she never mention you when accepting an Oscar?”

Tony:

Oh listen

dont get me started

some of my advisers are urging legal action

For many years, he was a fixture at two Washington establishments: Cafe Milano and Martin’s Tavern. He wrote me,

when you come here again tell me you are coming and i will buy you lunch or dinner at cafe milano or martins — chambers met his controller there

(That was Whittaker Chambers, the American spy for Stalin who became one of the anti-Communists of the century.)

I said,

I look greatly forward to it! Habitués of those places will say, “Who’s that B-lister with Dolan?”

He said,

Any b lister with me becomes instantly an a lister

R.I.P.