Hello there. For those who are new to the Harvard Political Review or “The Libertarian Perspective,” please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Naji Filali, and I am a rising sophomore studying government at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. If you have not already deduced my political orientation, I am a libertarian (*gasp*). As I like to characterize myself, I am anti-war, fiscally conservative, and socially tolerant. I am a proud disciple of the “Ron Paul Revolution” that swept the country during the 2008 Republican primaries with U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) at the helm. This summer, I have the distinct privilege of putting my libertarian ideals to the test at the U.S. Senate office of Rep. Paul’s son, Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), in the heart of the nation’s capital. Every two weeks I will share with you my experiences on the Hill, sating your undoubtedly vociferous appetite for the inside scoop in Senator Paul’s liberty headquarters. Don’t worry; I am not going behind the good doctor’s back in doing so. He whole-heartedly encourages me to share my insights here, and I sincerely hope that you find my musings as entertaining and enlightening as I do (though, I may think I am more interesting than I actually am). But, enough with the triviality. Let’s begin, yes?
Even with the Senate in recess my first week on the job, the last two weeks have been quite eye-opening nonetheless. Working non-stop, exploring every nook and cranny of the Capitol Hill complex, and interacting with such exciting staff members who are equally, if not more, dedicated to Senator Paul’s message will do that to you.
Russell Senate Building
I began my intellectual odyssey the day after Memorial Day, a bit nervous, excited, and above all struggling to find my bearings in the Russell Senate Building. Take a trip to the building some time and try finding your way without a GPS. For the wide-eyed newcomer, the cavernous and stunning corridors are enough to distort your sense of direction. As I inconspicuously glanced into every open office door, I could not help but notice the uniqueness of each one’s character. Senator John Kerry’s (D-Massachusetts) is replete with photographs from his many travels and acquaintances, while a sharp-looking LCD monitor in the far right-hand corner of the office greets the passerby, while Senator James Inhofe’s (R-Oklahoma) features beige Victorian furniture and encapsulates the living environs of another era in American history. If I was not fully cognizant of the fact that I was in the Senate building, I would think some offices served the dual-purpose of a high-class customer service station, with up to four staffers in the main office behind tall and polished mahogany desks, glued to their computer screens and hooked up to telemarketer headsets. After absorbing practically all there was to be seen on the second floor of Russell, I finally stumbled into SR-208, that of the junior Senator from the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Two high bookcases flank both sides of the door, stocked with tomes of various political import. Three mahogany desks for staff members, a red carpet, bare beige walls, a couch, and two chairs with newspapers and magazines sprawled atop a wooden coffee table: efficient, polished, and respectable. The simple, yet elegant office set-up had me spellbound from the moment I passed the threshold. However, little did I know that the basic office schematic was just the tip of the iceberg! The 20 or so people with whom Senator Paul has surrounded himself on his maiden voyage are nothing short of awe-inspiring and in many ways reflect the upstanding image the Senator has accomplished in carefully arranging his office. I am not saying this because I am naïve to D.C. or inherently biased toward a like-minded politician. In my opinion, they are the reason Senator Paul has become such a central fixture in the national discussion.
The People
The staff assistants in the front are a case study in calm and effective handling of every conceivable request – from endless strings of phone calls to White House tours to appointment requests. The legislative assistants tirelessly slave away at their respective areas of expertise. Be it scrutinizing the burden of military operations in Libya or working on proposals to reform entitlements to share with the Senator, they are so well-versed in their areas of expertise, and so strong are their convictions that being around them is like learning via osmosis. The legislative correspondents (with the help of interns, which I will get to in a bit) respond to every bit of correspondence they receive – be it via phone call, e-mail, fax, letter. It makes no difference if it is from a Kentucky constituent or not, because in the end, every concern should be addressed if it is within reason to do so. The press team does an excellent job of saturating the airwaves with the Senator’s message and getting the Senator himself out and about, as was the case early last week on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention the upper echelons of the administration, which truly serve as the glue of the entire staff and keep the sails adjusted properly.
As for the interns, there are five of us in total and we pretty much tend to the miscellaneous work that does not directly fall under the others’ purview. Every day, each of us is assigned two two-hour blocks of answering phones at the front desk and logging unanswered constituent mail into an online software called “Senate Voice,” which routes individual correspondence to one of three legislative correspondents depending on the issue for a response.
Daily Discoveries
One would be surprised by how much there is to be learned by logging correspondence; the pulse of the nation (or irascible middle-aged and elder Americans) is right at my fingertips on a daily basis. I personally route quite the eclectic mix of form letters for the legislative correspondents to deal with. These past two weeks, I must have processed over 500 letters alone, and the trending topics include proposals for the Senator to stop Shariah law from somehow being introduced in the United States, overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling in Kentucky v. King (2011), defend Israel’s borders from the President’s 1967 border proposition, and either support or oppose the Tester-Corker amendment to S. 575 (the debit interchange fee cap amendment that failed in the Senate last week).
