In 1977 I was twenty years old and had the privilege of working for Congressman Thomas A. Luken of Cincinnati.\u00a0\u00a0It started after finishing a three-month stint as a Carter\/Mondale campaign Field Coordinator, the lowest level paid position in the successful Presidential campaign.\u00a0\u00a0After the inauguration I went back to school, taking classes at American University in Washington, DC. I I also worked in the Luken Congressional Office part time as a paid intern.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The job started with writing letters back to the constituents in Cincinnati.\u00a0\u00a0On the major issues like abortion rights and taxes, there was a \u201cform\u201d letter that I personalized for each constituent.\u00a0\u00a0This was before the days of office computers, but we did have typewriters that \u201cremembered\u201d a given letter.\u00a0\u00a0It would stop at the appropriate times, and the operator would type in a name or location to personalize the document.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I also found that there were other issues with no office \u201cpolicy\u201d. Then it was my job to research the issue, talk to relevant agencies or experts, and propose a response. One of the best parts of my job was saying, \u201cHi, this is Martin Dahlman from Congressman Tom Luken\u2019s office, could you\u2026\u201d on the phone. Responses were usually quick and comprehensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I created \u201cmicro-policy\u201d for the Congressman on a variety of issues. Before any letter went out, it had to be approved by the Administrative Aide and the Congressman himself.\u00a0\u00a0Tom Luken was a part of every decision, with an old Marine\u2019s view of work.\u00a0\u00a0Draft after draft of a letter would be \u201cworked up\u201d, but there would always be scribbled revisions to deal with before we reached a final version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eventually I worked my way to bigger tasks.\u00a0\u00a0It was the year of the winter “energy shortage” that closed schools throughout Ohio, and I helped relay information about that. I began solving other problems for constituents as an outgrowth of the letters.\u00a0\u00a0Then I got the chance to help write legislation for tax credits for energy efficient heating systems. And finally I got to author some minor Congressional speeches.\u00a0\u00a0Somewhere buried deep in the Congressional Record, there is a Tom Luken speech that I wrote. Pretty exciting!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later in the year, I came home to Cincinnati to work in the home office.\u00a0\u00a0I served as the Congressman\u2019s local scheduler.\u00a0\u00a0My job was to build a schedule, then act as his staff for appointments and events while he was in town. I learned a lot working closely with him and I finished that summer with a true appreciation of his hard work.\u00a0\u00a0I also felt like I was missing multiple body parts:\u00a0\u00a0the Congressman had a Marine Corps skill of chewing his staff out.\u00a0\u00a0Deserving or not, since I was usually nearby, I got it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Carter Campaign getting the job done as quickly as possible was the goal. Need signs: we printed our own and stapled them to telephone poles in the middle of the night. Need volunteers: pickup the phone and call high school kids to come in and work \u2013 pizza usually did the trick. The pressure of Election Day made everyday office procedures go out the window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in a Congressional office, the law placed a barrier between governing and campaigning.\u00a0\u00a0The simplest way to understand it is the \u201cfranking privilege\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0By Congressional mandate, the United States Postal Service would (and still does) deliver mail with the Congressman\u2019s signature on the envelope instead of a stamp.\u00a0\u00a0All of those responses I answered with the automatic typewriters were \u201cfranked\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the Hatch Act, passed by Congress in 1939, specifies that campaign material cannot be \u201cfranked\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, campaign activities cannot occur in government offices, or by government employees on their paid time.\u00a0\u00a0They had to be paid for by campaign funds, not taxpayer funds.\u00a0\u00a0In fact back in Cincinnati there was the Congressman\u2019s office in the Federal Building where I worked, and there was the Luken campaign office somewhere else.\u00a0\u00a0Only the top aides interchanged between the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the Congressman\u2019s scheduler, I would get requests from the \u201ccampaign\u201d for time slots on his schedule.\u00a0\u00a0That was usually as far as it went, though I did have the \u201chonor\u201d of driving Mr. Luken in the 1977 City of Cheviot Fourth of July parade.\u00a0\u00a0It was my first experience driving a Jeep, and my goal was to shift smoothly so that the Congressman, standing and waving in the back, didn\u2019t get knocked down.\u00a0\u00a0I also wanted to avoid running over the little kids marching in front of us.\u00a0\u00a0That \u201cbreaking news\u201d would look bad in the Cincinnati Post<\/em> the next day!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n But generally the Hatch Act restrictions were clear, and the office kept a distance from the \u201cline\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This week the President of the United States used the White House, Ft. McHenry, the United States Marines, and a United States citizenship ceremony as \u201cprops\u201d for his version of the Republican Convention.\u00a0\u00a0His Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, went even further, using his standing as the chief diplomat of the United States to make a speech supporting the President from the most famous hotel in Jerusalem, the King David.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The carefully proscribed actions established by the Hatch Act to prevent the abuse of government property, resources, and the powers of incumbency, were thrown out the window. It\u2019s bad enough that Mr. Trump feels it\u2019s appropriate to use Air Force One as the backdrop for his rallies, but now it\u2019s the White House, and even the Marines. And, to provide Mr. Pompeo with a brilliant backdrop, taxpayer funds were spent to fly him to Jerusalem and house him in the King David Hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There seems to be no end to the \u201csins\u201d of the Trump Administration. The litmus test: if Michelle Obama had addressed the 2012 Democratic Convention from the Rose Garden, the world would have ended. But Donald Trump has erased all the legal norms. He has pardoned his friends and prosecuted his enemies; employed his family members and personally profited from his government\u2019s actions. <\/p>\n\n\n\nHubris<\/h3>\n\n\n\n