Trolling at the Cap

Working the Capitol beat can be a little tricky at times. All this gov'ment stuff is tricky and complicated, and for those who don't regularly wander the halls of this grand monument to state government, dropping in for a quick soundbite isn't always as easy as it sounds. To quote The Dude: "There's a lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what-have-yous... got any Kahlua?" This was a day where we could have used a little Kahlua.

It was a simple enough prospect: Some millions of dollars are spent every year on automobiles for lawmakers. Some refuse them in an effort to mend the budget crisis. Others go ahead and take 'em. So let's just head down to the ol' Cap and ask a few lawmakers how they feel.

The problem with the Capitol is that everybody is always doing something (stupid government in action), and therefore are never in their offices. So what's a couple of plucky journalists to do? Well... wander the halls.

It's really all you can do, just wander around until you catch a lawmaker on his or her way to make some law, and walk along with them (backwards for the photog... always an adventure) as you hit them with rapid-fire questions. Not a problem, as long as you know who these folks are. Unfortunately, me and my trusty 'porter (slang for reporter) aren't usually on the Cap beat, and aside from a few familiar faces, we can't really recognize such-and-such from this-and-that district as they hustle and bustle down the hallway. And heck, there's a lot of 'em...

Occasionally a familiar face passes by... but then you have to try to remember if they're in the Senate or Assembly. You can't just yell out "Hey Guy!", as I tend to on my usual day-to-day stories. They expect you to know who they are, and in all fairness, we probably should. But heck, we're only down here a handful of times a year (there's bigger stories to be told!), so cut us some slack! I suppose that's what they did when they posted all the photos in the hallway, which is where we stationed ourselves in an effort to spot a familiar face. It was like some sort of wacky trivia game where you had to spot someone walking down the hall, remember where their picture was, and call out their name before they realized what you were doing.

Golly this is a lot of work. Can't we just stand in a corner and have them shuttled to us one at a time? I mean c'mon... Media Elite over here! You think you're so big and important because you're dealing with a budget crisis amidst a worldwide recession? Well I'm required to take a dinner break, so let's get this moving along, can we?

Gotta love politics.