My head just met desk in a sense of relief that our ‘self-inflicted national nightmare’ is over. And I can hardly remember how we got to this position where we ended up ass over tea kettle along with some inside the beltway type bullshit. The likes of which I have not seen in, like, ever. Actually it could have been worse, at least no one was caned! This past month has been a marathon of epic proportions and now that it’s all over I can hardly remember how it started.

Oh yes, I do remember; the debt ceiling. Though the right will argue that it started when House Republicans led by Speaker John Beohner – he of the orange persuasion and the tears – proposed a budget and the Democrats did not. Meanwhile, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the President was just twiddling his thumbs and not-leading as the House decided to cut every single program known to man. At least all programs that would actually help people. They did have time to increase spending for private school vouchers in the District of Columbia. Never mind that none of them are actually from the District of Columbia nor have set foot in a school inside of the District of Columbia. Unless of course that school is called Sidwell Friends. But whoa, digression. Where was I? Oh yes. Republicans in the House were doing all the heavy lifting of destroying discretionary spending. Poor people? Pshaw!. Or health care, or Medicaid or Medicare and screw the old people. Social Security needs to end anyway.

The quick and dirty version is that yes, the Republicans and Budget Chairman Paul Ryan came up with a horrific budget that should never have seen the light of day. But hey, they did it and that’s what counts. So, after the House voted along party lines to go with the Ryan budget, the President reminds both chambers that we’re coming pretty close to touching the debt ceiling so they – Congress – should get on that. The House replied with “Oh yeah, you want us to raise the debt ceiling? HA! Also HAAAAAAA! Also, what will we get in return?” So the President said, “What now? Just raise it. We need to pay our bills.” The House Republicans were like, “Yeah, buddy, not so fast, if we’re going to raise this sucker by $2.5 trillion then some cuts are going to need to be made”. And then the President was all, “Are you kidding me with this shit?”

Unfortunately for the President he soon realized that they were not kidding because they are Republicans after all and Republicans don’t know how to make – or take – a joke. Instead he attempted to bring both Democrats and Republicans from both houses together to work on a deal via something called ‘compromise’. A word, that we will soon find out is unfamiliar to those in the DC area. Things seemed to be going OK but fast forward to one of their many meetings and Bam! House Majority Leader Eric Cantor took his ball and went home because he wasn’t getting what he wanted and John Boehner was all, “Uhhh…ok then” and briefly agreed with Cantor, kind of. But there was some strain in their relationship. And between all of this Boehner, Biden, Obama and Ohio Governor Kasich walk onto a golf course. Which sounds like the start of a terrible joke but no, they fucking golfed while this was going on and then had the nerve to complain about their lack of conversing about the topic.

(Clearly I am ad libbing this timetable because this is a blog post not a novel)

(And if you want the down and dirty details that’s what the New York Times is for. Actually, go see Ezra Klein because this is my progressive skewed, probably flawed but you get the gist, version)

Fast forward to three weeks ago. Cantor has his ball at home and is pouting, John Boehner is either crying or smoking a cigarette or both and the Democrats are like “are you fucking kidding me?” and the President still isn’t leading, is leading too much, is all up in the bully pulpit or is walking out of meetings. It all depends on who you ask. There are a series of meetings one famously held on a Sunday afternoon where all parties were told to get comfy and prepare to settle in for the long haul and that meeting lasted all of 75 minutes.

While much of this was going on in front of those who are avid C-SPAN viewers and Congress followers, as the date that we would hit the debt ceiling got closer and closer, things started to heat up a bit. Never mind keeping it to Inside the Beltway, no, the President said, I’m taking this to the American people. And you guys? He totally did. Like 11 times he held press conferences and statements and Lord knows what else because we were headed for financial ruin. If this were a movie it would have been called Armageddon but damn, if that title wasn’t already taken.

(I’m now realizing that this will be a two parter. Part two will come very soon now that votes have been counted and cast and I will be far more serious as what the true problem has been over the past two months. Hint: It isn’t just about money. It’s deeper than money but it always is…)

“There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.”  ~Alexis de Tocqueville

Two weeks ago I was on a conference call on policy which quickly turned into politics. In particular the House and what they would get or could get done before the end of their brief fall session. We all guffawed at that one. They’re much too focused on themselves right now, someone said through laughter. I’m sure there were nods in agreement because “focusing on themselves”, their futures, their aspirations; is what got so many of the current members of the House into the trouble they find themselves in today. It’s hard not to question whether their focus was on their constituents, a higher authority, or perhaps 2012, 2016 and 2020.

