Meeting the Enemy...

...as in going to a political function and ambushing your freshman congressional Representative. In this case, Nancy Boyda, Democrat, representing the 2nd Congressional District of Kansas. She who upset Jim Ryun. Not that I mind his departure, he took his constituents for granted, I mind the loss of the seat to the Democrats, though despite some heated rhetoric to the contrary, I don't see Ms. Boyda as quite being "Ms. Boyda (D, KS/San Francisco).

This was a target of opportunity. As related yesterday, I went to the Dole Leadership Prize award for former Senator Howard Baker. On a note unrelated to that, but germane to this - I sent my first email missive to Ms. Boyda on Friday, being supportive of her thus-public stance on the issue of gun control in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings She didn't jump on the "We must do something!" bandwagon, she said “As tragic as this incident was … I don’t think we need additional federal gun laws,” Boyda said Tuesday. “We need to enforce the laws we have.” Word! More on that later. I decided that was the topic that would open my bouncing off of her email server. SWWBO has already been pinging Ms. Boyda (apparently relentlessly) on the issue of Iraq.

Back to the story - I was sitting in the Lied before the event started, and the people behind me were talking about politics and last year's campaign. At first when I heard them referring to Nancy, I thought they were referring to Senator Baker's wife, the former Senator from Kansas, Nancy Kassebaum-Baker. It became clear they were talking about Boyda, and since they were sitting right behind me, I turned and started talking to them. That discussion would be an interesting post in and of itself, as the people sitting behind me were Owen de Long, Boyda's campaign consultant, who was discussing (quite proudly I might add, deservedly so) of the Boyda campaign's fighting from 15 points behind to a win. Seated with him were two of Boyda's staff, a woman named Kate (I didn't get a last name) and a man whose name completely escapes me. As Kate is one of the people who answers Boyda's mail, we had a chat about some of the responses SWWBO has gotten - and I gave them credit for much better responses in that regard (i.e., the response, while a template, is customized to the question at hand) vice Ryun's operation, which it didn't matter what question you asked on a topic, you got the same generic response, which usually (at least in my case) didn't even remotely address my question. It was as if Mr. Ryun just patted you on the head and said, "Don't worry yourself about that, little man. I've got it under control." I mentioned my email on Friday, in which I said I would introduce myself should Ms. Boyda be coming to the event. They then pointed her out to me, sitting with Navy CAPT (R) Parker, a past President of MOAA (Military Officers Assn of America) just a short ways away.

So, after the event, I did just that. She was working the crowd, greeting the students who also wanted to meet her... I waited my chance and pounced.

And as we and her staff slowly walked out to the cars, I got about 20 minutes of her time. Which, when you think about it, isn't bad at all, and a credit to her that she took the time when she could have had her staff swoop in (they were hovering, listening) and rescue her. If you're reading, guys - thanks!

So, what's my take on Ms. Boyda? She listens well. And she didn't pander, either. We mostly agreed short-term, at least, on this specific incident, on the issue of guns post V-Tech, with her pointing out that the Dems had been working with the NRA on the issue. The one thing she did talk about was looking into how to do a better job of keeping people like the shooter from getting guns legally, and of disarming people who fall into the abyss that the shooter did. There's much room for mischief in there, certainly - but that's a position I can work with.

We are largely in agreement on BRAC-related issues for Kansas, and I know she's been working with the installations and the senior guys like LTG(R) Keller who are the players there. Retired munchkins like me, absent moving into leadership positions in things like AUSA, MOAA, American Legion etc, aren't really players in that arena, nor do I intend to start.

We touched on, briefly, Veteran's Health Care issues which I do have a personal interest in, between my father and myself and may choose to become a player in that arena. Boyda and I have no significant beefs in that regard.

The tension, such as it was, was over Iraq and her sense of military families and their reaction to Iraq. In her staff's responses to SWWBO, and in her personal responses to me, I get the general sense that Ms. Boyda et.cie, feel that military families are against the war and want everybody home right this minute. Boyda alluded to the most vicious email she gets are people berating her for not immediately having the troops redeployed. Seeing the kind of comments and email that SWWBO sometimes gets, I can imagine the tone and quality of some of those emails.

