Let me tell you my Senator Specter story.

[SheilaT]

Some time in the 1990's, I can no longer recall the exact year, I was in Washington DC for the National Alopecia Areata Foundation Conference. Alopecia Areata is an auto-immune disorder that causes hair loss, and both of my sons have it. Anyway, NAAF has a conference every year, and about every fourth or fifth one is in DC for the specific purpose of having the members lobby Congress, usually asking the reps and senators to write a letter on our behalf to the National Institutes of Health.

The staff at NAAF work very hard setting up meetings with the members of Congress, and you go in groups, en mass to your Senators and particular Representatives. Not every state or district will have someone at the conference, but most states and a lot of districts have someone at the conference, willing to go to Capitol Hill and do this bit of lobbying. Most of the time, of course, we simply meet with a staffer, present our case, and make our request for the letter. This particular year, the only Senator or Representative whose staff could not possibly find time to meet with the delegation from NAAF was (are you in suspense yet?) Arlen Specter, of Pennsylvania, And there were several dozen people from Pennsylvania at the conference, willing to meet with the staff member. They were encouraged to straggle into Specter's office during the day, in ones and twos, leaving off the literature each conference goer had about this issue, and drop it off, to make it very clear just how many constituents his office blew off.

In the three or four conferences since then someone from Specter's staff has always met with the NAAF group.

Having done this lobbying a total of five different times, I find I learn a lot that's not directly connected to party politics about a Senator or Representative by the way they treat us. I've been treated with contempt, indifference, or welcome, depending on the particular member of Congress. I am almost always better treated by Democratic staffers than by Republican ones. I wonder why?

[valerief]

1. Dems want to share. Repubs want to take.

Cooperators are always nicer than Competitors.