Is Dick Durbin as rude as his staff? Is Harry Reid?

I called Durbin's office in Washington, prefaced it by saying I was not from IL but I was a Democrat.

I brought up Harry Reid's statement and asked what the Asst. Minority Leader's stance on Censure was. I was told rather rudely that the Senator has no stance because the Senator isn't considering it. I asked what will it take for the Senator to consider it? I was told when the evidence warrants consideration.

Then I rattled off:

Abu Garib
Gitmo
War based on lies
Illegal Wiretapping
Torture
Katrina

What more does the Senator need?

I was then told that I don't have all the evidence that the Senator does. I then asked what more the Senator needs and I was going to ask if the senator was. . .then I was cut off and told if I swore, he'd hang up. I then asked the man if the Senator was going to stay or get off the pot (my exact words) and the man hung up on me.

When I called Sen. Reid's office, I asked basically the same thing. . .told the same thing. I asked what the Senator was going to do to backup his words. The lady responded that the Senator was working with the Senate select sub-committee on Intelligence and putting together an opinion. At that point, I asked if this was the same committee Bill Frist threatened to remove Democrats from. She never heard of Sen. Frist's memo (the one from DU I saw last week). She told me that memo was a mistake and there was no such memo sent.

I asked what the Senator would do to backup his words and was hung up on.

I used no bad language and I was more than polite.

WTF!!!

There is nothing quite as self-satisfied as a staffer on the Hill.

If on the Senate side, double that.

You're lucky they even talked to you.

Last year when I was lobbying for Parkinson's research I got a chance to meet the senator one on one. Usually we only met the with the representives for fifteen minutes but Senator Durbin cleared his schedule and met with us for a full half hour. Now it was pretty late in the day and my meds were wearring off and I was shaking and stuttering horribly. Senator Durbin took the donkey and american flag pin off his lapel and pinned them to suit. He said I deserved them more than he did. These pins are now my most important possesions in the world. (I know that they're probably just three dollar copies but I appreciate the sentiment behind them).
I don't know who the staff person is but I can assure you that Senator Durbin is a great man. He doesn't have a rude bone in his body. Maybe they were having a bad day and the end of a rough week. That's my best guess.

...and they get everything from polite ones to yours to downright obnoxious and vulgar ones on every isue imaginable. They just don't have much more than 15-20 seconds to spend per call.

Additionally, the folks who usually answer the phones are interns or folks just breaking into Hill work. Chances are they're not going to be able to give you much information beyond what they've been told by someone else.

I have found that knowing what you want to talk about and making that request as quick and brief as possible will get you to the legislative assistant who handles that particular issue, though.

and I call his office regularly. I've never had a bad experience. The staff in both the Chicago & DC offices are always polite. There are times when they're more rushed than others, but they always listen. Sorry you had that experience.

would rather get calls from Repubs than Dems.