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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Open Thread: “What I’ve Learned”

Open Thread: “What I’ve Learned”

by Anne Laurie|  October 23, 201011:00 am| 43 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Open Threads

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Esquire‘s Political Blog has been running a series of “What I’ve Learned” short interviews with members of the 111th Congress. Most of them have been… instructive. Sometimes depressing, but sometimes inspirational; people I knew about, and those I didn’t.

For instance, I am proud to say that I once got to vote for Representative Barney Frank (D, Mass.):

Nobody can fire anybody in the House. We’re all equal. Nancy Pelosi has more power than a freshman Republican, but she can’t fire him. Nobody can give anybody else an order. At a job, someone can say, “You will do this.” No one here can say, “You must vote this way.” They can argue with me. They can try to pressure me. But the only people who can fire us are people back home. It’s very interesting, because it means that we’ve got to get along personally in an atmosphere in which the normal rules for structuring human relationships aren’t there…
__
The problem today is activist elements, right and left, live in parallel universes. They don’t hear the same things. They don’t know the same things. So there is no basis for compromise. People only hear from people they agree with, they only listen to people they agree with. So each side thinks it represents a majority, which means that anybody on your side that tries to compromise must be a traitor because there’s no need to compromise because everybody knows everybody agrees with them.
__
There are no common facts anymore. People are not interested in information as a basis for making decisions. People now want information used as a weapon.

But I had not previously been exposed to Representative Judy Biggert (R, Ill.):

… I was very surprised that John McCain chose Sarah Palin. You know, I’m more of a moderate Republican, and I didn’t see it coming at all. I thought there were a lot of experienced women who might be asked. I remember where I was. Home in the district talking to a group of women. My aid walked up right after McCain’s announcement and gave me an envelope with a name on it. I looked at it and blurted out, “It’s Sarah Palin.” The women all started clapping and cheering. My face dropped. I tried to pretend that, Oh, this is a great thing. But I didn’t know much about her and it seemed like we needed somebody that was much more experienced and could help on the business side.
__
I was very honored to be chosen as one of the most bipartisan members of Congress. ‘Course, I have to say that Barney Frank was also chosen as one of the most bipartisan, too. He was also chosen as one of the most partisan. I guess he has a split personality…
__
I didn’t really go into politics until my last four children went off to college. I wasn’t going to leave any teenagers home alone. Then I went to a Chicago Bears football game party and was asked to run for the Illinois general assembly. They said, “You’ve got six weeks to do it, and we’ll help you.” That’s how I got into it.
__
I met Obama in Chicago. I was in the Illinois House and he came into the Illinois Senate. He wasn’t the messiah then.
__
One time, my husband caught Obama kissing me on the cheek as he was coming down the aisle to speak at the State of the Union. He said, “What are you doing?” I said, “Well, he kisses everybody.”

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43Comments

  1. 1.

    Chyron HR

    October 23, 2010 at 11:03 am

    “I was very honored to be chosen as one of the most bipartisan members of Congress. ‘Course, I hate Barney Fag and Messiah Obongo.”

  2. 2.

    Daddy-O

    October 23, 2010 at 11:03 am

    “Well, he kisses everybody.”

    Then he IS the Messiah!

  3. 3.

    Lolis

    October 23, 2010 at 11:16 am

    @Chyron HR:

    Spot on.

    Don’t those Congress critters in the front for the SOTU wait all day to be there? So why is she trying to pretend she didn’t want any Obama love? Maybe she liked it a little too much.

  4. 4.

    Ross Hershberger

    October 23, 2010 at 11:20 am

    I was going to write a comment about this but Hannity’s smug grin is desecrating the left side of my screen and I can’t think through the red fog that filled my brain.

  5. 5.

    Dr. Squid

    October 23, 2010 at 11:29 am

    For what it’s worth, I live in Illinois, and I’ve never heard Judy Biggert say much of anything about anything. Of course I live at the other end of the state from her DuPage-Cook-Will county district…

  6. 6.

    rob!

