Deborah Orin-Eilbeck, the New York Post’s long-time Washington bureau chief and a fixture of D.C. political reporting, died yesterday morning at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She was 59, and had been suffering from stomach cancer.

Renowned for her tough-minded reportage, and a must-read for political junkies, Orin-Eilbeck got her start at the Long Island Press, coming to the Post in 1977. She covered every presidential campaign from 1980, and in 1988 was named as the Post’s Washington bureau chief.

A statement from President Bush posted on the White House’s web site read in part, “Deb fought a valiant battle against cancer with the same tenacity, devotion, and determination that she brought to her work in the White House briefing room through numerous Administrations.”

Stuart Marques, metropolitan editor at the Post in the 1980s and for many years Orin-Eilbeck’s editor, said, “She was all about getting it first and getting it right, and she was totally dedicated to it.”

Deborah Orin-Eilbeck, originally Deborah Slotkin, grew up in Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan and attended Radcliffe College, where she majored in French and graduated with honors. She later studied at the Sarbonne in Paris, and earned a masters degree at Northwestern University.

Orin-Eilbeck thrived in the sometimes over-the-top tabloid style of the Post. In the run-up to the Iraq war, one article under her byline began, “Weasel so-called allies France and Germany will hear fresh evidence today of Iraqi stonewalling, at an 11th-hour showdown with the United States in the U.N. Security Council.”

Senator Clinton, not always an ideological soulmate of Orin’s, reached out to her during her illness. “As hard as it is to believe, we really miss you around here,” Ms. Clinton wrote, according to a posting on the New York Post’s Web site last night.

Col Allan, editor-in-chief of the New York Post, released a statement saying, “She was never part of the press group think that so often rules Washington. Common sense ruled her mind, not dogma.”

Orin-Eilbeck, who was married for the second time last year, maintained homes in Stuyvesant Town and in the Hamptons, where she indulged her talents as a gourmet cook and, according to the Post, “constant gardener.”

Known for laser-like intensity when on a story, Orin-Eilbeck was also said by former associates to have been generous in helping fellow reporters. She also had a rapier wit. In 1993 on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” she debated temporary New York Post owner Abe Hirschfeld. When Hirschfeld challenged her to invest in the paper, Orin retorted, “Abe, I’ve invested my whole career in The Post, which I think is more than you invested.”

Surviving are her husband, Neville Eilbeck, her father, Aaron Slotkin, and a brother, Mark Slotkin.