Oh What Could Have Been - Voters Get a Peek at an Alternative Universe

One thing that is nice about voting twice for Shelley, is that it allows all those eSlate dial-in voters a sneak peek at what would have resulted from all of the trouble they went to, to vote for the Gibbster, had they succeeded in overcoming Lampson’s monumental lead in the polls.

Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, newest member of the Texas congressional delegation, landed in Washington on both feet last Thursday, and by Tuesday managed to piss off Tom DeLay’s entire congressional staff. We heard of it first from the Washington Post and on this blog and that blog, but the juicy details have been absent, and most probably will be for awhile at least. But Roll Call came out with some before unknown accounts of the mass exit of DeLay’s entire staff yesterday. Courtesy of Juanita, we have new and interesting text.

I have quotes.

“She showed up to take over DeLay’s old office on Thursday and, according to sources familiar the office dynamics, was “mean” to the staff. On Tuesday, at her new Member’s open-house reception in the office, sources charged that she was less than pleased that neither President Bush nor Vice President Cheney showed up with the rest of the welcome wagon, despite the fact that others who stopped by included Texas GOP Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn and Texas GOP Reps. Kevin Brady and Michael Burgess. (Apparently, according to sources, she was under the impression that the president of the United States would be there to greet the seven-week Congresswoman.)”

Is that not just the flakiest thing you ever heard? The woman is in total denial of her position. I’d still like the details on how the Shelster was “mean” to the staff, but this expectation of a visit from the Bush and Cheney, who didn’t show, must have embittered the woman to no end because she was not invited to a White House reception for newly elected lawmakers. But Nick was there asking George for advice on retaining his seat in a Republican-favored district in 2008.

From the Roll Call report,

“the DeLay staff they showed their feelings about their new boss Tuesday by walking out of the office en masse and resigning, effective immediately. The DeLay refugees, who included DeLay’s personal chief of staff, David James, walked out of the office, Von Trapp family-style (though without the singing) and huddled at Starbucks to get their wits about them.”

Holy Krishna, this is almost as tasty as the open for all to see Republican brouhaha this past summer. No, I take it back, this is truly tasty barbecue. Shelly turning on a spit.

Oh, but wait. I know what it’s like to have to break in a new boss. It sometimes is very trying on one’s soul, and besides these are a bunch of kids, right? Kids will be demonstrative, right? Umm, no. Not in this case.

From Roll Call

“Carl Thorsen, who is now a lobbyist, hired most of the DeLay aides who stormed out of the new Congresswoman’s office when he was DeLay’s general counsel and in charge of staffing the Hammer’s personal office. He said he couldn’t imagine what it must have taken to provoke the staff to quit all at once. ‘I know them. They’re exceptional and talented,’ he said. ‘They’ve been loyal to that district and they’ve worked really hard. They’re just not a group of loose cannons.’”

This from the guy who hired them. So it’s not a bunch of spoiled whiney kids at the bottom of this. Could it be the normal outcome of being a spoiled whiney congresswoman?

Spin control? The Shelster’s chief of staff and former campaign manager (and apparently the only one who can stand being around her), Lisa Diamond (elsewhere her name is spelled DiMond) says that Shelley is just a wonderful person and that the DeLay workers were just going to be there “for transitional purposes”.

Transitional? They’d been without a congressman to work for, for 5 months. They were there for constituent services only for 5 solid months. They’re going to briefly serve as a transition staff for a congresswoman who will be gone in 50 days?

So anyway, if you have any problems and need Shelley to come to your aid, call her at (202) 225-5951. That’ll get Shelley or Linda, or a message machine. Shelley’s going to have some problems getting a staff together to run the office for 50 days, unless they go with a temp service. But then I hear that word gets around inside the loop and the word is that “you’ll need to promise a Congressional Medal to anyone willing to take this one on.”

What a trainwreck

And you know, I'm not the best person for reading a person's thoughts from their facial expression, but I'll just say that the expression on Mr. Shelley's face at the top of this posting is priceless. Absolutely priceless.