I just had to deal with a paralegal whose name is C____ B_______. On her voice mail, she called herself C__________. On the email I sent her, I addressed her as “Dear Ms. B_________”. This whole thing could have been avoided with “Dear Ms. Becton”, and not presuming familiarity.

It’s amazing that ole Rep. McDermott
Has meetings, and isn’t a hermit
His flunkie, Liz Becton
Is “crazy” unchecked, ‘n’
She’s bitterly keen to confirm it.

No surprise that McDermott employs an insecure dud like Liz. Like attracts like: before this, I knew him best as a Vietnam phony (he claimed for years to have served in Vietnam; it was one of the things he got elected on in the first place. He never got close to Southeast Asia). He’s actually not unusual in being a phony vet in Congress. Bill Delahunt (D-MA) is another one, and unlike McDermott he didn’t even serve in the stateside military. There was a Republican named Wes Cooley who was exposed as a phony and resigned or was defeated.

Basically take claims of military service from Congressmen with a grain of salt salt lick. And even the ones who did serve (Duke Cunningham, John Kerry) can be pretty lousy human beings. A good rule of thumb for understanding Congress: they’re all crooks.

No wonder they hire people with Liz Becton’s character deficiencies.

I pity the man who goes home this woman.

Jim McDermott’s DC office phone: (202) 225-3106

My first name is Arch, not Archibald, not Archie. A very long time ago, I stopped worrying about it, and I’ve found the best way to deal with it is to just chuckle and smile. If the person asks me what’s so funny, I tell them that Archibald runs a high priced strip joint on K-Street or Archie is a comic book character and my name is just “Arch.”

Notice how careful the lobbyist is not to offend the staffer. They function as gate keepers and can easily deny you and your client access. Also, it never fails to amaze me how junior legislative assistants (with a lot of help from lobbyists) write language that goes into law.