Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: The Naomi Campbell Of Washington, D.C.
Supermodel Campbell, for those who are too busy following NASCAR and Ice Road Truckers to know who she is, has a long history of tantrum- and phone-throwing.
Well, she seems to have met her match in the political world in Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, previously known for being a honking moron, but now also recognized for her emotional instability and epic hissyfits.
Luke Rosiak writes in the WashTimes:
Hiding knives from a member of Congress for fear of your own life. Having cellphones thrown at you. Being cursed at in front of your parents. Being told, "I'm a queen, and I demand to be treated like one."Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas Democrat, has a reputation as one of the toughest taskmasters in Congress to have as a boss, and the numbers appear to justify it.
The Washington Times analyzed a decade of congressional pay records to find the offices with the highest turnover rates and found 27 members who -- over a period of four or more years -- lost an annual average of at least one-third of their staff who sought calmer pastures or were fired.
Each year, an average of half of Mrs. Jackson Lee's staff quits, and one year, all but six of 23 staffers left.
Mona Floyd, who served as the congresswoman's legislative director, has monocular vision and has a lawsuit pending against Mrs. Jackson Lee, who was voted the "meanest member" of the House in a bipartisan survey of Hill staffers by Washingtonian magazine last year. Ms. Floyd said she was told by the representative, "I don't care anything about your disability."
Other incidents, including a series of racially charged diatribes, were documented by the Washington-based Daily Caller website after former aides were so taken aback by her behavior that they broke an unspoken Capitol Hill rule not to speak ill of former bosses.
via @AHMalcolm
(1) Sheila Jackson Lee is a beneficiary of a gerrymandered district. She has served in Congress since 1995. In my opinion, she feels entitled to the seat. Entitlement does something to one's personality, and has affected her for the worse.
(2) 23 staffers ? At one time ? Really ?? What does any congress person do or need with 23 staffers ? What do all those staffers do ? Wouldn't 4 or 6 staffers be enough ?
Nick at January 25, 2013 5:23 AM
According to Open Congress web site, members of the House of Representatives are given an allowance enabling them to hire 18 full-time staff, plus "four additional temporary, part-time, of shared staff."
Senators' staff allowances vary depending on state population. Based on the size range for the allowances, Senate staffs appear to be larger.
As to Nick's question, I couldn't begin to tell you what they all do, aside from dodging thrown cell phones.
Old RPM Daddy (OldRPMDaddy at GMail dot com) at January 25, 2013 6:14 AM
"As to Nick's question, I couldn't begin to tell you what they all do, aside from dodging thrown cell phones."
In my experience, they are mostly a pain in the ass. Back when I was doing a lot of NASA work, there was hardly a quarter that went by when we didn't have to spend a week or two cranking out Powerpoint charts to be presented to some Congressional staffer. Mostly they were people who viewed NASA as a cash cow for funding their own pet projects, and most of them had no technical knowledge whatsoever.
The typical way these things went is that everyone would bust it for a week or two, working unpaid overtime and putting their regular work on the shelf, to crank out slides. Then the big day would come, and said staffer would appear with an entourage of fresh-faced aides, and after provide coffee and doughnuts (most of which would disappear in a matter of minutes), we'd get under way. And after about an hour, the staffer would get bored with the whole thing and would start playing with their Blackberries while an aide kept prompting us to flip charts that no one was paying any attention to. Then the staffer would ask a whole bunch of questions that had nothing to do with the topic, in between complaining about what a podunk town we live in and how it was impossible to find any good sushi around here. By lunchtime they'd be back on their private plane to Washington to tell their boss what a bunch of idiots we all were.
One of the advantages of doing military work is that the officer corps shields us worker-bees from a lot of this sort of thing.
Cousin Dave at January 25, 2013 7:09 AM
Just a data point:
Supermodel Campbell, for those who are too busy following NASCAR and Ice Road Truckers to know who she is,
I'm here to tell you that it is possible to be ignorant of "supermodels" whilst eschewing both NASCAR and reality television.
Steve Daniels at January 25, 2013 8:42 AM
You will be treated as you allow yourself to be.
The job can't possibly pay enough to put up with that.
MarkD at January 25, 2013 9:26 AM
Probably they are looking at is a "G.O.O.D. Job" and they think they can put up with the seagull manager.
Jim P. at January 25, 2013 9:48 AM
Hmm. Looks like MIchelle Bachmann is 3rd worst. No surprise there either.
Hal 10000 at January 25, 2013 11:32 AM
Just remember -- they are spending money like drunken sailors no matter which side of the aisle they are on.
Jim P. at January 25, 2013 12:40 PM
A quick back of the envelope calcupation puts that at about 12,000 staffers for congress. Add a few more thousands aids and pages. So let's say 15,000.
What do they do? #1 Get paid, well pages usually don't, but they graduate into staff or aids.
Considering they are gov't workers, with great bennies, so about $100,000 per. Makes their total bill. About 1.5 billion per year.
#2. Make connections, with all the importaint people. WHich will eventually lead them to take jobs as lobbiests, politicians, or higher up gov't middlemen.
#3. Make sure the congress guy gets re-elected. If he loses so do you. So directly or indirectly, you help him/her stay in power.
#4. Try to make it look like Senator what's his name, cares or knows anything about your department, group or organization.
#5. About 3-4 do the real office work, schedule meetings. Make calls, research things, actually read, some of those bills.
#6 Write speeches, schedule meetings, get coffee.
7 Hide things, deflect people, reporters, questions, creditors, investigators etc.
Joe j at January 25, 2013 5:01 PM
Leave a comment