Claire McCaskill
We met Claire when she was making her first run for Senator in Missouri. I liked her from day one. She had chutzpah. Smart, insightful, witty and more important, she totally gets it. You can't pull one over on her. She is smart as a whip and street smart too.
Today, she said that she basically doesn't care if she doesn't get re-elected because she appears to be just as frustrated with the Senate as I am. Here is her quote.
"I'm very frustrated with some of the habits around here," she said. "What happens around here is that so many people are more focused on getting everybody to love them and getting re-elected than they are on solving the really hard stuff. Because when you solve hard stuff, you make people mad."
She told me, after a few years in her job, in confidence, she was actually blown away by the amount of waste and inefficiency. I am thrilled to see her come out and say the truth. I knew I liked her.
Bravo Claire!
Comments (Archived):
Agreed.
We need way more Senators like Claire.
Wouldn’t that be government changing?
When you solve really hard stuff in a way that runs counter to your constituents’ wishes, you make people mad.While she may be witty, smart, and insightful McCaskill has failed to represent the views of her constituents and she will be voted out when the time comes. She should have spent less time in NYC and more time in Missouri.They can keep the change.
Although I agree with you in theory reality is that politicians spend 70% oftheir time after getting elected on raising money for the next campaign. Aridiculous amount of money is raised in NYC. If only all the Senators couldfocus on changing the system as it is today. The entire health care billwas around money and favors, not what was right for the country and thepeople who have no health care. I believe that is what Claire was talkingabout. She said a while back that health care would have been changed along time ago if it was easy and there wasn’t so much money involved. Moneyin politicians pockets is what she alluded to, at least I thought so.The problem is the constituents, are not always the majority, it is themoney that is the majority. She might not get elected next time around butmore people need to express their dismay about their peers in the Senate andCongress. Their loyalty to “money” has left a bad taste in the mouths ofthe majority of the people in this country.
Joanne, I agree with your thoughts.I commented because I have some serious issues with Sen. McCaskill’s stance on CEO pay limitations (it would be another huge government intrusion into the private sector).Also, while her general stance on government waste is good, put into practice it seems she disregards whatever is not politically pleasing to her base. If she were truly concerned with waste, she never would have voted for the stimulus or the health care bill that came to the floor. The health care bill is far from deficit neutral. The CBO was forced to use assumptions that are at best unrealistic and at worst impossible.Last, her feelings about health care reform being an urgent matter is not carried out in the actual bill. It does not go into effect until 2013 (after her next election).Joanne, I love your blog and sometimes people only comment when the post really provokes them. I have been a lurker for quite a while and read your blog for the music, books, and other discoveries that you blog about.I’m just not a fan of Sen. McCaskill. :(Cheers. Happy New Year!
Keep lurking….and start commenting!Happy New Year to you too.joanne [email protected]
I met her in NYC at an event a few months before she became Senator. I touched her and said, “Here, I just touched a Senator!” It worked!
I had the opposite reaction – I was a fan of Sen McCaskill until I read that quote. Whatever happened to, when the going gets tough, the tough get going? Couple doses of political reality and McCaskill folds her tent?Also, regarding the news that politicians — even US Senators! — are “more focused on getting everybody to love them and getting re-elected than they are on solving the really hard stuff”, well, as Claude Rains said, I am shocked, shocked to find gambling in the casino!
Agreed with when the tough gets going…Politics is a nasty sport. Not sure it is one that I would want to roll upmy sleeves in. Maybe she is seeing something that is making her rethink herentry into politics.
Politics always is nasty and always has been (just ask Socrates) and always will be. So I have little patience and zero indulgence for people who profess shock and disgust at the way political sausages are made. Senator mccaskill should resign today or clam up with the complaining and get to work trying to make things better etc. Ditto all the harpies on the far left and far right who think “change” is made by prophets angels and saints waving magic wands – in a democracy change is made bit by painful bit by flawed human beings balancing self interest with the needs of the larger groups… And thank heavens! In totalitarian regimes change gets made by fiat and worse
Its been fairly sad to watch our government deal with some very serious problems. Claire is a breath of fresh air — I would put Diane Feinstein and Lindsay Graham in that same category. While Diane is not as feisty as Claire she speaks the truth rather then blurting out the politically expedient thing.
I totally agree. Unfortunately that breath of fresh air is getting takenover by the smog.
http://j.mp/4Dj7Em
Interesting.