Missouri's Jim Symington will moderate today's meeting of the Former Members of Congress.
I've told this story once before, but it bears repeating.
Many, many years ago, when I was growing up in a small town called the Bronx, there was a knock on my door. It was a bunch of my friends, and they wanted me to come out with them, but I was having none of it.
"Sorry," I said, even though I wasn't really sorry. "I need to stay home and watch Wayne Thornton fight Jose Torres." I was a big boxing fan back then, and Wayne Thornton vs. Jose Torres was going to be a doozy.
And why do I, to this day, remember Wayne Thornton vs. Jose Torres?
"Are you sure you can't come?" my friends asked. "We're going to Shea Stadium to buy tickets to see The Beatles."
"Some other time," I said. "I'm really excited about seeing Wayne Thornton vs. Jose Torres."
And now you know why to this day I remember Wayne Thornton vs. Jose Torres.
I bring up this sad, pathetic tale not to remind you of the errors of my ways -- regrets? I've made a few -- but to tell you that, as an adult, there are some things in life I will never miss.
And that's the annual meeting of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress.
For political junkies like myself, for those of us who cherish Congress (the good and the bad), it's an opportunity to gab with former senators and representatives about their past lives, their campaigns, their memories, their ups and downs, their victories and heartbreaks. Even a conversation or two about their, um, campaign buttons.
As a baseball fan, I find that you can't talk about Pujols and Jeter and Halladay without talking about Spahn and Mantle and Mays. Similarly, you can't talk about the campaigns of today without talking about those of yesterday. And that's what happens at these meetings.
Later this afternoon, I will once again be a panelist at a meeting of the FMC. I will dutifully report my observations in a forthcoming post. But only after I've calmed down.
categories: A Look Back In Politics
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