Now Joe...please just come back home. You came in fifth in New Hampshire, you didn't even campaign in Iowa. So please, for the good of your home state: just come back! You've missed more than 3/4 of your Senate votes and our state Higways are crumbling. You claimed in your speech last night that it was "too close to call" for third place when Clark had 13%, Edwards had 12% and you had 9%. To me, that sounds like you got fifth. I can see the contest between Clark and Edwards. But Joe, you MOVED to NH and you still came in fifth. erry and Dean were in the state for less than a week and blew everyone else out of the water. Now come back home so we can beat you in 2006!
Latest numbers show Joe falling in the polls in his home state! Maybe neglecting us and missing over 80% of his Senate votes is finally starting to show. A man who once had a home-state lead over his nearest competitor, Howard Dean, by 33% to Dean's 17%, now has dropped and is 28% to Dean's 25%. It is nearly impossible to get the nomination without winning your home state.
Let's go Bush '04!
Career HS Rally
This was an interesting event. Well, on the way I took 91 South. Big mistake. I got stuck in traffic for over 45 minutes and once I tried to get off the highway, the traffic started to flow again! D'oh! The things I do for political sabotage. So, when I showed up, Dave Krause, this really uptight fag lib was in his usual uptight mood. He put me next to the door to the cafeteria, where the rally was and told me to make sure nobody, like press and guests, got through without registering at their tables. Easy enough, except I had this annoying intern from Joo's federal office in Hartford pestering me: "Look at the 'wall of Eric'"..."Ooh, like a hawk!"...etc. I essentially disregarded them and just stood there, and I didn't really check anyone to make sure they checked in. Maintenance guys, supposedly, kept walking through with saws and hammers and other dangerous tools I, ahem, somebody could use to kill Lieberman with and I said nothing to them.
So, right before the rally started, the political insider in the campaign, a guy named Ken 'Dags" (not sure if that's short for his real last name) decided to put me in the photo-op for Joe's entry into the room. He lined me and Denmark and the rest of the interns up along a path holding "Joe 2004" signs. I watched as some of the dignitaries came in who were showing their support for Joe. For example, since our Joe is a "regular Joe" he has all the local union chapters throwing their bulky bodies behind him for support. Then, the politicians started taking their seats: Sec'y of the State Susan Bysiewicz, Attorney General 'Dick' Blumenthal, Comptroller Nancy Wyman, and New Haven Mayor John DiStefan. If you noticed like my keen eyes and ears did: three of the state constitutional officers are Jewish, out of six, including the Governor, Lt. Gov. and Treasurer Denise Nappier (who also supports Joe, but couldn't be there).
Once Joe came in, the chants started: "Go, Joe, go!...". As Joe was coming into the room, I flipped my sign upside down just as the camera was taking pictures of his entrance. This is what a good undercover Republican operative does in enemy territory, he makes subtle, yet powerful messages about his views.
Joe is a little less subtle about his views, as are his union supporters. One supporter stated, "You see that sign (Go Joe Go), I think it should be changed a little though. It should say, "Let Bush Go! Go Joe Go!" Joe himself said a few other ridiculous items:
"We have to take America off the right-wing track George W. Bush has put us on and put us back on the right track, and the right track recognizes that the American labor movement is our ally, not our enemy."
"Every month 70,000 Americans lose their jobs. In my opinion, only one American deserves to lose his job," Lieberman quipped about President George W. Bush.
"They've been 'Alice in Wonderland' economics giving the most to those who have the least and the least to those who need it most. The economy just keeps going down that rabbit hole!"
Here's mine:
"Let it go Joe! Let it Go!"
Cocktails, anyone?
After the rally, I decided, just for shits and giggles, to ask Monica if they had any more events that day I could help with. She said, of course, let me call Carli. Carli is a member of the Clintonian wing of the Democratic Party. She loves Fleetwood Mac and bought Hillary's book the day it came out. But anyway, she said she could use some more help, and I was invited to come down to Madison for the $2,000 a head hors d'ouevres party the Senator was about to be attending, hosted by the president of New Haven Savings Bank. So, what I did was follow the Senator's entourage out of the school. Next, I ran to my car and started it up as quick as I could and peeled out and started tailing a black Grand Marquis that was being closely followed by a white Navigator. I took it through to 95. They got off the wrong exit, and following them, I almost got into an accident pulling back into traffic.