Ms. Boyda related that during some of her "Congress on the Corner" stops around the district, she gets larger-than-expected crowds, full of women who want their husbands, sons, nephews, grandchildren etc, Home Now, and they are vehement on it.

The point I made is of course we military family members want our deployed soldiers home, but for the right reasons, not "just because" - though there are certainly those who do fall into the latter category.

We danced around that issue of the view of military families for a while, until I realized we weren't talking about the same thing. I think that Ms. Boyda and her staff are conflating Active, Guard, and Reserve families into one homogeneous group, and she was talking to, based on locations she mentioned, mostly Guard families.

She understands self-selecting groups and is aware that the ones showing up are the ones with grievances, and that being a Democrat, she's more likely to attract the attention of that group. I do think it caught her by surprise that I suggested she was not only getting self-selected, but self-selected from a relatively specific sub-group of the military family community - and one, like the Reserve families, that is hardest hit by deployments, if only for the simple reason that they are more isolated from the support services built into the fixed infrastructure of military basing.

Not bad for twenty minutes. I did get this email yesterday from a Senior Military Person of my acquaintance (titled "Hob Nobbing with the High and Mighty"), presented here edited to preserve anonymity:

John,

Well, Mike and I missed you at lunch today, but I know how difficult it is for the media elite to manage their time.

I hope your meeting with Her Congressness went better than (his wife's) conversation with her. Perhaps you had time to acquaint her with some of the finer points of the U.S. Constitution such as the organization of the several branches of government, the role of the Legislative Bodies, and the observation that a congressman from Kansas would do well to represent Kansas instead of San Francisco . My brother-in-law (the political pundit) tells me that she snuck under everyone's radar screen in 2006 and that will not happen the next time. He doubts that she's up to the challenge - I'd be interested in your impression.

BTW - that thingy on your blog that is giving everyone fits - Its the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch - Geeze, where do you find these rookies?

Interesting, the comment about the pundit brother-in-law - it was exactly that subject, from that angle, that Owen de Long was chuckling about.

Sadly, we didn't have time for me to lecture the Congresswoman on the Constitution. Nor, in context, would it have been appropriate, as I was a walk-by mugging-by-constituent and I thought Ms. Boyda was honest and forthright with me, on the issues we discussed. Hopefully that is something she will continue to maintain, with all of us during her tenure, and not slip into mindless platitudes ala Ryun. Yeah, I *not* a Ryun fan. I'd much rather see someone else challenge Ms. Boyda next round.

But, I promise the Senior Military Personage that I will bring the issue up if it comes up. Next opportunity - SWWBO and I have been invited to drop by for a chat while we're in DC next week for the Milblog Conference - which I pitched to Ms. Boyda as something to have at least one of her staff check out the live feed from, seeing as how I'm one of the bigger (non-professional media type, anyway) bloggers in her district...

Ms. Boyda listened, defended herself well, and we had a good give-and-take. She knows she can't be Nancy Pelosi and keep her job in this district. But she's not going to be Jim Ryun, either. She's going to come from the center left. Our job is just to make sure the drift further to the left is under control. As she said to me specifically, she's going to listen to all sides, but in the end, she's going to vote as her judgement directs, whether or no the District wants it that way.

I responded that was the way a Republican democracy worked, and she'll get her grade next time 'round.

I wasn't expecting a fight, but it went differently than I expected, and in ways that redound to Ms. Boyda's credit - regardless of your politics. She didn't hit me with platitudes or rote positions, she listened, she discussed, and she stood her ground in appropriate ways. She's a newbie, let's hope she can keep that aspect of things going until we can find someone other than Ryun to take the seat back. But she gave me more respect in that 20 minutes than Ryun ever did in 12 years. But then, I'm in that group whose vote she needs to get if she wants to keep her job - the great mushy muddle. Something to keep in mind, next time around.