It all started last October, when I began working in Senator Joseph Lieberman's office. Everything seemed normal. I was given a few things to read, made the rounds meeting people, and set up my computer account. That lasted an hour. By noon, I had 15 e-mails, all with interesting pieces of information that I had no idea what to do with: a briefing on Smart Growth, our success in obtaining funding for the Long Island Sound Office, an update on this week's crude oil reserves, and-something I became very familiar with- "JIL on CNN now!", a message always accompanied with the red "URGENT!" sign. Soon enough, I heard all the miniature TVs, an item found on every senate staffer's desk, re-tune and heard our boss giving his latest thoughts on prescription drugs. By the end of the week, I was keeping an eye on the budget negotiations on C-span and tracking the outcome of our bills, writing memos and press releases-including quotes for a boss I still had not met-and sending out a fair number of e-mails myself! And just when I began to see a glimmer of reason through the information onslaught, Congress came to a complete halt. It was time to campaign. And for our office, fortunate enough to have a vice-presidential candidate as boss, that meant living the emotional rollercoaster of opinion polls and NBC analysts.
Through the haze of the next month and a half, two memories stick out. One was standing in the rain at 3:30 in the morning in Nashville, waiting for Vice President Gore to give his concession speech. Suddenly, the latest Florida vote counts appeared on the big screen-only a 4000-vote difference! Hope was suddenly renewed. "Fuzzy math," the crowd chanted, "fuzzy math!"The second was flying to Tampa on an hour's notice to oversee the recount after the Florida Supreme Court decision. It was time to see those pregnant chads in the flesh. After three hours of sleep and the frustrating experience of a 150-person conference call, we prepared to inspect ballots, perfecting the scrutinizing stares that the TV cameras so loved. Literally minutes before we were to begin, the rollercoaster hit its final twist, sponsored this time by the U.S. Supreme Court, and we were back in D.C.
Now, although back in the same office, the drama seems never to abate. Once again I am faced with the steep cliff of the Capitol Hill learning curve; this time preparing for the political battle over opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, advocating for emergency funding to assist low-income homeowners with their high heating bills, and writing legislation to promote the use of fuel cells (Connecticut is the fuel-cell manufacturing capital, after all).But I must say, more than once I've thought wistfully back to those 4:00 a.m. mornings in the clean lab. It hasn't been that long since I was peacefully refocusing the 235U beam on the mass spectrometer to the deafening silence of the vacuum pumps, and musingas the latest isotope mass ratios rolled off the printer. I guess I know now why they call congressional staffers "adrenaline junkies."
Author: Kirsten Banks Cutler (bio)
Kirstin Banks Cutler was AGU's 2000-2001 Congressional Science Fellow. She spent her term in the office of Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.).
Read other Eos articles by Kirsten Cutler Banks
Report 2: Reflections: A Year on Capitol Hill (Eos, Nov. 20, 2001)