Once we got there, I could see the house was a modern-looking house with a ten-foot high stone wall around the yard. It had a monstrosity of a sculpture in the backyard that I couldn't tell what the hell it was that looked slightly like a swingset. Note: Hillary Clinton was notorious for putting modern art in the White House. When Laura Bush came in, she saved the historic building by trashing all that hippie crap, much to the pleasure of Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan. The point is, Dems are notorious for useless crap! However, I digress.
I thought I was going to be one of many interns working there doing important things. My job there was to do absolutely nothing, in fact. The two volunteers already there already knew what they were doing (taking $2,000 checks from wealthy donors as they walked in). The fact I had nothing to do just made me nosy, so I walked around the backyard patio where the party was being held. The Senator was just making his usual glad-handing rounds, the catering was obscenely decadent and unnecessary. I just basically observed the Capitol Police detail assigned to the Senator (one sweet job, I tell you) and got fruit kabobs, toasted pieces of fancy mini-bread, and coke with slices of lemon in it. I basically "lived it up."
Then, the Senator decided to make a speech. He essentially gave the same spiel (haha, I'm speaking yiddish now) that he gave at Career, minus the pandering, crowd-galvanizing statements he gave there. He did, however, cause a woman in front of me to cry. He made some comment about the No Child Left Behind Act: "It was a well-intentioned piece of legislation, but now it just isn't being given the funding it needs." May I remind you that Lieberman actually voted for the legislation in the first place and never complained about funding issues then. He's just playing desperate politics. Anyway, the woman turns to her husband and goes, "The children...they're our future...the future leaders of tomorrow," and he responds, "I know honey, I know." Almost made me cry, except for not.
I also got to meet the Senator that night. He met the two other interns there and actually knew one of them through some family connection and conversed pretty cheerily with them about their schools: Holy Cross College and Stonehill College. So, I thought, he's gonna be pretty cool with me, not! He asked my name, then where I went to school, and I responded "Xavier." He just kind of stared at me blankly and then asks my last name, and goes "Oh, that's great, they got you workin' hard over there?" "Yes, Senator they do, nice meeting you." "Uh huh," And with that he left again with his entourage. All in all, just another fake politician, our Joe is. A boy gets to meet an important Senator for the first and possibly only time in his life, and the Senator doesn't make him feel welcome at all.
I got a papercut
Yes, today I recieved a papercut collating one of the many 4-page length flyers being mailed out to thousands of Dems on the executive councils in each of their respective towns in CT. An ambitious undertaking I admit, yet it will be all for nought. If some of the Dems or their families are any indicator as to how they'll be voting in the primaries, try this example on for size: Myself and Denmark were making calls to these people on these executive councils to try to get proactive RSVPs to Joe's big rally June 10th at Career HS. I plan on updating you folks on the rally events, but I digress. Anyway, when Denmark called this one lady from Orange, presumably her son answered, could've been her, we weren't exactly sure,
The first question the person asks is 'Isn't Lieberman Jewish?'
The reply, 'Yes'
another question,
'This rally isn't gonna be one of those group circumcision things they do is it?'
The reply, 'OK, I'm gonna hang up now, buhbye."
If this is any indication of the attitude of a Dem on an executive town council, or the values they instill in their children, this election is going to be a landslide!
This weekend was quite productive. After deciding not to go to my real job because it was raining, I called up "Monica" at Joe Lieberman's campaign and asked if they needed any help today. Of course, since Joe's campaign is in such dire need of resuscitation, she said "sure, come on over." I started to realize how much I hated it there after a little while. I felt so uncomfortable there. All these people are ideologically so different from me that I thought I should just beat the crap out of all of them and burn their office down right then and there. However, I restrained myself. I told them I was going out that night and needed to leave at 4 P.M. Luckily, before I left my house I had printed off directions to the CT Republican HQ on Elm St. in "da Hartbeat." So, on my way to Joe's I called up the office and asked if I could come in later that day. So, at 4, I went over Founder's Bridge and found my way to the the HQ. Such a good decision: the secretary is this hilarious old lady, my boss, the political director is a '98 Xavier grad and BC alum (college rec!), I had my interview in the Chairman's office (although he wasn't there), they let people smoke in the office, in their kitchenette area they have cases of heineken and miller (no joke, this is a statewide political hq and they have booze out in the open), the compliance guy's office has hundreds of hilarious bumper stickers all over the walls (i.e. Alec Baldwin Leave America), I might be working the Gov's b-day at the Aqua Turf next wednesday and I'm definitely working the Prescott Bush Dinner at the Westin Stamford with Jeb Bush as the guest speaker. I start working there after finals: June 9th. Cant' fucking wait!
