Sunday, August 14, 2005


Strange moment from this week: I met someone I used to work for.

Leonard Boswell (pictured) is my US Rep. I bet I asked 5000 people if they planned on voting for him last fall. He won (again) relatively easily, and I saw him for the first time on Election Night, giving his victory speech to a generally bummed room of Democrats. I've thought about it since, and only someone with an extreme ego would see a room full of people that dejected and decide to cheer them up by reminding them that he was their one success.

He used that speech to announce his intentions to run again in two years. Yeah, he's that kind of politician. He didn't tell us what he'll do or how he'll do it, he thanked us for re-electing him and announced his plan to get re-elected again.

Anyway, on election night, he entered the room for about 3 minutes, gave his speech, left, and was not seen again.

Flash forward to Friday: State Rep. and Gubernatorial Candidate Ed Fallon took his staff to lunch at Tumea & Sons, mainly so he could kick our asses at some bocce ball. On our way back to the court, we come across, of course, Boswell. The following conversation ensues:

Ed: Rep. Boswell, welcome to Congressional District 66.
Boswell: State Rep. Fallon, welcome to Congressional District 3. How goes the war?
(he was referring to the campaign for governor, I hope.)
Ed: We're trying not to call it a war. We're sticking to "the struggle against politics."
Boswell doesn't laugh.
Ed introduces his staff.
After working for Boswell for months, quitting, and now working my fourth "other job," I finally get to shake hands with my former boss.

I left thinking Boswell was somehow slimier than I had earlier envisioned. Ed and the other staff, who had met Boswell before, were just happy that he hadn't lost his mind to age. Apparently there's some concern on that subject.

There's a new link on the right hand side: It goes to another former boss, but Shawn was a good boss. He's working in DC now. The blog does a pretty good job of chronicling his adventures.

That's all for today. This has been KL Snow.

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