Guess who stopped by?

One of the nice things about working for a Congressman is that all sorts of interesting people come by to meet with us. Yesterday it was three astronauts from the Space Shuttle Endeavour, who just returned in February from a vision to the International Space Station. They are wondering how anyone is going to get back there once the Shuttle fleet is retired at the end of this year.

They brought a plaque for the Congressman with patches that had flown in space, needless to day we were all gaga and had our pictures taken.

All of which caused me to reflect on a subject I think about from time to time," interest group democracy." We spend a lot of time meeting with people who want something from the federal government, sometimes legislation but more often, money. And the government had untold sums to dole out. Let's leave aside for the moment the crazy way we finance campaigns. As messy as it is, there is something glorious about the way people are able to come to their elected representatives, tell them their concerns, and seek help. I'll say this, too: if it weren't for those people coming to see us, we'd have precious little idea of what is going on in the real world, because the perspective from Capitol Hill is very narrow.

So while I know that there are big problems about who gets access and whose voice gets heard, I don't really know a better way of getting the concerns of the people to their representatives. And besides, it means that every now and then I feet to meet an astronaut.