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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..."

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