August 25, 2008
At the DNC, It's Good To Be (Shadow) Senator
For most of the year, D.C. Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss is a senator in name only. His elected position doesn't pay him a salary, he has no real standing in Congress, and he spends much of his time trying to educate as many influential people as he can about D.C.'s non-voting status. But at the Democratic National Convention, a shadow senator gets to play make believe.
Both Strauss and fellow Shadow Sen. Michael Brown, who are serving as superdelegates representing the District, have been issued their DNC credentials directly from the same office as members of the U.S. Senate. While they are in Denver, they are, for all intents and purposes, senators.
"Most of the venues are accepting them as senators, and treating them with respect," said D.C. Democratic Party spokesperson David Meadows.
That might explain why Strauss was able to walk right in to "A Blue Night in Denver," a party hosted Sunday night by the conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, without being sure he was even on the list. Flanked by no less than six interns from his staff, all of whom were wearing Secret Service-style earbud headsets, Strauss went straight up to the security-heavy entrance and introduced himself as Sen. Strauss. He not only gained immediate entry to the invite-only party (after paying the requisite entrance fee), he waltzed straight in to the VIP section upstairs.
D.C. Shadow Senator Paul Strauss (second from right) poses with members of his staff at a party hosted by the conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition. (Sommer Mathis)
Then again, Strauss doesn't really hide the fact that he enjoys being addressed as "senator" and letting people who might not know the difference believe he's a voting member of Congress. When asked whether he often easily gains access to exclusive parties by introducing himself as Sen. Strauss, he was humorously boastful.
"What's to explain? I'm Paul Strauss!" he said.
Strauss has a total of seven interns with him in Denver, some from his regular staff and some who are campaign volunteers (he's running for re-election this year). Brown, by comparison, traveled to Denver with just one other person to help him stay organized, a close friend of his who was happy to make the journey.
Scottish singer KT Tunstall performed at the Blue Dog event, and when Strauss discovered that one of his interns is a big fan of the musician, he orchestrated a meet and greet for her by throwing his weight around with Tunstall's handlers.
Strauss approaches his official work as a superdelegate and lobbyist for D.C. voting rights with a similar sense of establishing a large presence. This morning, he addressed the convention delegation from New Mexico to ask for their support in pushing their congressional members to support the D.C. Voting Rights Act. It was a strategic appearance, since retiring Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) was one of the senators who voted against cloture for the bill earlier this year. While Strauss spoke to the New Mexico delegation, cameras from French television news station BFM TV rolled for a feature on the Shadow Senator.
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Strauss doesn't really hide the fact that he enjoys being addressed as "senator" and letting people who might not know the difference believe he's a voting member of Congress.
I totally see where he's coming from. Nobless oblige and all that. I really appreciate when people refer to me as "Kentucky colonel," "socialite gadfly," "the Southern Dandy," or even "Leroy, get away from that woman!"
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Which one is Strauss?
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Sadly, this isn't at all unusual for Strauss. He's essentially a lobbyist paid for by the city government, so I wonder who's footing the bill for useless interns to accompany a useless delegate.
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Did I say Caligula? I meant ugli-gula.
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WTF? You're not Senator Strauss. You're make-believe Shadow Senator Strauss.
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Isn't there some federal law prohibiting someone from calling themselves by a federal title when it's not warranted?
And being surrounded by young female interns sure must make it nice to be a shadow senator.
What a useless job.
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given enough Guiness, staff members 1 through 3 (um, from the left) would get a good (drunken, two minute) shagging.
Virginia is for Losers: if you haven't already won it, you deserve the user name of the week!
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@matvey: Strauss at best gets expenses from the city government.
Our whole shadow delegation is in Denver and we should support them as they spread the word of our lack of voting rights.
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If he's a make-believe Senator, shouldn't he have make-believe interns?
Like Oompah Loompahs? Because that would be cool. Although it does look like one of them is rapidly approaching Oompah Loompah levels of orangeness.
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You know, I don't think I've ever seen or heard either of these guys do anything. Panetta at least gets press coverage occasionally.
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All three should spend their time in the shadows.
