After yesterday’s heroic efforts to pull off a parade; a day that kept me busy from 6AM until my final post at midnight; I never found time to read the newspaper. I barely got time to listen to the news on NPR. Alll I could take in was the threadbare information on a local TV news broadcast at 10PM.
Now imagine 535 Representatives and Senators who are so busy dealing with pork projects back home, floor votes, committee hearings, chicken dinners on the campaign circuit, and fancier fare with lobbyists; and you can see how the world can be reduced from its great complexity to the headlines. Not only does that leave little time for keeping up with the world it almost forecloses the possibility of finding time to read history.
Fortunately I’ve been frozen out of Congress for all my adult life and had the time to read a lot of those history books. Hopefully, if I’m kept away from the world by the beltway for a couple years, the information that I’ve crammed in my head while I was kept out of DC will remain relevant until I retire. I won’t be there 32 years like Mr. Oberstar. At the moment 4 years sounds about right to me, but heck, I have yet to face reelection.
Non-stop politics, not keeping up with the world. That’s life for members of Congress.
