In the middle of a phone interview with a political strategist in one of this year’s hot races, I suddenly felt like I was in the show. Not because we were having hike-up-your-pants-and-give-it-to-me-straight exchanges, but because a Washington behavior emerged that was such a part of the everyday commerce of this city, I was surprised it hadn’t already appeared in the show: the power dynamics of checking your email.

In its most benign form, this power move simply comes across as a kind of aphasia. You’re doing an interview on the phone and suddenly your source starts to trail off. “The president’s health care plan isn’t just bad for people who … ” It might be that he’s stopping to think of something even more interesting to say. Then he repeats himself, “The president’s health care plan isn’t just bad … ” Sometimes he just stops talking altogether. Or he quickens the sentences. You recognize this as a guilt reflex. He’s trying to make up for the fact that he’s been checking his email and getting distracted by its contents while he has ostensibly been carrying on a conversation with you.

This is the electronic equivalent of the fellow who looks over your shoulder when you’re talking to him at an event, to see if someone more important has come into the room. Washingtonians, like competitive and striving people everywhere, are terrified that they are going to miss something crucial. What you are saying has to be as important as what your source imagines is the most important revelation in his inbox.