I do note, however, that in watching Heinrich last night during the City Council meeting the following two thoughts crossed my mind:
- Heinrich is disturbingly attractive. I know it's silly, but this is a campaign issue. Others have brought it up, so it must be really silly, but the guy is so good-looking it almost makes me uncomfortable to watch him. I know it's terribly unfair, but maybe some of us have this heightened sensitivity to good-looking people running for office after the trauma suffered from experiencing Student Council and Homecoming King/Queen Elections in high school. It's pitiful and I admit that I "own this issue", but the guy needs to invest in a decently sized facial disfigurement or something.
- Being an active Albuquerque City Councilor is probably a more important job than being a Representative of the U.S. House. I know the prestige is far less (not to mention the pay), but what does a first term U.S. Rep. do besides vote in tandem with their party, sponsor a few bills pertaining to relatively minor matters and start running for office again the day they are sworn in? Working with fellow Councilors O'Malley and Benton, Heinrich is making meaningful votes, blocking Mayor Marty's growth-love in important ways, and gets to talk for significant stretches during Council meetings. Not to mention the advocacy stuff he gets to do for things like Ojito Mesa.
One of the primary drivers for sending well-paying American jobs to low-wage countries has been our "free trade" policy. NAFTA, CAFTA and SHAFT-YA (ok, I made that up, but at least the name is intellectually honest) have been disasters for New Mexico and the nation. They have intensified our border disputes, concentrated pollution, and hurt American jobs.
I'm all for candidates having a sense of humor. Having lived through the humorlessness of Heather Wilson and the teeth-grating unfunny of Wilson v. Madrid, I'm loving the idea of a free-ranging exchange of candidates jokes, jibes and jests. When it comes to Heinrich making jokes of an even remotely sexual nature (i.e. "SHAFT-YA"), however, my overall discomfort with the guy's good-looking problem, uh, returns.
Maybe this is about more than my simple distaste for those Homecoming King/Queen Elections back in high school, but I think Heinrich needs to stick with funny material ala Mr. Bean or Rich Little. "Family Circus" stuff would be a good choice. That and a poorly reset broken nose or something.
5 comments:
Scott, from dictionary.com...
tr.v. shaft·ed, shaft·ing, shafts
#1 To equip with a shaft.
#2 Slang To treat in a harsh, unfair way: "He had been shafted by the press quite a bit" (Frank Deford).
Sure, Heinrich's an attractive dude. But it's not only something physical, it's more like some weird kind of personal magnetism. That tends to work out well for politicians...
he's my favorite local politician, and it was only with disappointment that I heard he was running for heather's seat. I'm all for Heather not being there, and I think he'd be a much better alternative, but this guy is an incredibly competent councilman, and one of the few politicians who I've ever thought had the best interest of the city in mind.
As for the prom-king (which seems to be slightly less true in student government, but still prevalent), I think his competence outweighs his appearance.
I've been rolling "Shafted/Shaftya" around in my mind over the last few days (never a good way to pass the time) and Martin, I still getting a prurient vibe from the term. I admit it could be that I'm a middle school teacher and that my prudar (prurient + radar) is always set on High. Thanks for dropping by, by the way, and I'm loving the Chavez Opposition Coalition (COC).
It's comforting to know that there's a terrific progressive candidate running for Martin's District 6 seat: Rey Garduno. If he wins, we should be well covered. He's running a publicly funded campaign, which he helped to get as a board member of Common Cause.
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