More importantly, we interns undertook quite the project in poring over 13,000 “Thank You” letters sent from around the country in support to Senator Paul’s attempt to deny the reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act on grounds of its violation of the Second and Fourth Amendments. One letter in particular made me proud to be an intern in the Senator’s office, in which a fellow New Yorker stated that he was a classic Hubert Humphrey liberal that did not see eye-to-eye with the Senator on many issues, but respected him more than he did any other liberal for his unequivocal defense of the same civil liberties his party once fought tooth and nail to defend. Similarly, National Rifle Association members flooded our inbox with disgust at their organization’s acquiescence to the intrusive gun record inspection in the bill, urging the Senator to “keep up the good fight from the gun-grabbers.” Such crosscutting ties over core Constitutional issues were surprising, and portend only the best for the Senator as he takes such principled stands on controversial matters. To those who choose to make snide comments at my choice of internship, I ask you to look long and hard in the mirror, appraise the track record of the Democratic Party on civil liberties in the past three years, and then hold it up to Senator Paul’s actions on the floor of the Senate.
No matter how entertaining it is for me to dissect individual opinions from behind the computer screen, nothing quite beats interactions with actual people on the phones. Amusingly, in listening to one of our staff assistants from Kentucky answer the phones so often (and might I add with such command and professionalism), I have not been able to help myself from catching onto the nuances of his Kentucky accent and even answer some of the phones with it. “Good afternoon, Senator Paul’s office.” Heck, one of the staffers even thought I was him once. Accent or not, the phone calls of appreciation for the Senator’s stance on fiscal issues are refreshing amidst similar reports of irate constituents flooding the phone lines of other offices.
Nevertheless, not all phone calls have been laudatory and positive in nature. It has admittedly been a challenge to deflect some of the criticisms lodged at Senator Paul by individuals citing a recent radio interview with Sean Hannity. As is typical of our sound bite culture, the Senator’s comments were taken out of context, painting him as a racial profiler for stating that those attending protests advocating the violent overthrow of our government be deported. Did it sound hateful and antithetical to the same American values Senator Paul has so passionately defended for the past several months? Yes. Should he be vilified for the intent of his extemporaneous comments? Absolutely not. As I explained to constituents, at the very least, the Senator made a well-intentioned stand to streamline otherwise invasive TSA procedures that would take on a more targeted method of ensuring airline security without patting down grandma and Little Billy. Though I may not agree with everything the Senator says – the vitality of our democracy is indeed dependent on such differences of opinion – he should be represented fairly in the media, especially since he is still getting a hold on things as a recent ophthalmologist-turned-statesman.
Senator Paul
Though the Senator was back in Bowling Green for recess during my first week on the job, I had the honor of meeting Senator Paul during the middle of Week Two when I handed him the newspapers for the day. It was surreal at least on my part to shake hands with the same individual I had watched on YouTube and blogged about for months while studying several hundred miles away in Cambridge. My excited-anxious state was completely and utterly belied by the Senator’s serene, calm demeanor. I cannot get over how well-collected and self-assured the Senator is – an intrepid captain sailing straight into the political squalls ahead, as I see it. I assume those qualities are necessitated by the perpetual political turmoil and angst in a city of big egos. As I would come to learn, he is also in a league of his own when it comes to his devotion to his first class of interns (not as cool as X-Men: First Class, but a close second).
We all sat down with him in his office the next day, introduced ourselves, and were collectively delighted and shocked to discover that he would like to meet with us regularly every two weeks so we can share our experiences and the progress we have made. Considering the fact that the vast majority of Senators go only as far as taking a picture with their interns or going out to lunch once or twice. Not to mention the generosity of his chief of staff, Doug Stafford, who went out of his way to purchase each of us a primer in libertarian education – an assortment of five books ranging from F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom to Ron Paul’s Liberty Defined. To top it all off, the Senator expressed his desire that each of us look beyond the office to broaden our knowledge base and more fully appreciate all D.C. has to offer by attending the various events organized for interns on and around the Hill. As such, I recently saw Ralph Nader tackle corporatism and look forward to attending several CATO Institute events in the near future.
The Closer
I will not bother boring you with the miscellaneous tidbits about errands run and mini-projects completed for legislative assistants; suffice it to say the past several weeks have been pretty awesome. Before I finish typing these pixels, I want to leave you with a unique intra-office e-mail exchange, one you could only find at the office of Senator Rand Paul:
Assistant to Chief of Staff: “Rand wants an office face book. Please send me a headshot by tomorrow COB.”
Legislative Correspondent: ”I feel that this would be an unwarranted investigation and acquisition of my private information by the government.”
Chief of Staff: “And he says you’re right. You can do a drawing instead if you want.”
The opinions of this blog are solely those of Naji Filali and do not reflect the beliefs of Senator Rand Paul or his staff.
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