Over 100 people had signed up by showtime. Per MM’s earlier post, the organizers asked people to go to Hick’s office as the assumption was most were going to Bennett’s. Turns out we had about 50 people show up. Dunno about Bennett other than his Metro Regional Director was in today and was going to speak with them.
Hick’s staffers had everybody come into the lobby (plenty of room). Four of em, all young, came down to say a few things and field questions, listen to a few statements.
The spokesperson from our assemblage started off pretty rambly, not saying anything that hasn’t been said here many times. But, BJer Lobo will appreciate that she ended her spiel with the 4 bullet points they post here regularly:
-Deny Quorum
-Block Unanimous Consent
-Max Out Debate Time
-Blanket Opposition to all nominees.
One person who got their late managed to get recognized by the staff and hammered home that last point.
What did the staffers say?
-At least in Hick’s office, *all* communications count more or less equally but they said that not all Senate offices operated that way.
-They had received 45K calls via the DC phones (I think I got the number right); yesterday the various CO offices got a total of 2K calls. The staffer indicated that not only was that unprecedented as far as Hick’s office specifically, but that the entire House/Senate have been hammered via communications that no one has any memory of experiencing before.
– Basically, keep it coming folks! Congressional Dems are using this outpouring of communications as…something…to show Republicans and to trot out as part of any media/messaging efforts.
Finally, and this shows why we’re Democrats, one woman gave a short statement along the “story telling” line, mainly that she had a special needs child, funding was currently on hold because nobody in her assistance chain (I couldn’t hear her very well) knew what was happening regarding federal funding.
As soon as she was done, wallets opened and the $20s started to flow. My wife saw $100 in there. Total spontaneous collection by a group of strangers that didn’t need to be “moved” in order to act. They heard, they donated.
We talked with the staff for 30 minutes, they then had to head back for a scheduled staff meeting. Heh heh, nothing ever changes.
There was no press. Photos aren’t the greatest but when it’s basically nothing but 50 people milling about smartly, there’s only so much you can do.
Best part: a fellow BJer was in attendance who’s been around just after Schiavo and has *never* made a comment. Ultimate lurker! Came up and introduced himself recognizing me from the meetup photos. I was standing on a planter to get an “aerial” shot. He’s gonna be at the Capitol rally tomorrow so hopefully we’ll all run into each other again.