Politico has another one of those delicious “Congressmen (and their wives) caught in the act of being themselves” stories, this one involving Virginia Republican Tom Garrett and wife Flanna, who had staff scraping dog shit off congressional carpets, deposited there by “Sophie”, the Garretts’ Jack Russell-Pomeranian mix, among other things.
Not too surprisingly, staff seemed to find “Flanna”, as Politico calls her, the more irritating of the two. “Flanna would reach out to aides at all hours of the night, according to two former staffers. One person recalled an incident in which Flanna lashed out at a staffer for not picking up the congressman from his apartment after he overslept.”
All this bad-mouthing reminds me of a post I ran fully ten years ago on the wife of then Alaska Congressman Don Young, godfather of the possibily still-famous “bridge to nowhere.” Someone in Young’s office prepared a “do’s and don’t’s” list for dealing with Mrs. Y, which included the following items:
- When she asks for sunflower seeds give her pumpkin seeds.
- Eat what she tells you to eat.
- Her orders are often disguised as offers, suggestions or invitations, they are not—do them.
- If you don’t want Mrs. Young to know about it or be involved in something don’t talk about it in front of her; she will make herself involved. Be careful what you joke about.
I added a “don’t” of my own, to wit: Don’t call her “the Dragon Lady.” She hates that.