    October 23, 2010 at 11:51 am

    Biggert sounded so reasonable until I got to “I met Obama in Chicago. I was in the Illinois House and he came into the Illinois Senate. He wasn’t the messiah then.”

    This from a group who wanted George Bush to have complete, unchecked power. GFY, Ms. Biggert.

  7. 7.

    BGinCHI

    October 23, 2010 at 11:53 am

    Biggert is an idiot, but she reps a lily-white suburban district.

    She has an excellent challenger though in Scott Harper. Already gave to him through Act Blue (not my district), and you can too.

    Here’s his site:

    http://www.harper2010.com/

  8. 8.

    Keith

    October 23, 2010 at 11:56 am

    So each side thinks it represents a majority, which means that anybody on your side that tries to compromise must be a traitor because there’s no need to compromise because everybody knows everybody agrees with them.

    Nail + head.

  9. 9.

    Efroh

    October 23, 2010 at 12:00 pm

    Wow, I think Biggert just signed her own death warrant. The Palinistas are going to have her hide for this quote:

    I thought there were a lot of experienced women who might be asked. I remember where I was. Home in the district talking to a group of women. My aid walked up right after McCain’s announcement and gave me an envelope with a name on it. I looked at it and blurted out, “It’s Sarah Palin.” The women all started clapping and cheering. My face dropped. I tried to pretend that, Oh, this is a great thing. But I didn’t know much about her and it seemed like we needed somebody that was much more experienced and could help on the business side.

  10. 10.

    Suck It Up!

    October 23, 2010 at 12:17 pm

    Nobody can fire anybody in the House. We’re all equal. Nancy Pelosi has more power than a freshman Republican, but she can’t fire him. Nobody can give anybody else an order. At a job, someone can say, “You will do this.” No one here can say, “You must vote this way.” They can argue with me. They can try to pressure me. But the only people who can fire us are people back home. It’s very interesting, because it means that we’ve got to get along personally in an atmosphere in which the normal rules for structuring human relationships aren’t there…

    ahem. word.

  11. 11.

    joe from Lowell

    October 23, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    I once got to vote for Barney Frank, too. Smartest man in Congress.

  12. 12.

    kansi

    October 23, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    @Dr. Squid: I live in her district, and I can’t remember anything she has ever said, either. Must say, these quotes don’t make me feel like I have missed anything.

  13. 13.

    MikeJ

    October 23, 2010 at 12:57 pm

    @Keith: Are you implying that there weren’t really 108 votes for the public option in the Senate?

  14. 14.

    ornery curmudgeon

    October 23, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    Frank: “So each side thinks it represents a majority, which means that anybody on your side that tries to compromise must be a traitor…”

    I dunno. I don’t think my ‘side’ represents a majority, in fact I don’t believe there are only two sides. And the anger I’ve seen from those supposedly ‘on my side’ comes FROM those willing to compromise.

    Of course, as a liberal I also don’t agree I’m a “leftist” on the same spectrum as communists and anarchists. The original purpose of being the word “Progressive” was to avoid the stupid Right-Left tug of war establishment game.

    Nothing against the Barney, kind of neutral on him, but I get tired of being told what I think, what my motivations are, and what I want for my country … it’s always wrong, and said with such authoritative dismissal.

  15. 15.

    FlipYrWhig

    October 23, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    @Keith:

    So each side thinks it represents a majority, which means that anybody on your side that tries to compromise must be a traitor because there’s no need to compromise because everybody knows everybody agrees with them.

    What’s worse is that this applies not just between both parties — where it’s not surprising that no one on the broad-spectrum left wants to see compromise with the broad-spectrum right, given the latter group’s radicalization and denial of the whole premise of governing — but, since at least ’04, and probably ’02 or ’00 or ’98 or ’96, the knives have been out on the left-of-the-left against compromise with the right-of-the-left. That’s emotionally gratifying but really saps the ability to get anything done in a political world where there aren’t enough true believer liberals to enact an honest-to-goodness liberal policy agenda.

