The Passing of Senator Metzenbaum

[David Anderson]

http://blog.cleveland.com/plaindealer/2 ... d_met.html

I'm sure we all know the news of Sen. Metzenbaum's passing, but, here's the PD link. (It's odd for me to be posting a PD/Metzenbaum link because I don't think the paper ever endorsed him.)

I had the absolute pleasure and honor of working for Senator Metzenbaum in D.C. from July 2000 to January 2005. (In fact, I turned in his office keys to the Russell Senate Office Building management office in January of 2005.) This was my first job after undergrad and, needless to say, I was a complete idiot.

With his failing eyesight, it was common for three junior staff members to take turns driving the Senator especially at night. He would drive into the office but knew his limitations regarding darkness. As his file clerk and mailroom manager I was one of these junior staffers for two years until I graduated to manager of federal projects and assistant legislative director (and received a raise from $19,000 to $25,000).

One Saturday session just before Thanksgiving, Metzenbaum spent eight hours straight on the Senate floor fighting last minute pork amendments to authorization/appropriations bills. When he returned to 140 Russell I told him that he looked really tired. He replied, “Do you know how hard it is to keep them from passing all that crap,â€

[Stan Austin]

David--- Thank you very much for those wonderful sentiments and recollections.

As a Democratic Ward Leader I was in admiration of the man for his streetwise political skills.

And, as a regular idealistic citizen I truly enjoyed how "my" millionaire Senator was so effective on behalf of regular folks.

Trite but true--- they broke the mold with that one.

Stan Austin

[David Anderson]

Thanks, Stan.

I made an error in my original post. The years should have read 1990-1995 and not 2000-2005. Ugh, where do the years go?