I Lost My Chance To Have Dinner With President Bush

Congressman’s gavel was tempting...but

by Greg Lloyd Smith

NEW YORK, NY — (OfficialWire) — 09/12/05 — I got a call Friday from a representative of the Business Advisory Council on behalf of Representative Thomas M. Reynolds (shown here), 26th District of New York. To say the least, I was surprised. Anyone who knows me, knows that these are not my people. So why were they calling me?

Anyway, today, I returned the call and spoke to someone who played a recorded message from Congressman Reynolds in which he told me how George W. Bush was going to grant business-owners (like me) more tax cuts during the next year and...yadda, yadda, yadda...it was sickening.

Then, the lady came back onto the line and told me about all of the lovely things I could have; including my name in an advertisement supporting the president, a genuine gavel (like the one they use in Congress!), the title of honorary chairman (hence the gavel) and an invitation to have dinner, as a guest of Congressman Reynolds, at which Bush would attend.

On and on she went, eventually working her way up to the big close. All of this could be mine for "$300 or $500, which could be made in two payments." So, that was their game, I thought. It would cost me at least $300 to get an "honored guest" invite to break-bread in the presence of the president, at the Republican’s annual event.

To tell you the truth, I was tempted to spend the cash just to have the opportunity (however slight) to tell the Congressman and his president what I think of them, or to use the gavel on the bastards if I could get close enough!

But after a few more minutes of ’canned’ speech from the young woman, I revealed my true identity. I didn’t have the heart to lie: I am not a Republican-never have been.

I wish I’d been a fly on the wall, so I could have seen the phone wrenched away from the lady’s ear (I heard the whoosh of air), although to her credit she recovered very quickly.

"You mean you’re not a Republican?," she asked.

No, I said. I’m not. I cannot support a party that is killing so many innocent people, no matter how many tax cuts you want to give me, I explained.

The line went dead. I guess I lost my chance to have dinner with the president.

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