  16. 16.

    Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle

    October 23, 2010 at 1:11 pm

    @ornery curmudgeon: Barney Frank is great, except for one problem. He’s in cahoots with the banks. He’s just like Chris Dodd that way.

  17. 17.

    aimai

    October 23, 2010 at 1:22 pm

    Well, I think its hysterical that miss “got selected and elected” in six weeks with no background in politics or anything thinks that Palin is “unqualified” and inexperienced. Can anyone explain that to me?

    As for Barney, much as I love him and much as I applaud that quote I think that ornery curmudgeon has it right. I don’t think that it is the case that “each side” thinks that it is “in the majority” at all–and certainly not in the same way. The very phrase “moral majority” and “silent majority” were coined as part of the almost pathological right wing need to claim both the majority and minority status–to claim both the moral highground and the status of ignored victim. When a right wing, southern, congressman claims to belong to the “majority” of voters they do so by eliminating non whites, women, and democrats as legitimate voters rhetorically and they also do it on the backs of a strategy to really disenfranchise those people. We know that. Name me *any* progressive congresspeople that have the same sense of arrogant entitlement? Name me any progressive congresspeople who will never compromise? I can’t think of any who *haven’t* compromised so what, do they do it but they are really pissed off afterwards? The republicans vote in lockstep because their money guys pay them to do so. Has nothing to do with psychology or history. The dems don’t because the money doesn’t quite make them willing to commit public cannibalism and corruption.

    aimai

  18. 18.

    dmsilev

    October 23, 2010 at 1:24 pm

    Today’s giggle, courtesy of the NY Times:

    Of the thousands of complaints that have saturated NPR in the wake of Juan Williams’s firing earlier this week, some of the most telling have been from callers describing themselves as long-time “viewers” of NPR who warn that they are going to “stop watching.”

    When astroturfing goes wrong…

    dms

  19. 19.

    BGinCHI

    October 23, 2010 at 1:31 pm

    @dmsilev: Shorter idiots: I DEMAND that PBS be defunded after the firing of Juan Williams.

  20. 20.

    dmsilev

    October 23, 2010 at 1:41 pm

    @BGinCHI: Something like that. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the concept of someone who is simultaneously too stupid to understand the difficulty of “watching” a radio station and yet is apparently intelligent enough to either find the ‘send’ button on their email program or dial a telephone.

    dms

  21. 21.

    sparky

    October 23, 2010 at 1:46 pm

    hmmm…interesting that once again this thread had people complaining about “the left” and how everything was “the left’s” fault and that “the left” complains too much, when said “the left” had yet to put in an appearance in the thread. given the frequency with which condemnation of the dreaded “the left” appears here, one might even consider “the left” an obligatory boogiething. you know, like “muslim” or something.

    if, perhaps, one were to consider this observation, one might further be moved to consider that perhaps expanding executive power, fellating the FIRE sector and saying one thing and doing another might, just might, be the cause of a lack of support amongst certain portions of the public.

    that said, it’s certainly easier to malign “the left” than it is to change actual policy (or for that matter, to even consider, much less advocate actual (that is, specific change). this demonization strategy worked well for the GOP so it should work for GOP-lite. amirite?

    edit/ps: @dmsilev: nice catch!

  22. 22.

    cleek

    October 23, 2010 at 2:04 pm

    @dmsilev:
    holy crap. that article is wild.

    they somehow wrote an article (and got it published!) that describes reality without trying to pre-pacify the Wurlitzer:

    Some have said his comment was bigoted, but others have rallied to Mr. Williams’s defense, and many conservatives have seized on his firing to resurrect their war against public broadcasting.

    wow!

