One of the main objectives for our visit to the area’s oldest neighborhood was the Georgetown Barnes & Noble, which sets a new, high standard for chain booksellers in my life. Several sprawling floors with a massive and well-picked selection led to a solid few hours of reading and shopping. As usual, I began making a gigantic pile of the books which I absolutely needed to take with me. Also as usual, I had to then sit down and figure out how to boil a $100+ bill down to considerably less.
I personally was interested to discover that I was living out the quote by the famous Catholic Dutch theologian Erasmus: “When I get a little money, I buy books. And if there is any left over, I buy food.” I’ve concluded that living this way is worthwhile. Sure, I went without lunch that day and I bought considerably less groceries, but the works of H.L. Mencken, Edgar Rice Burroughs and D.H. Lawrence are some of the few things in life which can distract me from food.
And one way or another, things tend to work out. I received a gigantic care package from my girlfriend that actually qualifies more as a United Nations humanitarian aid program.
Furthermore, I had twin, back-to-back opportunities to attend Congressional fundraisers this week. And fundraisers usually involve food: free for interns, and upwards of $1,000 for everyone else.
Fundraisers are interesting times. They’re essentially miniature parties, with varying levels of social comfort (usually dependent on the host and organizers), whose guests of honor are always Members of Congress. They are organized on a partisan basis, for obvious reasons. The attendees are relevant company and association representatives, people who represent an industry from the home state or an advocacy group allied with the Member over a particular issue. Sometimes, Washington feels like a very small town and cores of people recognize each other at fundraisers and clump together in a very familial circle that is hard to penetrate. Other times, nobody knows anyone in the room, which hardly limits these networking powerhouses.
As an intern, we are encouraged by our superiors to mingle, to make conversation and contacts. I have found this advice to be helpful, but in need of an addendum. The reality is, while you may be lucky enough to get a front row seat on some of the action on the Hill, you are in no way part of the action. This may sound harsh, but it’s a reality: these pleasant fundraisers, full of laughter, cheery drinks and delicious food are simply a slightly more relaxed version of a high stakes, high powered business meeting. In fact, I would say I’ve seen just as many important conversations, judgments and decisions made at semi-formal events such as fundraisers as I have in a formal, office setting.
For an intern, however, such events can be excellent learning opportunities. Aside from finding a guest or staffer who might be willing to talk to you, the opportunity may also arise to listen to off-the-record war stories from Members of Congress present. I was enthralled during one fundraiser this week to meet and listen to, personally, a Member of Congress who held the presiders chair during the health care reform debate, which I (and the rest of the world) had followed so eagerly earlier in the week.
It’s been an extremely long and tiring week, but I’ve enjoyed myself thoroughly (as usual). In addition, I’ve been buoyed by several victories which our President has engineered and which the American people now stand to benefit from: health care reform and the creation of a new, long sought nuclear arms control treaty with the Russian Federation. Across the world, Iraq appears to have held a successful election, giving everyone hope that perhaps something has been accomplished there.
The takeaway lesson learned here at Capitol Transmissions: no matter how long, exhausting, and grueling your week is, if you work hard in Washington, chances are there is someone who is working harder than you can even imagine. And a great deal of the time, such people are subject to derision and outright threats. I think that’s a fact that many cynical people outside the Beltway either don’t understand or choose to ignore, but would do well to remember.
Most leaders, especially those in public office here, understand the mandate they have been given, and they know what needs to be done. Our job, the job of the voters, remains the same: to learn what we can from serious, minimal bias sources and to make informed decisions about which leaders we send to the world’s most powerful city as our representative.
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