Skip to main content

Words of wisdom from my former life

When I left the Hill last year, I wrote down my favorite -isms for my staff. I stumbled upon them again today and decided they're still surprisingly relevant to life in advocacy.



The House’s most important motto: “Nunquam quicquam nunc si potest donec XXIV Decembris.” 
(Never do anything now if it can wait until December 24.)

Procrastination is the right strategy 95% of the time (and a total disaster the other 5%).

That said, no work ever goes to waste. So if you wrote a speech for an event that was just canceled or questions for a hearing she wasn’t able to attend, remember that press releases and op-eds and speeches and hearing questions get re-used as constituent letters and talking points and vote recs. And vice versa.

Anything is possible on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives if you have the votes.

Congress is a representative body. You can’t hate Congress without hating the American people. And I really hate the American people.

Competence is always punished.

If it’s a politically savvy move that promotes conservative policy goals but isn’t batshit crazy, Republicans won't have the votes to pass it on their own.

When writing memos, never say in two paragraphs what can be said in two sentences. When writing constituent mail, never say in two sentences what can be said in two paragraphs.

Pick your battles. And when you’ve lost, stop fighting—for a few days.

Similarly, take yes for an answer—and then shut the hell up.

To survive in Congress you must be able to operate within the unspoken norms of the hierarchy... without ever losing perspective. No one can tell you who the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee was in 1993.

When children ask for something outrageous, wait until they’ve asked a second or third time to determine if they really want it. Sometimes, employ this same tactic with members of Congress.

When the member says it, it’s right... but that doesn’t mean it’s, you know, right right.

The scariest phrase ever uttered by a member of Congress: "I was talking to ___ on the House floor and s/he said..."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Experience in jail

I was handcuffed at my home and driven to a processing station at the county “Justice Center.” Officers stood me against the wall and patted me down for contraband, checking my pockets, stripping off my socks, pulling out the insoles of my shoes.   Other officers emptied my bag and wallet of their belongings, took my ring and hairclip from me, and wrestled my tennis shoes free from their laces, putting everything they had collected into a sealed plastic bag. Occasionally they asked me about this or that they had found among my things: looking at my business cards, “Do you know anyone famous?”, or at the Kerry and Obama stickers that adorn my little makeshift Metro card case, “Are you a Democrat or a Republican? Because if you’re a Republican, I can take you to see the commissioner right away.” They were joking and generally amused. I was sobbing and shaking. This was the worst day of my life but just another work day in theirs, just another tawdry soap opera of thousands ...

Tamir Rice and the man with no knife

Lately there’s been this drip-drip-drip of posts in my newsfeed that are — let’s be honest — rooted in racism. The slanted news articles, you know the ones. This one time a black person benefited at the expense of a white person, evidence of widespread “reverse racism!” Drip. This one black cop shot an unarmed white man but nobody cares because white people are discriminated against! Drip. A black person somewhere did something bad therefore it’s reasonable to fear all black people everywhere! Drip. Or the memes about black rioting. Drip. Or the absurdly emotional defenses of all police officer actions, even the ones that are demonstrably inexcusable. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. They aren’t posted by people who think of themselves as racists or who condone explicit racism, but they do reveal an inexcusable myopia about the biases we all have and a disturbing lack of empathy for people of color. Although I have never been one to unfriend people who disagree with my...

GOP Ready to "Plow Through" Kavanaugh Nom, Women Ready to Testify About Sexual Assault Allegations Under Oath

Julie Swetnick A third woman, Julie Swetnick, has come forward alleging sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh and his best friend in high school, Mark Judge. ( Link to the affidavit . Allegations are disturbing so warning in advance.) Mark Judge—now a conservative writer with a long history of making misogynistic, homophobic, and transphobic statements—is also a witness and accomplice to the attempted rape alleged by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Swetnick has stated her allegations in an affidavit under oath and is calling for an FBI investigation. Her  allegations align with  those made by Ford, Deborah Ramirez, and  Mark Judge's high school girlfriend . Two quick asides: 1- Swetnick is represented by Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels lawyer, and Republicans are trying to make him the story , instead of responding to what Swetnick has said under oath. 2- After  Ramirez came forward in the New Yorker , the New York Times ran an absolute shit hit piece on Ramirez...