[Technical note: The editing box doesn't work on the rental laptop I'm using at the Media Center, so I have to include full URLs instead of using the link tool.]
The state of Illinois makes a lot of popular candy: Lemonheads, Jawbreakers, Mars/Snickers/Milky Way bars, Jelly Bellies, Tootsie Rolls and more. I found this out while visiting the office of Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) during today’s march on Capitol Hill for Day 2 of “Take Back the Capitol.” Indeed, to promote his state’s candy makers , Kirk now sits at -- and volunteered to supply -- the Senate’s famous candy desk (http://kirk.senate.gov/...), located in the back of the Republican side near a main entrance to the chamber.
Kirk’s projects director, Aaron Winters, told us Kirk wasn’t in (more on this in a moment), but he offered us water and a large tray of candy from his home state and said we could stay as long as we wanted. We took him up on all counts. In fact, Winters was nothing if not polite and accommodating toward the two dozen Stand Up Chicago (www.standupchicago) activists who occupied his boss’ office lobby for nearly four hours this afternoon. He stood, even took notes.
The candy tray was one of the sweeter moments in today’s action. Twitter may replace long-distance as the next best thing to being there: #99inDC cataloged a wide range of responses from all over Congress:
Sen. Joe Lieberman “was respectful & listened to constituent stories.”
@kaybaileyhutch's office, “Staff spent 100% of their time debating us, 0% writing down our concerns.”
“Rep Duffy's staff went from no way to okay on a meeting.”
“Sen. Cornyn's staff asked for concrete solutions we would propose to ending wealth inequality. We proposed 5. They looked surprised.”
The team visiting Allen West’s office was “told they'll be arrested if they don't have a meeting or aren't out in the hallway.”
Indeed, the Capitol Police showed up at a lot of offices, including Kirk’s, but they just asked if we intended to get arrested (no), and then if we intended to leave when the office closed; we said yes and they left us alone.
It turns out, though, that Kirk was in his office, avoiding us, not on the Senate floor voting like we’d been told. In fact, all of the Illinois representatives that Stand Up Chicago visited found one way or another to dodge the 99-percenters. And most of it got caught on video. Kirk was spotted through a window of his office that faces the hall.
Rep. Adam “Kinzinger's staff called security to escort us out” and Kinzinger himself was told “not to come to his office because his constituents were there.”
Rep. Donald Manzullo slipped into an elevator and let the door shut when he saw the 99-percenters coming.
Rep. Joe Walsh ducked out a side door and down the stairs. According to ThinkProgress, which witnessed his departure, “despite repeated insistence that he would meet with them around 3 PM, Walsh decided to flee from the protesters around 3:20 instead, … Although his staff insisted that he had to make votes, they were fully aware of this when they suggested he would meet with them at 3. Walsh took off without saying a word.”
Stand Up Chicago has not posted the Kirk and Manzullo videos yet but I’ll post a link to them when they’re available. Walsh fleeing you can watch now on ThinkProgress at http://thinkprogress.org/....
Think I’ll have that Snickers now.