Can You Guess This Guy’s Boss?
Posted by Phoenix Woman on August 4, 2011
Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting in Kieran’s drinking Two Gingers (house brand) whisky while my friend the attorney was drinking pints of Guinness and regaling me with stories. One story will interest you both:
Seems a while back — I didn’t find out exactly when, but it was during the health care reform battle — he and a female friend were at Gianni’s in Wayzata for drinks, talking about health care reform, when someone overheard them. “I work for a legislator in DC, we’ve been working on health care all this term,” he said affably, producing a business card.
Now my friend’s female friend had spent some years in Canada, and got to know the Canadian health care system really, really well. “I think we need to adopt the Canadian system,” she replied.
The guy’s demeanor changed instantly. “Oh, no, no, no, that’s the LAST thing we should do!”
The lady was undaunted. “I’ve lived there, my daughter goes to college there, it’s great –”
“NO! You’re wrong!” He was starting to get red-faced already.
“– we experienced it ourselves, we love their health care, the Canadians love it too, they’d never give it up –”
“LIAR!” By this time he was literally screaming at them. “LIAR! YOU’RE LYING! LIAR!” Right up in their faces, over and over again, to the point where he was made to leave.
After he’d gone, they saw the business card he’d left behind. My friend didn’t remember the name, but the card proclaimed Mister Hothead to have been the Chief of Staff for a Republican member of Congress whose identity I will leave you to guess.
The way my lawyer friend described it, there was no attempt by the guy to argue facts and figures, no effort to say something like “you may have liked it but it’s bankrupting Canada” (which would have been a lie, but it at least would have been an effort at a semi-coherent rejoinder). Instead, it was the sort of brook-no-disagreement white-hot rage exhibited by someone whose religion was being ripped and mocked to shreds, whose worldview was in danger of shattering around him. Anything or anyone that interfered with his religious belief was not to be argued with, but to be intimdated, censored, silenced, shouted down.
How do you negotiate with people like that? You don’t — the only things that curb them are hits to the body or the bank account.
4 Responses to “Can You Guess This Guy’s Boss?”
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MEC said
I couldn’t guess which Republcan member of Congress the yob worked for. It could have been any of them.
Charles II said
Yes, MEC is right. My experience with Republican staff has been that they are sociopaths-in-training. Really scary people.
How do you negotiate with people like that? You ridicule them mercilessly until they get exhausted from throwing their little tantrum. That way, when they (inevitably) leave without confessing error, you’ll at least have gotten a laugh out of the encounter.
Taking what they say in any way seriously is a mistake. But do take them and their socially-acceptable mental illness seriously.
But I do have a guess as to the guy’s boss: Michele Bachmann.
Dave Porter said
Bachmann has made it clear that her only advisers are her husband and her son. Neither of them are what you’d call deep thinkers. Anyone trying to hold onto a staff position with her has to be a really true believer, no matter what.
Look at how many staffers she has gone through.
From all indications, the burnout rate is horrendous. Given the evidence, it looks like psychotic episodes
get to critical mass within six months of hire date.
“President Bachmann’s term in office lasted only four months from her inauguration in January, 2013. Armageddon, as she so often promised throughout her career, arrived soon after.”
Charles II said
Well, out of the two hundred something Republican chiefs of staff, there aren’t that many who would be likely to be in a bar in Minneapolis.
But no question that Bachmann has problems playing well with others.