Mary-Charlotte Domandi:
Oh, God, it would be funny if it weren’t so insane. Wildfire started by Jewish space lasers.
TLF:
Oh, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the crazy woman. Except for, it’s not crazy, I actually think I had told you that I would stop using that because that implies that it’s beyond their control and they are absolute—the diabolical woman. It’s very planned. And they continue to use them. They can say who uses up their time when they have their opposition and they chose to have her provide part of the opposition today. So they’re clearly not backing away from her. They’re providing her with a bigger place to spew. She attacked teachers in her opposition to the budget resolution, included attacking teachers.
MCD:
And she’s on the education committee.
TLF:
She is the Republican’s appointment to the education committee.
MCD:
And meanwhile, she’s attacked Sandy Hook and Parkland schools and students, teachers, staff—that leads into something that I’ve actually been wanting to ask you about because when you and I were first talking about this project that we’re doing, I was asking you if you’d met AOC, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and you were talking about the different roles that people play in Congress. She’s kind of a public face who’s appealing to many; others, keep a lower profile and get different kinds of stuff done. And I was wondering if you could talk about that, how it works, what are these different roles? How do people find where they fit in in Congress?
TLF:
There was actually a book and you can read it in the book. It’s called Setting Course. And it actually lists, I think, three different roles that people play. And people don’t play a single role, but they will play multiple roles. And I don’t remember all of them, but one is you’re going to be a party leader. So you rise up and you are very focused on playing a key role in the caucus and rising through the ranks. And you know, you become vice chair and chair and eventually speaker or some other—the number of leadership roles is a lot. So you want to be Pelosi or, or Steny Hoyer, or Clyburn, or Hakeem Jeffries. Then the other one is an ombudsman, where you really focus just on your district. And that’s what you care about is delivering what your district needs. I just had a lovely conversation with somebody whose focus is purely on a district. This wonderful woman pointed out two main areas of concern for her district. She works on those two areas. She serves on the committees that will serve those two areas. And that is her focus. And so there’s huge value in that for your district. And she had lots of great advice for me in that regard. And then there’s those who are—in the book it says flame throwers, something like that, that they are the ones who don’t actually get that much legislation through, but what they do is they raise big issues. They raise consciousness, they’re on the news. They might not get a lot done legislatively, but they get a lot done in terms of raising these big issues.
And this is actually a very, this book is a non-partisan book called Setting Course. It’s actually, it’s a foundation that basically exists to serve Congress and provide resources to Congress—non-partisan kinds of resources, like how do you set up your office? What do you look for in a chief of staff? So it’s a very operational book. But those are the things you look at. And every Congressperson has to decide who they are and how they best fit in that. I think everybody believes that they’re going to serve their district and everybody does, but some people serve their district in a way that, like a more national—so there are those who are spokespeople on key things. Representative Trone is a major spokesperson on mental health and addiction issues. Representative Grace Napolitano speaks on mental health issues, but also on water and transportation, cause that’s what her district needs. So, you know, it’s just interesting. Everybody’s skill set is going to be different and what their also district expects of them is going to be different.
MCD:
So when you think about the flame thrower types, that would be Bernie Sanders, AOC, folks like that, at least on the Democratic side. Is that right?
TLF:
Yeah, but they’d also, I mean, those are some of the flame throwers that might be described on the more progressive left-wing plank, but there are flame throwers on the right as well, or in the middle. Whip Clyburn—today, I did the broadband rural broadband task force. He raises issues about rural broadband nationally all the time. And so he is somebody who serves both a leadership role in the party, but one of the things he cares about is that so people can…
Oh, I just adore representative Rosa Delauro. She’s known for the child tax credit. And how do you bring children out of poverty? I mean, that’s been her signature issue for years. And so she raises that issue big time with everybody. So they could be people who might not be the youngest or the most on the left. They could be in the middle, they could be all over the place.
MCD:
Do you feel like you are taking time to find your place in that sort of ecosystem so to speak?
