Nevada's Democrat Senator Harry Reid Was Right...

I recently had the chance to visit DC and ride the Metro system and fortunately missed the catastrophe on the Red Line by a couple of hours. I don't call Washington my home town and therefore took in a lot of what was going on around the area. Something that really stuck out for me was this:

Nevada's Democrat Senator Harry Reid was right.


Washington D.C. Stinks


I don't mean it in the same sense he did. Recall back in December 2008, Reid said:

"My staff tells me not to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway," said Reid in his remarks. "In the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol. It may be descriptive but it's true."

No, not quite like that. The stench I found seemed to emanate mostly from those doing the 'people's work'. Those folks in one sort of 'official' capacity or another around town who very obviously looked down upon the masses from around the world who came to take in the sites and history of the area. Those on the government payroll who (in their own minds) have transcended the realm of the everyday people and moved on to more important work - the work of determining how those everyday people should live their lives.

They walk around with their noses in the air, bustling from one important meeting to another and getting more and more frustrated as the tourists meander their way amongst the monuments. You can see it on their faces, in their movements and hear it as they rush past. Everybody's in their way - they have important work to do, dammit!

It was funny in a sense. In a twisted, backwards way. These people, so important in their own worlds and ironically, in ours as well, probably don't even think for a second that they people they're getting angered with pay their way in life.

Yes Senator Reid, there is a stink in Washington - I smelled it too. You may have thought you smelled it while looking out a window at the Capitol but I would venture that the smell would still be there while looking in a mirror as well...