by Frank James
The Hill newspaper had a small story today about House Democrats’ plans to meet next month at a half-day conference to discuss policy issues and strategy.
The story had this attention-grabbing line. “To get away from the distractions of the House, members are going to discuss their agenda on the Senate side in a meeting room in the Dirksen Building.”
Since many of the “distractions of the House” are caused by the members themselves (like Rep. Pete Stark) I don’t give this approach much of a chance.
Perhaps the distractions they’re concerned about are lobbyists? Since a lot of those lobbyists know the Dirksen Senate Office Building better than House members, the lawmakers aren’t likely to evade them by crossing the Capitol grounds.
Couldn’t they all chip in to rent one of those large Potomac River cruise boats for a few hours?