The Senator
2003-12-16 - 9:01 a.m.
They greeted us at the door with stick-on name tags -- the kind that won't quite stick flat to fabric, so they curl up off the lapel of your jacket and stick themselves firmly into your hair within minutes. I picked my way into the crowd just as they were starting to announce the speakers for the evening. I tried to find a place along the edge of the room where I wouldn't block the views of these little Napoleons of the business world, nursing their watered-down scotch.
First the event sponsors were given the opportunity to plug, plug, plug their companies in little commercial speeches. Then the podium was turned over to the political side of the evening. The Senator climbed to the stage. His face barely surpresses the look of a cantankerous old man grousing at the world from his front porch. His words do an even shoddier job of covering that. My stomach began to churn as he prattled on and on. After he spoke, the crowds surged around him, each person wanting the face time for which they'd paid their hundred dollar admission. I felt a hand on my elbow, urging me forward. "Come on. I want to introduce you." I was being propelled onwards towards the Senator. The crowd was thick but we sliced it through. He shook my hand with long-practiced firmness. "Good evening, Senator. It was a pleasure to hear how devoted you are to the business agenda. I'm glad to see that you do, in fact, support something because you certainly don't support the interests of your constituency." The cluster of plastic suits around the Senator fell silent and lost their wide, meaningless smiles. The Senator raised his eyebrows, looking confused but amused. I shouldered my way out of the room, coattails of my long jacket flapping in the winds of all the hot air generated around me.*sigh* ok, so I didn't do it. But I did have the immediate urge to wash my hand after I had to shake his hand.�
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