As far back as I can remember I have wanted to be a member of the House and now I am realizing that I could never do it. No way, not ever. I couldn’t be pulled in – literally 70,000 – different directions. Are they even allowed to listen to their gut or is it tainted by all of the other opinions? You and I would go with gut and find the outside chatter superfluous but members of congress rely on the ‘superfluous’. Crazy (some) or not, they are the voters. Whatever it is, right now everyone hates the incumbent.

In New York, the details of which I will get to shortly, I have the immense – and I mean that – pleasure of knowing some stellar members of the House. They’re just nice people. And I’d be quick to call someone out on their bullshit or falsies but nope, they’re kind and seek me out in a crowd. They even ask how my mother is doing. OK fine, it might be BS on their part but it’s well played if it is. I am inclined to believe that a majority of members of the House of Representatives want to do right by the people in their districts. They are there because they really do want to help with the Upstate economy. But of course the few bad apples give the rest a bad name. But the others – the masses – believe in a higher authority that isn’t the will of Nancy Pelosi but representative democracy. That is what I’ve encountered and it is what I will believe until proven otherwise. Yet so many have not had that experience.

Joe is angry about his health care costs and “socialized” medicine. He expressed his anger, loudly, at a Town Hall meeting last summer. Unfortunately his congressman voted for it.

Susan’s a public employee who is recently laid off. She needed that $10 billion bail out or else she would surely drown. Unfortunately her congressman voted against it. It passed but she deserves to be angry.

People are scared. The recession, though supposedly over, is still felt across the country. There are still so many questions to be answered – TARP, Afghanistan, how the Affordable Health Care Act will affect families. But what people are finding is that those who voted for these proposals don’t necessarily have the answers.

The above is what House incumbents face and right now it seems as if they are failing while bearing the brunt of Americans’ anger. Even members who have been considered safe for so long are feeling the heat. For the last several weeks polling has been quite the indicator of voter dissatisfaction; showing most incumbents (most of whom are Democrats as they are in the majority) trailing or without a comfortable lead against a challenger. When Larry Sabato and Charlie Cook, two powerhouses in handicapping races, said that the GOP would take the HOuse by 40-44 seats…well…that’s when my heart sank. Only 37 seats are needed to flip the House. And then comes the “we’ll shut down the government…” threats.

Things are not good. So what now? Well now we wait and see. There’s that whole polling hubbub that keeps people on their toes but I prefer someone with cool calculation like Nate Silver of the famed FiveThirtyEight blog. It’s another good place to keep your eye out and check to see how your member is doing and whether or not they have a fear of falling or failing.

Now to New York (courtesy of the New York Times):

You guys, you don’t hear this often, or ever but I have so much respect for my congressional delegation. I cannot say it enough. So much of the policy that happens in Washington cannot be done without the House going first (of course then that starts a whole back and forth between the House and the Senate where the House gets shit done and the Senate likes to filibuster. Say it with me now, “I love democracy”.) These are the races in  New York that everyone is talking about. The ones to watch, if you will.

(click through to see a description of each race)

CD-1 Tim Bishop. He’s whip smart on policy and will ask you questions to which you must answer “I don’t know, Congressman”.

CD-13 Michael McMahon. Voted against health care reform but voted for a recent education jobs fund that would provide public employers in his district with funds to hire back laid off employees. Public employees like teachers and firefighters. That’s a good thing.

CD-19 John Hall. He recently jammed with Pete Seeger and hangs out in my favorite downstate town, Beacon.

CD-20 Scott Murphy.  As far as elected officials go, I totally dig him. He’s a genuinely good guy and smarter than I will ever be. Smart and nice. That doesn’t happen very often in Congress.

CD-24 Michael Arcuri. Another good guy who wants to do the right thing but is also a Blue Dog Democrat, so doing the right thing shouldn’t put us even further in the red.

CD-23 Bill Owens. He’s like magic. He won out of the blue in a race that everyone thought he would lose. And now he’s that guy who likes to sit and chat about everything going on and always, always, always wants to find the best solution for the people he represents.

