{"id":6048,"date":"2014-06-27T23:51:14","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T23:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/?p=6048"},"modified":"2014-06-27T23:51:14","modified_gmt":"2014-06-27T23:51:14","slug":"new-majority-leader-sleeps-on-office-couch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=6048","title":{"rendered":"New majority leader sleeps on office couch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

Recently, I read where the newly elected majority leader of the House of Representatives crashes on a couch in his Washington, D.C. office.<\/p>\n

Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., does that — he says — so he can be available to fly home frequently to stay in touch with his constituents.<\/p>\n

Just for the record, I’ve commented before on this practice. I long have considered it more of a stunt than anything else.<\/p>\n

I still believe that’s the case.<\/p>\n

Many members of Congress have professed to do such a thing as a way to be, oh, more “real” to the people they represent back home. My question always is this: Who among a member of Congress’s constituents does that kind of thing?<\/p>\n

I keep trying to figure out how living out of a proverbial suitcase in Washington, D.C. makes one more in touch with the home folks than if he or she rents a cheap apartment, hangs his clothes up in a closet, pays some rent and then flies home when it’s convenient.<\/p>\n

I wrote a column about that once long ago. I poked a little fun at U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., for living like that. Of course, that was when he was married and was before he took off on that infamous and trumped-up “hike along the Appalachian Trail” when he in fact was in Argentina canoodling with his girlfriend.<\/p>\n

A better example of living like your constituents is to move your family to D.C., enroll the kids in school, rent or buy a home and act like a regular family.<\/p>\n

This business of sleeping on an office couch makes for snappy campaign-ad fodder that, I suppose, appeals to someone out there.<\/p>\n

Me? I prefer my congressman to live like a normal human being.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, I read where the newly elected majority leader of the House of Representatives crashes on a couch in his Washington, D.C. office. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., does that — he says — so he can be available to fly home frequently to stay in touch with his constituents. Just for the record, I’ve commented before … Continue reading New majority leader sleeps on office couch<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[849,1112,2183,2670,2916],"class_list":["post-6048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-capitol-hill","tag-congress","tag-house-of-representatives","tag-kevin-mccarthy","tag-mark-sanford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}