A Day in the Life with a Lobbyist

Today TWC had an event called “A Day in the Life with a Lobbyist.” When I got the e-mail I wasn’t really interested because I work at a lobbying firm. However, when I saw it was at Downey McGrath Group, Inc. with one of the vice presidents, Sloan Rappoport, I was really excited! Don’t get me wrong, I love my internship, but spicing it up a little bit is always a good thing! And they brought free Potbelly's, and after a few months on an unpaid internship and blowing money you don’t have, free food is greatly appreciated.

I told my boss that I was going to sit in the meeting and just respond “No, you don’t” to everything he said and ask difficult questions, just to make it more fun. I behaved, though, and the program went really well. It was very interesting and I actually learned a lot more about what he does. What was more interesting was seeing the other students ask questions and hearing how he answered them. He should've mentioned that kitchen duty is a perk to being a lobbyist--DMG rotates the person on duty each week, as Sloan told me after the session.

In addition, the Big Three from the main car manufacturing companies were in DC today. The other intern got to go to the meeting (we normally swap every other one), but I watched it in the office. It was fascinating. It’s amazing to me how after the bailout passed everyone thinks they deserve a little piece of the cake! Is following normal bankruptcy laws no longer an option?! It just seems like a band-aid to me and will not help the infrastructure of these companies. What was worse is they were talking about people losing jobs and their retirements, but those attending the meeting flew in on private jets on the company's dollar?! Take away a few luxurious trips and they could probably pay for most of these people's retirements! Americans! We don’t know how good we have it sometimes!