More Advice to Nan Hayworth: Staffing

Yep... for the next few days there's gonna be a flurry of posts - "Open Letters" - addressed to my newly elected Congresswoman-Elect, Dr. Nan Hayworth.

I hope to hell that others are emulating me... are reaching out to their newly elected (and even re-elected) representatives!

O.K., Nan... staffing...

First off, you've publicly committed to carrying through on my call to cut 10% out of your first congressional office budget as compared to what Democrat John Hall ends up spending for this final year of his term... this final year of his final term in office.

(*GRIN*) (*WINK*)

Great! 'Nough said!

Now... some other advice:

First of all some context...

When I was a junior at Northeastern University I spent a semester abroad (in London, England) studying, earning credits, and most important, interning for a senior backbench Tory Member of the House of Commons.

I'm not telling you this to reminisce, but rather to point out the following: This senior backbench Member of the House of Commons - the "Mother Parliament" of Western Democracy - had one full-time professional researcher (aide) "on staff" and... me.

My Member - the Right Honorable Sir Teddy Taylor, MP (retired) - shared a secretary with another (even more senior!) Member of the House of Commons.

Nan... this was (and to the best of my knowledge still is) the norm.

Now I'm not telling you to emulate British Parliament staffing norms (after all, they have a professional non-partisan civil service which acts as professional staff to the combined Legislative-Executive Branch that is the British Parliament), rather, I'm pointing out that our system goes deliberately in the complete opposite direction.

In America... in Congress... each senator and representative is King (or Queen as the case may be) of his or her domain.

Oh... it's not as bad as it used to be pre-Republican Revolution 1994 (at least staffers since the Gingrich era have enjoyed certain basic labor protections under federal law), but congressional staffing is still pretty much a "feudal" enterprise based upon personal loyalty to the individual senator or representative.

When hiring staff, Nan, the first question you should be asking of applicants is the following:

WHO DO YOU WANT TO WORK FOR?

The answer, Nan, will tell you everything you need to know.

The correct answer is "The American People."

Now of course people working for you are... er... working for you... but you get my point, right?

When George Schultz served as President Reagan's Secretary of State he used to call newly minted foreign service officers into his office and ask each young man or woman to "go over to that map and point to the country you've been assigned to or hope to represent."

Inevitably the nervous youngster would point to France or England or Russia or Japan...

(*PAUSE*) (*SMILE*)

Schultz would then gently shake his head and answer "no." He'd then point to the United States and say, "no, this is the country you represent."

(*SHRUG*)

You're going to be the boss, Nan. It can't be otherwise. And of course your staffers have to be "loyal." This too goes without saying. HOWEVER...

Those who end up working for you must understand and accept - willingly accept... indeed, embrace - the concept of "greater loyalty."

No... I'm not saying that in your office staffers can follow their own "hearts and minds" to the contrary of your agenda. What I'm saying is that each and every member of your staff must want to work for you not primarily out of financial need or a quest for personal advancement, but rather because they believe in you and believe in your agenda.

At the same time... each staff member needs to understand that while reasonable people can disagree on specific issues and details... should a staffer ever lose faith in the overall "righteousness" of your agenda it is that staffer's responsibility to resign rather than make take the unethical path of either working against you from within or - on the other extreme - surrendering his or her own most deeply held beliefs.

Nan. You know what kind of people tend to gravitate towards "staff work" in Washington?

Self-serving, slippery, brighter than average but too lazy to have majored in a hard science or even business or other "math-centric" field of study in college personalities - that's who.

Washington D.C. is full of bright, eager, hard-working young go-getters. The question is... what is it that they're actually focused on getting...???

My advice, Nan... if I were you, I'd contact Ron Paul's chief of staff... Michele Bachman's chief of staff... I'd try and reach John Shadegg directly... I'd reach out to my fellow physicians serving in the House... I'd try to directly reach Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn over on the Senate side... in other words, Nan, I'd reach out to sources you can trust for staffing advice and assistance.

Nan. It's crucial that if you're sincerely committed to "recapturing Washington from the politicians" and "returning power to the People" (as I know you are!) that you're supported by a crack team of sincere true believers.

Anyway... as always... just giving the best advice I'm able to give.