NY Congressman Anthony Weiner (above) is back in the news today. Only this time instead of trying to soften our immigration laws to allow more foreign models into the country, the New York Times does a write up on something that many people who’ve worked in and around DC/NY politics have known for a long, long time: the 2009 NYC mayoral hopeful is an absolutely frightful person to work for.
Mr Weiner is being charitable when he calls himself a “demanding” boss. In truth it’s much closer to “demeaning.”
Many people don’t realize this, but what keeps Capitol Hill churning is an army of staffers in their 20s and early-to-mid 30s. Members of Congress ultimately call the shots on what gets done, but the actual work of getting our laws passed is done by thousands of young people who work long hours for little pay.
Congressman Weiner is among the most egregious offenders when it comes to treating his subordinates like disposable commodities, and his revolving door of staff members is legendary to people on the inside.
Part of the issue is that there are 50 young guns waiting in the wings for every open position in a Congressional Office, and as long as Congressional staff labor remains non-union (which will always be the case), they’ll be no shortage of people willing to step up to Anthony Weiner’s plate and take the abuse.
But how you treat your employees says something about your character. Add to that, Mr Weiner’s not running a Fortune 500 company that’s valued according to its quarterly profit margin — he’s representing roughly 700,000 New Yorkers from his Queens Congressional District.
And I can tell you this: high turnover doesn’t help his constituents one bit. It breaks the continuity of his office and ensures that each new staff member will have to retrace the steps of the person who worked before him/her. And it ensures that his constituents are likely to see a new face every time they reach out to his office for assistance, which can be very frustrating if you’re engaged in a longer term effort to secure benefits or track legislation.
What’s interesting is that Mr Weiner is someone who himself at one point worked on the staff of a high profile, ambitious politician: NY Senator Chuck Schumer. So I’m not sure if it’s in spite of this fact or because of it that — more than most politicians on his level – Mr Weiner takes such a hard line with his staff.
The irony for me personally is, I think Anthony Weiner might make a pretty good mayor. He’d probably be much more middle-class focused than Michael Bloomberg has been, but because I know how he treats the folks who actually do the grunt work necessary to make him look good, I’ll be unable to cast my vote for him should he be in a position to win city-wide office in 2009.
Related:
NYC MAYORAL HOPEFUL: “AMERICAN WOMEN NEED BAGS OVER THEIR HEADS”
NYC MAYORAL HOPEFUL’S SHOCKING, SECRET PLAN TO EXPAND DATING POOL
Tags: Anthony Weiner, Charles Schumer, NYC Mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner, Rep. Weiner, U.S. House of Representatives, United States Congress
