Material D.C., not me

So I've been reading Gim Gerhaghty's The Weed Department.

There's lots of insider D.C. stuff I'll get into in a subsequent post, but I was most interesting in the  three young women who arrive in D.C. in the mid-90s [I bet you were-ed].

20 years ago I arrived in D.C. with a flourish, fourteen years ago I skulked out of there. As I crossed the Wilson Bridge I rolled down the window, held out an angry fist and shouted, 'So Long, Stink Town!' A free copy of any of my books to the person who gets the reference and posts it in the comments.

The Weed Department really captures the flavor of D.C. at the time. Bill and Newt, Newt and his futrurism, this internet thingy. One of the things about D.C. and Northern Virginia, or NOVA, where I eventually settled, was how young everybody seemed. Especially in NOVA. This was where people were going to get there start.

I started in D.C. with a Senate internship. I didn't know it yet but I had peaked. I was part of a gaggle of young people all breaking into politics, and everyone was succeeding but not me. Paul, Brandon, Amy, Ben, Harry, all had jobs on the Hill. Now I don't know what you people think life on the Hill is like, but it aint glamorous. My friends started at 19K, answering phones, handling constituent mail, giving tours of the Hill to people, etc. The West Wing it was not.

I was still in school actually so it wasn't that big a deal for me. By the time I was out of school in '98, I still couldn't get started. Thinking back now, I'm trying to remember all the jobs I interviewed for....

NYC's DC lobby office
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
The Heritage Foundation
Roll Coll and I'm pretty sure Chuck Todd did the interview
ABC This Week
The Republican Mainstream Committee
Burston-Marsteller
Alex Castillianos
Freedom House
Presidential Classroom
Some local paper whose name I can't remember

You get the idea. I did land two D.C. jobs, at CNN Inside Politics, and later, writing fundraising letters. The latter was nasty stuff and went something like this, 'I'm writing you today, Mr. Most Important Person in the World, because without your $100 contribution to Citizens United [yes THAT Citizens United - ed] A is going to B to X....'

Honestly the direct mail fundraising gig had little to do with politics. The lobby organizations were all second rate, and we were more concerned with getting little old lady's social security checks than actually formulating policy or winning elections.

Anywho, I never really succeeded in D.C. In the summer of 2001 Mrs. Stroock and I bugged out to NJ and here we've been ever since.

As fir my pals, Paul is a lobbyist with an industry firm, Harry has his own lobby firm, Ben is at the DIA, Amy was chief of staff for one of the Whips, Brandon is back in Texas as director of gov relations for an airport, etc. Me, I'm in NJ, writing and teaching.