CD-25 Dan Maffei.  Another nice guy (do you see a pattern here?). Amiable. In tune to his constituents which is a key factor in getting elected.

CD-29 Eric Massa resigned from this seat. There are two gentlemen running and I can’t even begin to tell you who might win.

So there you have it…FOR NOW…There will be changes and I will do my best to keep people updated on the happenings of the midterms in New York State and other fun (I use that term loosely) things.

Any questions?

I recently attended an event for a member of congress that featured a Special! Appearance! by the Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer. Sometimes members do this to get a good crowd. And it tickles me a bit that I live in a world where Dick Durbin is a total draw. So I’m milling about at the smallish event and chatting with the one other person I knew who used to be my boss when all of a sudden Steny! Hoyer! walks in. I turn to my colleague and say “Oh my God, what do I do? What do I say? What if he hates me?” You know because Steny Hoyer and I were going to have a 45 minute personal conversation where he would tell me his legislative priorities and I would give him my suggestions and then we’d high five to being progressive. Hoyer walks in and shakes hands and I mumble something about it being so nice to meet him and he smiles back and beelines for some freshly grilled lamb chops and I’m like OMFG the MAJORITY LEADER.

Here is a nice point for a short digression where I tell you that I’ve been watching C-SPAN since the tender age of 11 and subsequently spent a large part of my life thinking that Members of Congress were total rockstars. And while we’re at it; I can recite the names of the members of the Senate in alphabetical order by last name. Moving on.

So Hoyer speaks for about 20 minutes about how wonderful the member of congress is and how hard he works and then launches into how damn good those lamb chops are and he looks directly at me and says, “Did you try one of these lamb chops?” I had not. “Ooooh whee You should. Have one!” And of course when the Majority Leader tells you to have a lamb chop, you get yourself a fucking lamb chop and announce that it’s the best damn lamb chop you’ve ever had.

Later a staffer needed me for something but I had a tank full of guts and a new pair of balls, so I was confident enough to hold up a hand to the staffer and say, “Wait, I just want to speak to the Majority Leader”. So there I am in some stranger’s dining room with said stranger and like six other people and I walk straight up to Leader Hoyer and say, “I just want to know that I am so happy to meet you” (again) and I pause and say, “…Also! I follow you on Twitter“.

You know those moments where it feels like everything freezes like in a movie or a television show when a character breaks the fourth wall and speaks to the audience and then things go on? It was kind of like that but with no freezing just what felt like a silence so large and epic that I prepared for a glacial shit. It was a moment of silence where you realize that announcing to the Majority Leader that you follow him on Twitter – while it seems almost normal to so many people – you all? That shit’s not normal. Especially not in a room full of real adults who paid 5K to see the Majority Leader and there I am all bouncing around and “Hey! Twitter! Tweet! Tweet!” Anyway the Majority Leader then looks at me, smiles broadly and gives me a one arm, shoulder hug. “TWITTER!” He says. “Gosh, you’re fun”.

And then I died because Steny Hoyer called ME fun. The end.

******

I mentioned this to someone who knows me well that sometimes I get a little nervous around the Members of Congress. Not in a weird stalkerish, staring, cannot speak or say my name, kind of way. No no, that was years ago. I’m over that. I don’t feel insecure and it isn’t all of them but just a rare few where I’m like what if I say something ridiculous and they’re like, “Oh my God, you’re allowed to vote?” That’s my fear. Or something like that. Even better when they know my name and I get this brief moment of I must be in trouble when your Member of Congress calls you by your first and last name. It’s just…weird. Especially now when the masses find the behavior of most politicians to be abhorrent and here I am figuratively dying because Steny Hoyer said four words to me.

******

In DC last week, part of my job was to hang out with Members of Congress. I managed to keep all dorkiness and nerves to myself. I also managed to have calm, cool, collected conversations about work related things and when it was all said and done I got cheers and handshakes and general kudos. This is one of those full circle moments for me where I realize that which made me a giant ass loser from 1994 – 2000 totally turned into a positive. Like yeah, I did rush home to watch C-SPAN and then I made myself a nice little career because of that obsession. Who’s the dork now? That’s a rhetorical question. It’s still me.