3.15.2010

Congressmen are Actually Telemarketers. Yes, it's worse than you thought.

One thing that went relatively unnoticed in the aftermath of Democratic Congressman Massa's resignation last week was his explanation of how corrupt Congress really is. This clip below is an eye-opening glimpse into the inner-workings of Congress. The only reasonable Conclusion? Congress consists of a bunch of Telemarketers! We all knew they were "bought and paid for", but it turns out Congressmen are often the ones initiating and soliciting those transactions!

Personally speaking, before I saw this, I would have guessed there was nothing that could make me think things in Congress are actually worse than I thought. After seeing this clip, I stand corrected. It's worse than I thought.

Among the most interesting bits:
-Each Congressman spends between 5-7 hours a day on the phone begging for money.
-Freshmen Congressmen have to fill out sheets detailing everyone they called and how much money they scrapped up, and...
-They've got COACHES to help them get more money from their phone calls!
-They've got tip-sheets that have "data points" on the potential donor the Congressman is calling, and they are expected to use that information to help stoke some money-flow!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

MY wife donated a shitload of money to the BARACK campaign. We get phone calls from the DNC every three days.

I've taken to telling them that she isn't available, and that our financial situation has changed so we can't donate.

They still call/

beebs

FrackWit said...

There are reasons people give up their landlines. Many of those numbers are effectively poison due to all the telemarketing calls from politicians, scammers, and bill-collectors that have the wrong number.

Many long years ago, at the lowest point of my college years, I took a summer job at an outsource telemarketing firm. I still feel dirty to this day (though I did meet a cool girl while I was there).

Happy Super Tuesday!