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When I think of the term "Shadow Senator", the image of someone running around in a cape hiding behind curtains and jumping out yelling "boo" comes to mind. Kind of like a really sad verison of Batman, but without the cool toys and buff body.
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what is that green thing the intern in the middle is drinking?
ecto cooler?
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I'd really like to see the final bill for this asshatery. If, as the saying goes, you get the (shadow?) government you deserve, then DC has some karmic housecleaning to do.
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Yes, Yes, need to see ID, Yes, Fat Douce, Fatter Douce and No to the 9ft Giant in the back.
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Sommer wrote:
His job is to lobby for statehood not voting rights. Check the DCBOEE description of his job duties.
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Let me preface this by stating I'm a Paul Strauss supporter. I met him years ago when he was helping to put on the Fort Reno concert series. He did that for years. He also ran a summer youth program at the same time. While its fun to make fun of people in pictures, its important to give due respect to a man whose been working to get DC voting rights for many, many years. Who on here has done anything to forward DC's cause? Paul Strauss deserves to be in Denver. He's worked for years to get there. No other DC Shadow Senator puts together the political machine and staff that Strauss does for the District's cause. And he doesn't spend any tax payer dollars doing it. I'm willing to bet the staff paid their own way to Denver. Good for them for getting to experience history after working for us for free. Paul Strauss is out there furthering our cause. We need to stand behind him. Sorry for the speech.
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When I think "Shadow Senator" I think "Palpatine."
I can just see this guy throwing energy bolts at his interns for screwing up his Blackberry and telling them how they will pay for their lack of vision.
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what is that green thing the intern in the middle is drinking?
Incredible Hulk?
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Question: How many Oompah Loompahs does DC's Shadow Representative have on his staff?
Trick question. He doesn't! He has a staff of twelve Wangdoodles, which explains why they have a hard time getting along.
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incredible hulk?
hpnotiq and hennessy? thanks pdiddy, for your cocktail wisdoms...
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Strauss does not get anything from the DC gov't except for some office space in the basement of the Wilson building. At best he may get some expenses covered by the "check the box" portion of the DC tax return which allowed a taxpayer to donate $1 to the shadow delegation but, unlike the president campaign fund, this dollar does lower a refund or increase the taxpayer's tax and the expenses of the DC gov in collecting the money are taken out before the money is allocated to the Statehood fund of each member of the delegation. Yeah, he brings a lot of interns and uses he status the best he can, but you can bet these college kids would not have a chance to do something like this without he help
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My guess would be a Midori sour for the green drink.
I think the simplest solution is to give the District one or two members for the House and otherwise let us vote for MD's senators. The remaining District land was once MD's and prior to the Organic Act of 1801, residents did vote as though they were still part of the state.
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Can't we just give it back to the British? I mean, they did come all the way across the Atlantic just the burn the place down. It's the least we could do for them. We've already got the pub with the scotch eggs and blood puddings. What are we waiting for? Barry won't be around much longer and I really hoped the Queen could Knight him Lord Bitchsetmeup, First Earl of Crackton.
"And did those feet, in ancient times, walk upon England's mountains green..."
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To add another layer of intrigue, the shadow delegation is so popular people are making up pretend candidates (and running hilarious Batman-style campaigns) for the office:
http://districtschmistrict.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/the-shadow-votes-actually-not-really/
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I'm sure that his interns are good and all, but wow... in a majority black city, he has NO black interns? Wow...
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No black interns? Oh no! What was he supposed to do, hire a "token" or two?
I'm guessing that his intern demographics tracks pretty closely to what the top 10% of his intern applicant pool looks like.
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The last time I ran across Fake Senator Strauss and his coterie of earpiece-wearing interns, they were all Eurotrash-types. And by "Eurotrash-types," I mean actual Europeans. One was British, another Swiss, and I forget the others, but I don't think any were DC-natives.
And by calling himself "Senator," he confuses people into thinking that perhaps DC does indeed have voting Members of Congress. If he pointedly called himself a Shadow Senator, he'd be more effective, but would get fewer chicks.
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Who voted for this guy?
And if Paul Strauss really does represent DC in some way, an African American seems conspicuosly absent from that gathering.