The Hustler

Recently there was a back-page editorial written
by Richard David Smith III in the Folio. It is a
humorous criticism and references a trip that I
took with Rich to Jim Draper's studio back in 2005.

When I first approached the friendly Senator Nelson
he put his hand on my shoulder and nodded to me
with a smile as his cameraman made a motion to take
our photograph. He seemed to salivate at the
chance for a photo-op with one of the few ethnic
minorities in the room...that is until one of his toadies
spied another ethnic minority who had two
advantages over me. The other was a child of around
six and a cute one at that. The toady whispered some-
thing - I assume slowly and repeatedly to the senator
who carried a perpetual glaze over his eyes.

I was brushed to the side as the senator mugged
for the camera - taking strategic care not look at the
child directly to avoid scaring her. From my view this
was preferable to being a tool for the Senator from
Florida but was not so great if you wanted to bring a
popular tax reform bill to his attention...which I
eventually did.

Rich was dead on about the issue-avoidance and
in fact the visit made it clear that Nelson's office was
probably littered with paraphernalia from his trip
into space. Judging by how proud he was of that
specific event and how often it was mentioned -
I thought that he probably required his staff to
pledge allegiance to his image....perhaps graven
with the word "HERO" and an American flag
perpetually waving with the aid of a portable fan.