Guess who is coming to dinner?
 

OK not dinner...but to our paper's editorial board meeting.


I'm the editorial assistant to the editorial page editor and we have meetings once a week with people who want the paper to take a stand on this or that. Well I found out today that we are going to have a special meeting with Rick Santorum next week. :eek:





I'm trying to figure out how I can bring up Googling his name without getting fired... :]

:lol::lol::lol:

I'm still recovering from doing that.

You poor thing. I don't know how I'd react to seeing him in the flesh. Forrest Gump with an attitude.

Not only in the flesh but simply across a table! :eek:

I've not met him before, but of course there are others at the paper who have. It was SOOOO funny...when the editor mentioned he would be coming in everyone around the table (editor-in-chief, managing editor, publisher, etc.) all visibly shivered. :lol:

I'm a civil person, but I couldn't be in the same room as Santorum. I'd make that imbecile cry.

I can't imagine that would be hard. He's shaking in his boots as it is with Casey Jr. eyeballing his job. He'll get it too. And Santorum knows it. :nod:

I'll let you know how much he squirms when we ask him about it... :woohoo:

I'm personally more interested in asking him how he can cry about the loss of his baby, and how much it devastated him, while rationalizing sending other people's babies off to their deaths.

I'd also like to ask him how he justifies all of the whining and boo-hooing he does about people "not understanding him," and "judging him without knowing him," while calling homosexuals "deviant sinners" who don't deserve basic civil rights.

Must be tough living in your crazy head, Ricky.

I'll see if I can work it in... :xoxo:

Again, take comfort in the fact that he will most likely lose his job, though Casey is hardly a liberal Dem...

Well, it is for work and we all have to do things with a smile that we hate in the name of work. So, just be professional. And - if he asks your opinion, give it to him in a straight forward professional way. That is how I get through things like that - and I have been to many :eek:

I'm actually looking forward to it in a wierd way. To gaze upon evil with mine own eyes...

He's coming to talk about a nearby military base that's on the closing list but, in the words of my boss, "Once he's here we can ask him anything we want. He's ours for the hour."

We have to be professional, but it's not like we work for him. Johnny Stew's questions, if worded a little differently, are not out of bounds.

I wonder if Santorum is aware of the word that has been coined in his honor. Or is that what you meant by googling him? :D

That's what I meant. :)

I'm trying to figure out if we're talking about his position on something and I mention needing a supporting quote from him I can say, "Well I'm sure if I Google your name I can find something..." :lol:

I mean he MUST KNOW!!! :lol:

Ha! It was the editor/sex columnist of my city's alternative weekly newspaper The Stranger which organized the effort to honor Santorum. :lol:

I have met many politicians and throughout it all, I think it is important that they hear our concerns because they are public servants and nothing more.

Moreover, when they give a canned answer, which they always do the first time, call them on it in a nice way. I mean you will get nowhere but probably fired :eek: if you open up with "Listen you stupid FU&* - who the FU*& do you think you are . . . " :laugh:

Though you may not have any impact on him, maybe if enough people present their views logically and with professional courtsey, he will change and at least be willing to consider other ideas, etc. But, he most certainly would not listen to a raving rant - who would :shrug: Sugar always draws more flies than salt.

Also, that is cool that you will be up close and personal with him because they rarely allow people to do that if anything to avoid even friendly confrontation. They'd rather glad hand everyone.

Good Luck and I would love to hear what happens!!!!!!

Macfanken said:
"Ha! It was the editor/sex columnist of my city's alternative weekly newspaper The Stranger which organized the effort to honor Santorum. "


The "Savage Love" guy, right? I like him!

Very true, but I'd still be forced to go Julia Sugarbaker on his ass. :sorry:

Yep...Dan Savage. :)

I'm still pretty new at the job, so this is all still a bit new to me. This will probably be the most high profile person for me yet. One of our local pols just got into the U.S. House, and he's been in to meet with us, but he's still just a freshman.

I'm sure there will be some sort of handler with him, but we'll also have a reporter in there to document everything he does and does not say in an article for the paper. We also have two community members, who are simply citizens, one of whom is the head of the union at the local community college. It will be interesting to see if they have any interesting questions for him.

You can be sure I'll be back with a full report!

I'm dying to hear about how this meeting turns out. Any chance he might not show?

I can't imagine. He asked to come in. Like I said, he wants to talk about his plan to save a local military base, but I can't imagine the editors are going to let him get away without a few questions about other things. :woohoo:

Oooh. Keep us posted. Bet his aura sucks. :lol:

Everytime someone uses the word "aura," I always think of Miss Brahms on 'Are You Being Served.'

She once told a customer (to sell a sweater): "Some people have an aura what is blue - some people have an aura what is pink. But, madam has an aura what is purple with white stripes." :laugh:

I don't want to tell you what I think "santorum's" aura looks like. :)

Something tells me it's feces-brown. :shocked:

Oooh. You're psychic. ;)

K - sorry - I'm confused. I've been working in news (albeit in Canada) for 15 years. I've never worked at a paper, but I've worked in radio and TV news, at both the local and national/international levels. I don't really understand why he is coming to your paper's editorial board meeting. Are your paper's editorials based on what certain politicians ask you to write? There is no snarky tone to this question - I'm legitimately confused.

Yes and no. Lots of people ask to meet with the editorial board in the hopes of us picking up their cause. Sometimes the issues are no-brainers and it's just a matter of informing us. Last week it was the area United Way teling us how they plan to push a new 2-1-1 phone number as an emergency line for social services. Or how the area hospital association is petrified about Medicaid cuts or how the state banking secretary is pushing for legislation to protect consumers.

Sometimes there are contentious local issues and we ask in people from both sides and then we write an article simply laying out the two sides.

When politicians come in they usually plan to inform us about something they're planning to do. In Santorium's case he's going to tell us all the wonderful things he's going to do to prevent the closing of a local military base, and there will probably be an article that says, "Sen. Santorum plans to blah blah blah in order to prevent the base closing." Perhaps there will be an editorial about the merits of keeping the base open with supporting quotes from Santorium.

But it's not a given. We've had people come in and give their point of view and then the editorial reads, "We tried to see so-and-so's point of view but we just can't, and here's why." And the meetings, while they almost always generate an article, don't always generate an editorial.

It's really just an opportunity for organizations and political figures to attempt to get the support of the paper. But what we write is up to us. We've had pols come in to talk about something specific, but when the conversation turns to something else they say something startling. Suffice to say people who come in don't always get the headline they want!

I've really rattled on. How's that?

It's funny, because at first I found him kind of chatty and likeable. Obviously very knowledgable, and certainly a man of conviction.

Especially when the conversation turned to Iraq and his abortion=slavery stance. Daring you to find fault with his POV.

"Should I not tell the truth because it might make people uncomfortable?"

A little scary frankly.

We haven't been aggressive enough in Iraq, but we don't need more troops. Just to send the troops there on more missions.

To have a timeline out is to tell the insurgents that they've won. That's what happened in Spain. They were able to throw out a gov't that fought them and put one in that wouldn't.

He dodged questions about 2008. I can't imagine him as president.

I didn't ask any questions and we only had him for an hour, and even at that his aid was pushing to get him out the door. Interesting, though.

Now I want to talk to Casey!

Interesting--thanks for reporting back!

He's out of his frickin' mind. :distress: