This isn t surprising. One trait top-notch lawmakers share is they re great salespeople. Last week, both Republicans and Democrats were busy pitching their budget ideas along with a scoop or two of mud. At their rally, Democrats dispensed play money to illustrate the phony budgeting figures they accuse Republicans of using as a base in proposing tax cuts. The budget debate continued as of last weekend.
Lawmakers having varying degrees of deftness is salesmanship.
Sometimes they just don t know when just to leave a sales pitch alone to move on. This was shown at a Capitol press conference not long ago. A senator, trying to illustrate why a particular law wasn t needed, pointed to a tall stack of books of state statutes that had been piled on a nearby table. Now, the trick to this sales gimmick, which dates at least to the Reagan years in America and was probably more impressive in ancient Babylon when attempted with clay tables, is not to give people too much time to ponder the question. But the good senator, whose delivery is a little slow to begin with, waited a little too long.