|
Edited on Fri Jun-17-05 05:38 PM by Island Blue
First let me say I was really, really nervous. I guess I just don't like confrontation (although I was being very polite, not confrontational). I got to the event early which is a good thing because there was a rather large crowd by the time I left.
I had to wait for a few minutes, but met him, he introduced himself and I shook his hand. (Handshake not a limp fish, but not nearly as firm as I like a man's handshake to be. I was also struck by the fact that he is fairly short - not how I like my senators to be!) But I digress.
There was a pretty big crowd around him, mostly folks glad handing, promoting the area, and a couple of people taken of him with their kids (VERY cheesy grin). When I got up to him (I was nervous - did I mention that?) I asked him first if he agreed with Walter Jones' call for troop withdrawal. No, he doesn't (big surprise). He doesn't think you can put a time table on bringing the troops home. He said that more and more Iraqis are being trained every day, and he thinks that they will be able to take over real soon. He said they are doing a great job, yada, yada, yada. He said that the proposal that Walter Jones (and others) made calls for brining troops home starting in Oct. '06 and he hopes we will be gone by then anyway. (So do I you asswipe.)
He also said that we had just caputred Al Zachari's #2 man and it was all I could do not to say "Wow, that's an improvement, usually we get the #3 dude." I contained my smartass self.
My second question was about the DSM. To me, he seemed to get visibly nervous about this question. He was kind of incoherent with his answer, but he basically said he didn't believe British or American intelligence could be fixed (?). He also said that members of congress (which is where he was in '02) were given all of the information that the White House had before they made their vote. (Umm, I don't think so, thus the uproar about the minutes.)
That's all I had the guts to ask. He started to turn to the next person and I stuck my hand out and said "thank you very much for your time" and was rewarded with an even wimpier handshake.
While I was talking to him, a reporter from the Virginian-Pilot newspaper was writing furiously. As I walked away, she asked me my name which I asked her not to use because I work in the public sector, and so I don't know if I'll have a job on Monday. (I'm actually worried about this, although I really didn't do anything except ask a few questions.) I did give her my name, she said she wouldn't use it but we'll have to see tomorrow. She asked me if the answers he gave made sense, and I said no, not really. She said she thought that it was really cool that I asked the questions.
There were tons of people that I know hovering around, including the right-wing police chief of my town. I didn't expect to change the Senator's mind about anything, I just wanted to let him understand that someone is paying attention to more than just the Runaway Bride!
If anyone is interested, I'll post some of his direct quotes tomorrow if she uses any in her article. I wanted to write stuff down so I'd have some quotes to share, but I didn't. The reporter was from the NC section of the Pilot, so the article will probably just be in that section rather than the VA section (for those few who live in that area.)
I'm sorry this is so long - as you can tell I'm still buzzing!
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
