Small Little Fish

I don't rant very often. At least I try not to. I try to be the happy and enlightening blogger who spreads sunshine throughout...every post but this one.

I am from a state where there is an uber-dominate political party. As a disclaimer, I do not belong to that party. Uber-dominance creates bad government - whomever is doing the dominating. But I digress...

They say all politics is local and in a state where one party dominates and there is no system of checks or balances, local politicians can get to be a bit on the arrogant side. They also loose touch with reality. (I realize that I am saying this knowing full well that I have a big cup of Potomac fever for breakfast.)

So onto my rant.

I went to play softball with some folks from my home state. They are lovely people all of them and we happily interact on a very bi-partisan and kumbayah fashion. There just happened to be a local state senator visiting the game. (Local as in, 'not full time legislator, part time wears a nifty pin for 45 days in February and thinks he is nifty' local.) He is testifying before a Congressional committee next week and the committee wanted to talk to him before they put him in the hot seat.

So the political fish bowl in said uber-dominated state is very small. If you know one fish, you know them all. And if you know a big fish, you REALLY know them all. Well as UDS (uber-dominated state) is a REALLY small fishbowl, I know many of the players.

I know, I know, onto my rant.

We get to talking this state senator and I and I get the feeling that he thinks he is a lot more important than he is (and most certainly more important than I AM). He starts using that patronizing tone and speaking slowly so I can understand him. (This sometimes happens in the uber-dominat religion of the uber-dominated state.) It is beyond annoying. He went on about states rights and how he doesn't want federal bureaucrats getting in his business and blah, blah, blah.

At this point I realize that he was one of the crazed state legislators who voted during the legislative session to pull the US out of the UN. I am NOT making this up. (Because a. it is a state's job to dictate that sort of action and b. it's a super good idea to pull out of the United freakin' Nations.)

We talked for as long as I could be civil and discussed his upcoming hearing. The more condescending he got, the more angry I got. I finally said, "good luck with that" and went back to keeping score. (We won, btw.)

Long story longer.

I'm just going to talk to my friends at the committee before which he is testifying next week and make sure he squirms during the Q&A. I'm betting he'll never figure out why Representative X knows so DAMN much about him.

The lesson for today is: Be nice to everyone. Don't think that just because you are in a suit and the person to whom you are talking is in a softball skirt that you are a. smarter, b. more connected or c. never going to see them again. Because chances are that you 1. aren't 2. aren't and 3. will.