Deborah Orin-Eilbeck, who spent the last eighteen years as the Post's Washington correspondent, has passed away due to complications from cancer. While we can't pretend to have been entranced by every line she wrote, she was a decent (and by Post standards, balanced) reporter who never forgot that she was writing about politics for Post readers: She tailored her analysis to fit that demographic, which is indeed a difficult skill to master. Her paper gives a fairly nice summary of her career; we hope her successor understands the size of the shoes which he or she is filling. Rest in peace, Deborah.