William Rusher recommended me to John Ashbrook as a have-an-idea-and-do-it man.
When John hired me, he said, “Bob, I spend a hundred hours a week dealing with my constituent’s troubles, working out deals, answering rollcalls, sitting in committee, all the things you know about. I don’t have time to THINK enough.”
“What I want you to do is get out there and think and give me the information and go for it.”
Now at this point the “POWER COMES FROM THE BARREL OF A GUN!” types are going to stop listening and say, “You SEE, I TOLD you congressmen were just puppets of their staff!”
I get so TIRED of crap like that. It’s great for a barroom, but not if you’re dealing in real POWER. What it is impossible to explain to people, the same electorate that MADE the mess in Washington, is that we are talking about the big leagues.
There is a substantial difference between the big leagues and a barroom. The mess in Washington is a result of people listening to the barroom because it’s more fun.
I chose to work for John Ashbrook, and on Capitol Hill there is no substitute for loyalty. You would be ASTONISHED how many staff members simply will not go along with something and resign rather than do it.
I know, I know, only the screaming old drunk in the barroom has any real principles, and all the drunks and voters agree with that.
Meanwhile, back on earth, a man who has been elected and reelected to congress can SMELL disloyalty. I did what I did by reading over what John had written tothe poiint where I did his writing for him. But never once did I EVER try to manipulate him.
Once, when the bill to outlaw in vitro, which LATER resulted in over 20,000 healthy births to families who desperately wanted children, I told John face-to-face that if he, a committed prolifer, required me to work in favor of abolishing in vitro, I would have to resign. He told he was not ABOUT to.
John pointed out to me that, as usual, we thought just alike: we were PRO-LIFE, not just anti-abortion.
So maybe now you can understand why I never believe a WORD that the anti-abortion movement says about embryonic stem cells. You may not agree but you can se why I assume that they lie and that they are NOT pro-life. I assume that they are just theocratic nutcases.
All of this would bore a barroom crowd or a bunch of voters to death. But the big leaguesoperate on loyalty and, as I have said before, on KEEPING PROMISES.
No, I don’t mean keeping promises to VOTERS. You can do anything you want and a year later, unless the media really hate you, it will all be forgotten by the voters or drunks.
Let me repeat, this is the big leagues. You don’t keep promises to some clown who will forget everything he is shouting about tonight a week from now.
But even a repeatedly reelected congressman can be frozen out and lose everything if he is repeatedly dishonest with the other PROS. They REMEMBER. Their staff REMEMBERS.
You can lie to the kiddies, you SHOULD lie to the kiddies.
But NEVER lie to the grown-ups.
Power comes from HONESTY with those who expect it and will back it up.
#1 by Dave on 08/17/2006 - 5:28 pm
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A comment on the big leagues:
I had a coronary when I discovered that in the last ten years 800 million dollars was doled out in agricultural subsidies in my Congressional District alone. In a single Congressional District!
It changed my view of my Congressman. Also, it made me realize there was something wrong with my ability to apprehend dimensions.
Since only 1/3rd of all farmers get a subsidy, I am still trying to figure out how there can be that many farmers in my Congressional District.
The next time I am in a reception line to greet my Congressman (a “bring the Mexicans in – they’re good slaves” type of fellow), I think I am going to forgo my opportunity to spit in his face.
That would make me a typical voter.
Instead, I am going to ask him how I can get in on this “farmer-in-receipt” thing. That will promote me to loyal-supporter-club-member-wannabe.
Power dominates by engaging in successful conspiracy. Successful conspiracy requires loyalty and loyalty is tested when you have to pay a price for it.
All I know is that I want to see a lot less loyalty in the multicultural command.
I have used Bob’s mantra on a lot of people. I enjoy being an early adopter. The mantra works. I have faith that it will one day become mainstream.
#2 by Dave on 08/17/2006 - 8:20 pm
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When BW talks about the central role of loyalty and principle in the ‘big leagues”, most don’t get it.
For example, 1980’s Saudi ARAMCO purchased Crowley Maritime (a tug boat operator supplying the State of Alaska with “lower 48” consumer goods).
The Inland Boatman’s Union rebelled and struck. The Stevedores supported them.
The strike went on for months. And even through Crowley lost half of its market share, the Saudi Royals refused to budge.
They couldn’t give a damn about their investment.
Royals do not bow the labor unions.
They busted the union and it was clear that cost was no object.
Refusal to bow to labor unions is a bedrock principle of the Saudis. It is not about money.
Similarly, despite what you may hear, there is no structural criticality for the importation of Mexican labor to work America’s agricultural economy.
That economy would do fine, given larger subsidies, and the crowd in power would benefit enormously in political esteem if the Mexicans were kicked out.
Agribusiness would adjust and prosper.
There is no criticality to Wall Street’s “big dog” bank float either, if tossing the Mexicans back to Mexico whacked Mexico’s dollar cash flow.
It is about principle. The same way it was with the Saudi Royals.
And the principle is this: “We are the RULERS and you are the RULED”. If you don’t like it, you can go to hell. We don’t need you to like us. We need you to understand that our RULE is YOUR FATE. Period.
So when BW says principle and loyalty count in the “big leagues”, he ain’t whistling Dixie.