Eleanor Holmes Norton Puts the Arm on Lobbyist

Did you hear this tape? Big Government had a piece on it last week. I heard it on the radio, but was locked in mortal combat with Bill Gates' Windows, so this is my first chance to comment on it.

Eleanor Holmes Norton first came to my attention back around the Clinton administration or maybe just a little before. She was a friend of Hillary and a big advocate for liberal causes, most of them surrounding The Children™.

She was always big on being appointed to posts where she could affect policy, mostly around the District of Columbia, but to my knowledge, has never won elective office.

But, it's not just putting the arm on a lobbyist, who apparently contributed to many of her colleagues, but not her (give you any hint, Eleanor?), note the clumsy and banal fashion in which she does it: She leaves him a cotton pickin' voicemail, for heaven's sake! (I almost forgot to work "Cotton pickin'" into this piece!) She wants to hit this guy up for money but she drones on and on to a tape recorder? Whatever happened to the personal touch? Why not, "Hi! This is Eleanor Holmes Norton and I have a couple of things I'd like to talk to you about. My number is 555-GiveMeMoney, please call so we can chat sometime!" And then at least have the decency to put the arm on him in person!

Instead, she leaves him a message with all the warmth of a melting glacier and the personal touch of a xeroxed Christmas letter.
The only way it could have been worse is if she had opened with: Dear "insert name here"!