  23. 23.

    encephalopath

    October 23, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    Nobody can fire anybody in the House. We’re all equal. Nancy Pelosi has more power than a freshman Republican, but she can’t fire him. Nobody can give anybody else an order. At a job, someone can say, “You will do this.” No one here can say, “You must vote this way.” They can argue with me. They can try to pressure me. But the only people who can fire us are people back home. It’s very interesting, because it means that we’ve got to get along personally in an atmosphere in which the normal rules for structuring human relationships aren’t there…

    This why electing business people with no government experience is a bad idea. They have no idea how to function in that environment.

    They give commands from the top of the hierarchy just fine, but won’t understand how to negotiate the distributed nature of power in government.

  24. 24.

    ornery curmudgeon

    October 23, 2010 at 2:38 pm

    @FlipYrWhig:

    “the knives have been out on the left-of-the-left against compromise with the right-of-the-left. ”

    Huh? How do you figure that one?

    Who is launching broadside blog attacks against poor ‘moderate’ Dems other than right-wingers? Progressives are routinely and ritually demonized by all ‘sides.’ Nader was knifed by the Dem base.

    Just not seeing the knives of the ‘left-of-the-left ‘ … has it become accepted to simply attack and demonize and blame as a way to mold reality to whatever you ‘feel’ most benefited by? Because that seems like standard practice today.

  25. 25.

    Scott P.

    October 23, 2010 at 2:46 pm

    Nader was knifed by the Dem base the entire fucking country.

    FTFY.

  26. 26.

    YellowJournalism

    October 23, 2010 at 3:00 pm

    @aimai:

    Well, I think its hysterical that miss “got selected and elected” in six weeks with no background in politics or anything thinks that Palin is “unqualified” and inexperienced. Can anyone explain that to me?

    I cannot explain it to you, for I was just as baffled as you were. And until then, I was sitting there thinking she sounded like a reasonable person. As soon as she started talking about not leaving teenagers home alone (Because all working or successful women just toss a bag of Doritos at their kids, tell them to have at it and don’t kill each other, and head out to work?) and about her origins in politics, it went downhill from there…all the way down to the Obama mudslinging. And then I started to wonder if she was just jealous that Palin was chosen over her. And then I remembered it was Sarah Palin, and that people probably already knew that of her nutty diva ways.

    ETA: What was up with that whole kissing story? Was she trying to imply that Obama is a pervert or just foreign?

  27. 27.

    RAM

    October 23, 2010 at 3:29 pm

    She pretends to be reasonable and bipartisan, but she ALWAYS votes the party line. She’s weak and worthless in the same way Arlen Spector was weak and worthless.

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    October 23, 2010 at 3:38 pm

    @ornery curmudgeon:

    Who is launching broadside blog attacks against poor ‘moderate’ Dems other than right-wingers?

    You mean other than Firedoglake, OpenLeft and TalkLeft?

    ETA: Calling Obama “Chocolate Carter” isn’t a term that originated on the right. It originated from the left.

  29. 29.

    Jack

    October 23, 2010 at 4:02 pm

    Reading Representative Frank’s comments, I am reminded of an old Don Henley song, The Garden of Allah:

    Because there are no facts
    There is no truth
    Just data to be manipulated
    I can get you any result you like…
    What’s it worth to you?
    Because there is no wrong, there is no right
    And I sleep very well at night
    No shame, no solution, no remorse, no retribution
    Just people selling T-shirts…
    Just opportunity to participate in the pathetic little circus
    And winning, winning, winning…

    Sigh…. no wonder I’ve been at risk of slitting my wrists while listening to Don Henley for more than 20 years.

  30. 30.

    Uloborus

    October 23, 2010 at 4:09 pm

    Another fascinating demonstration of how the words of a woman who is merely kind of a tribalist and an asshole (which is good, as apparently she’s trying to fit her own head into it) READ LIKE PURE ENLIGHTENMENT compared to the psychotic gibbering of the current hard right.

    That’s actually why I have hope for the midterms. America has long since proven it will vote for assholes with crazy positions. It doesn’t like people who SOUND crazy. That is the line the GOP crossed with Mama Grizzly.

  31. 31.

