How to play the game

You have something they want, a handful of votes that you've put together, many handfuls even, so you call them a coalition and exert the fact that you exist. Mandy has stepped forward from the D side of the dividing line in an under-reported press conference to Join the "35"in the House Conservative Caucus, well, maybe not. Mandy was so thrilled, she asked for the list. Yeah, she asked me. Like with so many other lists, it is afraid to be published, I told her. I have three of them, I said, for that much I can vouch. Reformers. We need them, and we need those that believe in them. More importantly we need them to work together. Dont be afraid to step forward, Mandy Declares and we see a list of 59 generated - tell me something true, that no one else knows, and it can be played diplomatically into the slipstream.

How do you defeat a state budget 15-34, tell me? You build these coalitions of the strange bedfellows and you do it. Simple as that politics is, said Yoda. Remember that any minority can exert its influence on the majority, and I told her I didn't have the list, but that Style would...Could I write the list, well now I can, that is how you get the information, you ask for it, and it finds you.

Did you check out the alleged Taxpayer Relief Act fix? It failed, in the end, just like the lobbying bill, not for lack of creative lingo - imagine a straw poll being conducted, wow, we're so California with our referendums...oh, one of the rooks on my side, the one that passed me a hard copy of the lingo in the bill, he pointed out to me that it was nonbinding. Um, yeah, I told him, that's the first thing I noticed, and just for good luck, I circeld it in red, after the green of my go-colored highlighter. I saw this was no highlight of any negotiation, but linguistic pandering, a punt to the electorate. Um, yeah I noticed. I guess he didn't find it as obvious? Anyway, thanks for the help. I wanted to notice it, so that I knew I didn't have to get it noticed on a grander scale...no PR would be forthcoming on that one, and as it turned out, it didn't see a vote. The Lobbyist Bill, it got nonconcurrence, but a promise to get right on that.

That is for this one, but stayed tuned to the 11 o'clock news for more TMI.