TLF:
Yeah, of course. I mean, I need to do that. And that’s also something that you don’t necessarily do immediately. I mean, some people do, you use the example of AOC, she became immediately—but partly it was her race as well, where she took on and succeeded a long-term incumbent. So you don’t see a lot of that in—like, I don’t know what my role is. I know I’m probably not the national, I don’t think I’ll have a Twitter following anywhere near AOC’s in the near future. I admire her work, but that’s probably not my role, but my role is probably more of a—there’s the legislative person who, people who become known for the expertise in a certain area and they go to for that. I’m probably more of a policymaker role, because that’s just what I’ve been. I’ve been somebody who just does stuff. I’ve never been somebody who’s sought out and occupied a public sphere, that’s just not what I’ve done. I’ve accomplished things on the ground. I build things. So I think that I’m going to be more of the kind of legislator who gets policy done, who helps build things.
MCD:
And there’s that whole ongoing theme in politics, always the devil’s in the details. For example, HR1, the law that will help make it easier to vote. And we’ve discussed putting a couple of amendments in there that are things that virtually nobody in the public, unless they’re a policy wonk, will ever even really know the difference. And yet putting those little details in there will make it easier for X number of people more to be able to vote.
TLF:
Right. And those are the kinds of things that make a difference, that mean a lot to me, because I happened to know that those will make it a lot easier for people to vote. But it’s not the one that you—although I think we should, I think we should all be saying, it’s a crime to make somebody wait in line six hours to vote. And that that is disenfranchisement. And so that’s an easy thing to fix if you’re willing to fix it, if we can get it through the Senate. That will go through the House. It’s a question of where it’ll get. But exactly, those are things that people who work on little parts of different bills do so because they’re have direct experience talking to advocacy groups, watching it happen, or in my case actually being part of it. So, what’s so interesting is it’s important to have a lot of different perspectives. And you can have those perspectives, even if you’ve been here for 20, 30 years.
I have so enjoyed, I need to tell you, I’ve so enjoyed sitting in meetings with some of the Congresspeople who are like, yes, and I’ve been here for 32 years and then they go and the idealism and the energy and the excitement that they are talking about with regards to some of the issues that we think we’re going to get done this year—it’s the same as I have. I mean, they have not lost their zeal. We had Chairman Pallone on last night in a Zoom. He was talking about the COVID aspects of the rescue plan because he is taking a lead on some of those issues. And oh my goodness, to see his enthusiasm and his knowledge was just marvelous. It was really great. And he was talking about how he’s been there for 32 years, and yet he is just as excited about these issues as I am. You didn’t see any decrease in enthusiasm. That I’m really loving. And same way today with Whip Clyburn, he’s been here for a long time and he is passionate, so passionate about rural broadband, and has such excitement about it. It’s not dull. These people are not dull about the things they think will make people’s lives better. And that’s wonderful.
MCD:
It’s interesting to hear you say that. And I think of people who are all in favor of term limits, but there are people who are as you said, just as dedicated after decades as they were at the beginning and bring an expertise that they can teach the newer people on the block, so to speak.
TLF:
Yeah, and are willing. And I mean, I raised the issue of some things that we’re aware of and our efforts to try to get broadband in New Mexico. There was a bill that was introduced in the 116th, did not pass the Senate. And so we will introduce it again now in the 117th. And it was, “Teresa, let us know what we need to change and add to this bill based on your experience.” Like there wasn’t a, “No, we already know what we’re doing.” It was like, bring your additional experience and expertise to it. It was marvelous. And yet they have all of this information, and they share with you. The generosity of the fellow Congresspeople is amazing. Because time is one of our most valuable resources. It is our most valuable resource. And any time you share it, it truly is, I consider, a gift and you have so many people just sharing so much of their time with you to help you understand the process or ask about, do you need help finding a place to live, small things to, you can be on four subcommittees, to technical things, the range of issues that you face as a new Congressperson, somebody’s there to help you.
