Say Anything Blog

The Bismarck Mandan Blog recounts a call placed to Senator Kent Conrad’s office over the illegal immigration bill:

...the voice who answered the phone sounded one third agitated and two thirds cocky. I said the same thing, that “I’m calling to urge Senator Conrad to vote No for any cloture vote or final vote on the so-called Amnesty Bill.” I simply received an annoyed “okay” or something to that effect. Waiting for them to ask my name, it wasn’t happening. I kept the conversation going by asking, “don’t you want to record my name?” They said sure, so I gave them my name and said, “I’m one of the Senator’s constituents.” At that point they cut the call short. No asking my address or phone number to verify or anything. This was unusual and, in fact, different from any other call I’ve placed to any of our congressmen.

I have no doubt that my comments never reached Senator Conrad. Even if they had, I doubt they’d have changed his mind; he votes like a Massachussetts liberal consistently, and only keeps an apartment in North Dakota to qualify for re-election (along with his cohort, Senator Dorgan.

Sounds pretty typical to me.  Senator Conrad doesn’t really care what his mostly conservative constituents think.  He comes home and tells us one thing, then goes back to Washington and does another.  What’s fascinating is to watch Senator Conrad (and his colleague Senator Dorgan) gravitate from one side of the political spectrum to the other depending on how far away from elections they are.