What to Make of This?

Filed in National by on May 22, 2009

From Political Wire:

Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-DE) is known for keeping a list of several hundred birthdays of current and former colleagues, staffers and others and for dialing them on that day to wish them well.

This is at once very endearing and somewhat disturbing. I will go with endearing.

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Comments (18)

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  1. nemski says:

    It’s a Zig Ziglar thing to do.

  2. jason330 says:

    What a guy. That totally makes up for his behavior the rest of the year.

  3. liberalgeek says:

    I bet most of the birthdays are people that work for banks.

  4. It makes more sense now that he called out the brother of some aide (he turned 20) at the DE dem convention. It seemed strange at the time.

  5. I am happy if I remember my own birthday each year. There have been years I forgot until someone called or wished me a Happy Birthday.

  6. FSP says:

    He doesn’t call you guys?

  7. liberalgeek says:

    Let me say a few days early… Happy Birthday Truth Teller! No Joke.

  8. jason330 says:

    FSP,

    Just Donviti.

  9. We should just email him en masse our names, phone numbers, and birthdays. then once a year, as a gift, our Senator would actually be forced to listen to his constituents for 30 seconds.

  10. Art Downs says:

    Constituent service can mean a lot more than a voting record when it comes to retaining an office.

    In Maryland, Rep. Clarence Long was held in contempt by colleagues of both parties and by his own state party. He was called ‘the best county councilman in the House of Representatives’. He could send a constituent an almanac and take credit for the sun rising.

    Election after election some silk stocking, blue-blood Republican would take him on and lose. The loser would never be heard from again. Three tries from a somewhat crusty female reporter did the trick. One of her first acts was to get the Baltimore Channel dredged and save the Port of Baltimore. When redistricting time game, Governor Schaeffer threw a Democrat to the winds to assure a safer seat for the Republican who saved the port.

    This is two sides of real-world politics.

  11. John Manifold says:

    Carper approval ratings astounding:

    http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2009/Senate/Maps/May23-s.html#1

  12. Art’s right about constituent service. It is one of the reasons that Bill Roth retained his popularity even when, during the last couple of cycles, his voting record was less in tune w/Delawareans.

    Carper has a pretty good record on constituent services, but it has never risen to Roth’s level, which remains Delaware’s Holy Grail of Constituent Services.

    As to Biden, well, the standing joke was, that if you had a constituent issue, you would contact Carper and Castle’s offices and, out of courtesy, you’d cc Biden’s office.

  13. rhubard says:

    “Carper approval ratings astounding”

    Yeah? And? I’m pretty sure this is a progressive site, JM, not a Democratic one. Or hadn’t you noticed?

  14. John Manifold says:

    Hub’s offended that facts quoted here.

    Possibly nostalgic for Gene Reed Sr.

  15. rhubard says:

    Or possibly offended that an apologist for the Democratic machine keeps pretending to be progressive so he can peddle his propaganda. Hmm, which could it be, since you don’t know squat about me?

    The world is full of facts. The ones you quote are the ones that say something about you.

  16. delacrat says:

    I received a birthday card from my state representative, whom I have, to this day, never met.

    I was not endeared.

  17. John Manifold says:

    Tom Carper is popular to an extent rarely found in public life. His record can be improved or criticized at times, but Naderite chirps like Hub’s degrade only those who post them.

  18. feces says:

    Sigh.

    I sometimes wish the folks who run this site would, just for once, work on a campaign, or report on a campaign, or even just sleep with a campaign worker. The political naivete here is barf-inducing.

    Anyone who’s anyone in Delaware politics (and I’m not even a flyspeck on Anyone’s right testicle) has known that Carper does this for years. Of course, a Pennsylvania lawyer might not know that, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.