[MARTIAL MONK]

I knew we were in trouble when the first thing that he did was to redecorate his office. Back in ’78 we were running Reagan’s state campaign out of a f’n Denny’s. We didn’t have a lot of money but we were doing what we were doing because it was important. We had the corner booth reserved because the owner was on our side. It would expand and contract as the day went on but it was our central meeting place. Some of the guys didn’t have enough for a cup of coffee but we kept a prepaid tab and they never knew that it was coming out of our pockets. When the tab ran out the owner would look the other way.

I knew we were in trouble with Clinton when all those hippy freaks in basement offices were working into the wee hours of the morning on pizza and coffee and wearing sweats. We can wax indignant ‘till the cows come home about the drug use but they were there to do the job because it was important to them.

I don’t care how marvelous the interface is on the RNC website. I want guys who will work out of a basement in a warehouse in Trenton and use tin cans and strings because it is important. More important than eating, more important than sleeping, more important than impressing that blue eyed blond in the next cubicle. I don’t want sinecures, I want results.

[Lancey Howard]

Your story sounds very much like my experience here in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Back in 1992 one of my kids was doing a project with his 3rd grade class to learn about the upcoming election, and so I went up to Doylestown (the county seat) to visit the Democrat and Republican campaign offices and pick up some buttons and bumper stickers.

First I visited the Democrat office, and it was a beat-up store front with a big glass window in a busier part of the boro where there was a lot of pedestrian traffic. I walked into a big open area and saw people in jeans and sweatshirts hustling in and out and all over the place. Posters and papers were piled up on old steel desks, the phones were ringing, and everybody was talking fast, seemingly out of breath, and happy about it... The people there were only too pleased to stop what they were doing for a moment and hand me some buttons and stickers and even a poster. I walked out of that place onto the sidewalk and was almost out of breath myself.

Then I went to the Republican headquarters over in a part of town where many of the 3-story Victorians have been converted to law offices, and wow, was that place impressive! The entry parlor had cherrywood “judge-paneling”, the floor was magnificent, the furniture was high-end traditional, and the cherry front desk looked like I had walked into the Waldorf Asoria hotel. I was almost waiting for somebody to take my bags! Shortly, a young man in a nice suit and tie came out from the back and greeted me with a smile. He was the only person I saw. He listened to me politely and then went through the door and into the back to get me some buttons and bumper stickers.

When I walked out of that place I KNEW the election was already over.