WASHINGTON (AP) — Jack W. Germond, the portly, cantankerous columnist and pundit who covered 10 presidential elections and sparred with colleagues on TV’s “The McLaughlin Group,” has died. He was 85.

Germond died Wednesday morning. He had recently finished his first novel, “A Small Story for Page Three,” about a reporter investigating political intrigue, being published Friday. The Baltimore Sun, where Germond worked for many years, reported that he died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at his home in Charles Town, W. Va.