Also Republican: You can’t trust those liberal-brainwashed college elites.
Also Republican: I learned everything I need to know from highly selective teachings from a Judean carpenter who died nearly two thousand years ago.
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More than any member of Congress with the last name “Paul” has done in several decades.
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OMG! I love hearing this more than I can say. If congresscritters would actually start to do their jobs instead of spending all day every day begging, who knows what might be accomplished?
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There was an eye-opening episode of This American Life several years back detailing just how much of Congresspeople’s time is spent begging lobbyists and donors for money just so they can stay in office. It sounds like a miserable slog all around.
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As I recall from that episode, for several hours a day most Congresspeople leave their offices (can’t do their begging and groveling on government property) and go across the street to a dingy private office where cubicles and phone banks are set up so they can call their big money pals.
So glad that Ocasio-Cortez is sparing herself that humiliating BS and actually serving her constituents. One of the benefits of not relying on fatcats to get elected.
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Exactly, and it sounded like the vast majority of them hate it but it’s such an entrenched practice that it’s hard to find a way around it. Even the people who come to D.C. with bright ideals either end up getting swallowed up by the political machine or voted out for lack of funding needed to remain a viable candidate.
And of course it also means that they only really have time to meet with monied constituents, so even if they have a genuine desire to help poor people those aren’t the voices they’re going to spend most of their day listening to.
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The fact that she eschews all-day fundraising and shows up at every committee hearing ready to actually do the work you are supposed to do on committees is a big, big plus.
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I hope she’s keeping a little work-life balance in mind. She’s been outstanding for two months. I worry about burnout. Still, she’s younger and more enthusiastic than I am, so maybe my worry is misplaced.
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Oh gawd, I can just hear the response already…
See, she really is a brainless bimbo!
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everyone else at that hearing have staff who could have and possibly did work with them before the hearing. how odd that only aoc and a couple of others did anything effective with it.
oddly enough, if we were talking about an executive who made effective use of their support staff to look good in an important public setting, they would be hailed as genius by the same republicans who want any excuse to regard aoc as stupid.
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I see the fact that she worked hard with her staff for “days” to prepare for the questioning as extremely intelligent. Realizing you only get five minutes to ask your questions and wanting to try to get straight answers, take good verbal and social skills in a situation like this. Most of the other (repubs) looked ill prepared and working off their MTPs of trying to discredit Cohen.
I call this a strong factor in getting ready for a major presentation, and not slap dashed together.
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If you are good at something, it should look effortless to outsiders. This rule applies to athletics, academics, politics and leadership. She is very good at making it look effortless. The work, sweat and confusion takes place behind the scenes. If you manage your team well, you look like you are brilliant because you surround yourself with people who are brilliant and accept and integrate their input into a seemingly seamless whole. See current administration for instructive counterexample.
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I think you’re right on. It’s so weird that people would say being prepared is a negative. SMDH
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It probably helps that she’s paying them enough to be able to actually do the job instead of being half-asleep after last night’s shift. So they have time to research and craft questions, as opposed to handing their boss something scribbled during a fifteen minute coffee break or between customers.
Who’d a thunk, huh?
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That was one of the criticisms some people leveled against Hillary Clinton regarding the 2016 debates as I recall.
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It’s hard to imagine it will make a difference to anyone, right?
I mean, you think of that thread about her paying her low-paid staff more and paying her high-paid staff less and how it was pretty much a disagreement between people who think that:
- Broad teams of competent people produce the best results
- Brilliant individuals produce the best results
If she’s super prepared for committee they can just say her hiring model is still broken, she’s just lucky that she’s good at this.
(Don’t worry it’s not hard to simultaneously hold that idea and the idea that she’s not good at anything)
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Too true.
But I am glad that she’s helping with the normalization of some ideas and practices that have long been outside the frame of the Overton Window.
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