Hoyer and the Elevator Test

I apply The Elevator Test to politicians: would I rather spend ten minutes in an elevator with this guy, or commit suicide? Not many politicians pass, which probably says more about me than them. Bill Clinton passes, though if it were "twenty minutes," I'd have to rethink. Hillary I respect (mostly) and I concede she's made her bones as a politician but for the elevator test, I'm not so sure.

Nancy Pelosi, the liberal from San Francisco, has always passed the elevator test with me: she can be irritating, but she never peels the skin off my back.

Steny Hoyer--hey, I really don't know him all that well, but I guess he's okay. Bummer about net neutrality but nobody is right all the time. On the elevator I'd give him a clean edge over his late opponent in the leadership fight.

My trouble with Hoyer is elsewhere, an issue nobody else seems to have picked up on. The Almanac of American Politics explains:

The biggest industry here is still government: It has the highest percentage of federal government employees of any congressional district.

Now, I don't want to be misunderstood here: I admire good government service; I think it is an honorable profession, and should be recognized and rewarded (of course I do--I have lived on the king's shilling for more than half my life myself). But let's not kid ourselves here: compared to the mass of Americans, federal employees are a cosseted lot. Their jobs are often interesting; the pay is decent, and they've got security that others only dream of. Moreover one way or another, they end up with health care and pension protections that are, for many Americans, beyond the realm of dreams altogether. Put it another way: hiding behind a Rawlesian veil, if you were given the choice between a Federal government job and any other job, then prudence and calculation would put you in Hoyer's back yard.

Is this a convincing voice for hard-working, tax-paying, middle America? Rhetorical question. It almost makes you long for somebody with an honest job. Like, say, pest control. No, strike that, your honor, compared to the last act I have to concede that Hoyer looks pretty good.

[For extra credit: consider the significance of having a caucus chairman who started adulthood at the hand of Tony Coelho in 1995.]

[Afterthought to afterthought: I suspect that much too much is being made of Pelosi's public support for Murtha. I give her credit for being one jump ahead of us here: by declaring herself, she made it clear that she is loyal, and relieves herself of the necessity of doing any real arm-twisting.]