Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Finally in routine....FL Primary....Follower feedback

Well it's that time of the week again. Today I'm going to be a little more organized with the flow of my blog post, so now you can ACTUALLY follow whatever I decided to rant about. So here we go...

1. Thursday marks exactly one month since I moved into my apartment in DC, and it took me till just now to finally get in to the swing of things and make a routine. Everyday since day 1 has been either a whirlwind adventure or an unorganized cluster (turns out this small town boy wasn't ready for big city living). This pertains to both my time at work and free time. And speaking of work...things are finally beginning to become exciting. We have been in and out of the start of the new session for the first couple of weeks which has made work for an intern rather slow, but as we move into the bulk of the 2nd session of the 112th congress things are about to get interesting. The number of briefings and case hearings for me to report on will sky rocket, tours will pick up, and Lord knows the number of angry constituents calling in or sending mail will become infinite. But I'm excited and can't wait to make you all read about it.

2. The Florida Primary is tonight, and for those of you that won't read this until a later time this section will be meaningless to you. When looking at a presidential election we recognize that if a candidate can win Florida, he can win the primary and become the party nomination for the general election. Mitt Romney in my opinion has already won Florida by a landslide. I base my opinion after studying all the candidates campaigns. Romney has the support of all 19 Republican Majority Districts in the state, this should be evidence enough, but for those who want to continue to question my opinion I will keep going. Newt Gingrich, could not even gain the support of congressional figures that he worked with as speaker of the house, shouldn't that tell you enough? No? Ok I'll keep going, the man is a cartoon candidate. He makes ridiculous remarks with little legitimacy in his arguments, and I'm not even going to go into the moon population idea of his...I like Ron Paul, and as wonderful of a congressional leader he is, he should have dropped out of the race months ago, better luck next time big guy. And Rick who....? Exactly not even worth the discussion. Please feel free to respond with your own thoughts or concerns.

3. Finally..the only part of this blog that I have looked forward to writing today. I have received some feedback and questions from those who have read this blog in the comment section, on facebook, and those who have texted me. Since I have yet to respond to those who have commented on the blog itself, this section is dedicated to you.

Alex Charwin: Hi I'm Alex, I'm in Anderson's political parties and interest groups class.It must have been really cool being in a room with so many influential people. Ur story about being so close to the secret service escort coach reminds m of the the first time I went to D.C. I accidentally ended up on the wrong side of a road block leading to the white house and had to get escorted back to where everyone else was standing.

To Alex: Thank you for the support and interest. This experience has been phenomenal, and yes being around so many of the free world's leaders seemed quite surreal.

Wes Davis: I think its awesome that you are getting the experience of Congress first hand (plus I'm jealous)! But one of the things I have not yet had a chance to experience is China Town, but it is surprising that its cleaner and more presentable than the one in NYC. However, being someone that will be in your position over the summer, I am really interested in what your daily schedule is and if you have any say in the tasks you're assigned? Thanks and keep up the good work!

-Wes
To Wes: I'm excited that you get the chance to take a position like I am now during the summer, you'll enjoy it! As far as daily tasks go, you will get the menial busy work tasks such as answering phones..sorting through and responding to mail...giving tours..etc. However, you will get the chance to get hands on work with legislation and sit in on briefings and committee hearings which is what the experience is all about.

Alan Silva: Haha! Preach it Gage!! 

It does sound like you're having a great time up there! I only went to D.C. once and I was only like 10 or 11. I would like to go back! The stories I'm hearing from the two blogs sound pretty darn cool!

So if the chinatown up there is nice and clean, where do you get your pirated DVD's and Faux-lexes?
To Alan: Just to clarify I work for the National Government, even if I did purchase pirated DVD's I would not post about it on the internet. HAHA. And also that it why God has blessed us with Netflix. Oh and a concern for you....I still don't understand why you brought up jugalos in our first class skype session..

Luke McNamee: Glad you are having a good time man. Stay busy and have fun

To Luke: Buddy you didn't give me much to respond to, but I couldn't leave you hanging, thanks for the support.

Josh Vaal: I'm just curious...what is it that is discussed between interns up there? At the Public Defender's office our conversations were so random at times but we ALWAYS talked about the interesting files and clients we had to interview. Do you discuss policies or do you talk crap about other politicians that may be against right wing policies? <- just a random question

To Josh: The discussions between myself and other interns will go anywhere on the topics of where we went that weekend and what we did, what we think of certain policies and what our congressmen should do about it (SOPA for example), we complain about parts of the job we hate as well as how busy or how dead our office is on a particular day, and compare each other's constituent phone calls to see who had to deal with the "crazier" constituent. And a general rule of thumb, if a constituent calls the office they should probably be locked up for reasons of insanity

Until next time....
Thank You and God Bless

Gage Nicholas

9 comments:

  1. You make valid points on why Newt Gingrich should be unelectable.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Way to call Romney! not that that was a tough prediction or anything but.....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gage, you make D.C. sound crazy by describing it as a whirlwind. and your prediction on Romney seems to be correct for i am writing this at ten 30 and Romeny seems to have taken Florida

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Gage!

      Just wondering if the overall atmosphere in DC has become more heated since the Florida Primaries? Has it affected anyone's attitudes towards the race or has it pretty much remained the same?

      Thanks!

      Erin Sneed

      Delete
  4. Hey Gage I went to the Romney rally in Tampa and watched him give his speech. I was wondering what fine establishment you watched the speech from and what great comments you are going to chat about tomorrow at work? Hope your great!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. hey Gage! Glad you're doing well.. I enjoy reading your commentary from DC, even though it sounds like you don't look forward to updating us frequently...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gage! Wow I am reading this today after the Florida Primary results are in. Good job on the prediction. Although, it was clearly seen that Romney would take the state of Florida. Did you see his stop he took in The Villages? He must have won by singing all those old people 3 verses of America the Beautiful. I hope you are learning all the things that we can not, being stuck here in boring Florida. Well, not so boring considering in the past week I have shook John McCain, Michael Reagen, Newt's Wife and Newt's hands all in a matter of a week. Shook Gingrich's hand and said "what up Newt". I am sure you will meet some GREAT people up in DC as well.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gage, ha ha i know that it wasn't much at first. I'm getting the hang of blogging slowly. I am glad to hear that Congress is staying busy and you have my total confidences. I say these things because now that you are working for my representative I know I have someone to whom I can directly complain too. Ha ha, Don't worry though I am a little to busy with my own senior project to be calling the Congressman's office and so far I am pleased with his performance. Have a good week man.
    Luke

    ReplyDelete
  8. Carlene-I know it wasn't much of a tough prediction but with Santorum on the rise anything could have happened

    Erin-Not much of the attitudes have changed since the primaries began. Most of the Congressman and their staffers have been too busy dealing with upcoming pieces of legislation and their own campaigns for re-election to their offices in the fall. Once the Republican Party chooses a candidate to run against President Obama I feel there will be more tension around the hill, but as of now for their own sake of protection against the media none of them have really endorsed or given their opinion on a candidate.

    Leslie- I just watched it in my apartment, however, I did go out to the hill to get a glimpse of the security and watched his secret service coach deliver him to the Capitol Building.

    Alyssa- I'm glad you enjoy reading it, and if you all sincerely do enjoy it then I will update my posts more often

    Courtney- I'm a little jealous that you met all of those people

    Luke- If you called the office as a constituent that would probably be a better call than I usually get during the day, I don't really see you calling into to complain and yell at me like most people lol

    ReplyDelete