Congressional salaries
Judging by your computer letters, the LegiStorm congressional salary database will quickly become one of the most popular sites on the Internets.
Three groups of people will make the site an institution:
1.) Angry taxpayers. Most voters think that a six-figure salary for a government employee is high, even though most staffers would make considerably more than their current income if they moved to the private sector.
2.) Envious congressional staffers. Since I used to be one, I can say the following with the utmost confidence: Your friendly neighborhood congressional staffer is smarter than their boss, works harder than everyone else in their office, and is the only one around here who has any idea what the hell is going on. Just ask them, and they’ll tell you.
3.) Bloggers. Before I acquired my current reputation for doing the opposite of what pushy politicos “suggest” (some time around early 2002), I too received a constant barrage of whiny e-mails from chiefs of staff and spokespeople (Republicans, all) complaining that I wasn’t doing enough to help promote their boss. I don’t have to deal with that attitude much anymore, but I know bloggers who do. Here’s a clue: If you get paid to promote a message — and judging by the LegiStorm database, you’re being paid pretty well — and a blogger helps spread that message to a larger audience than you would have reached on your own, the first words out of your mouth to the blogger should be “thank you.”
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