    Faux News

    October 23, 2010 at 4:21 pm

    I was going to write a comment about this but Hannity’s smug grin is desecrating the left side of my screen and I can’t think through the red fog that filled my brain.

    Hannity is the Geico Gecko? Ouch.

  32. 32.

    Admiral_Komack

    October 23, 2010 at 5:51 pm

    “I met Obama in Chicago. I was in the Illinois House and he came into the Illinois Senate. He wasn’t the messiah then.”

    He’s not the messiah now, either.

    He never was, you blithering idiot.

  33. 33.

    mellowjohn

    October 23, 2010 at 6:04 pm

    @aimai:
    judy biggert’s district is primarily dupage county, west of chicago and – until quite recently – very heavily republican. henry “my affair with an aide when i was in my early 40s was a youthful indiscretion” hyde territory.
    and for all the complaining they do about “the corrupt chicago democrat machine,” the republicans out there are/were no slouches when it came to running their own machine.
    that’s how.

  34. 34.

    Modody

    October 23, 2010 at 6:15 pm

    Back in the “stirring up the folks” against the healthcare reform bill days, Judy Biggert stoked the fears of her upper middle class lady constituents by saying expanded access would require their little darlings to spend even more time in their pediatricians waiting rooms with all those newly “entitled” children.

  35. 35.

    Viva BrisVegas

    October 23, 2010 at 7:07 pm

    One time, my husband caught Obama kissing me on the cheek as he was coming down the aisle to speak at the State of the Union. He said, “What are you doing?” I said, “Well, he kisses everybody.”

    Once you go Barack you never go back.

  36. 36.

    weinerdog43

    October 23, 2010 at 8:20 pm

    I’m afraid that Biggert is my congresscritter. Scott Harper ran against her last term and came very close to defeating her. Unfortunately, i’m afraid he is going to lose again. (Disclosure…already voted for Scott last week in early voting.) The reason being that the independents thought we were getting ‘Change’. Unfortunately, we’ve got Bush 3rd term and are not motivated. Fuck you Obummer.

  37. 37.

    Arclite

    October 23, 2010 at 9:28 pm

    Kissing when you meet someone you know is traditional in Hawaii. I have even been kissed by someone I have only met once before.

  38. 38.

    Jackie

    October 23, 2010 at 10:19 pm

    That messiah crack just earned her opponent a hundred bucks. I feel sorry for a woman whose response when her husband demands to know why a colleague pecked her cheek wasn’t to tell him to get a grip.

  39. 39.

    Spaghetti Lee

    October 24, 2010 at 1:25 am

    Am I the only one who saw that messiah crack as a joke, about Republicans who actually call him the messiah?

  40. 40.

    Mnemosyne

    October 24, 2010 at 1:45 am

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    I think it was a joke, but it was more of a “I knew him before he was big” joke. Though I’m not sure if the implication is that she knew him before his fans thought he was the messiah or before Obama thought of himself as the messiah. You never know with Republicans.

  41. 41.

    DPirate

    October 24, 2010 at 3:14 am

    So Barney Frank thinks that corporate hierarchy is the normal human relationship structure? This culture is seriously sick, in the head.

  42. 42.

    Smedley

    October 24, 2010 at 7:40 pm

    Interesting. A link to the Esquire blog would have been very useful.

  43. 43.

    fasteddie

    October 25, 2010 at 9:49 am

    Biggert came in in 1994 with a term limit promise that she broke in 2000. (Lie #1 ) She says she is a “moderate” but votes like a right winger. She has an 80 from the convervative institute. ( Lie #2)

    Don’t take my word for it – here is the link
    http://www.conservative.org/ratings/ratingsarchive/2009/House%20Ratings.htm#IL
    ( at least she is better than the loathesome Peter Roskam!)

    Once upon a time she was probably a nice lady but now is just a Republican “shill”. She’s a “moderate” who started in politics on her local school board – but now votes against S-CHIP health care for poor kids. She’s just a sad, deluded person who lies to herself. She’s betrayed her principles and those of her constituents to support her party.

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