Daschle aides get parting gift -The Hill

Aides to defeated Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) won’t be getting a gold watch. But they will receive a severance package to keep them financially afloat as they look for new jobs, thanks to a resolution passed by the Senate just before it adjourned early Sunday morning.

The package is far short of the “golden parachutes” that go along with top corporate jobs, but it could help ease some of the financial and emotional pain that Daschle’s staff has experienced after his stinging loss.

The resolution, titled “Displaced staff members of senators and Senate leaders,” modifies Senate rules to provide up to two months’ pay and benefits to leadership staff or personal-office aides when the senator they work for is defeated in the elections.
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“You know us — we’re just softies,” one Senate Republican aide said. “We’re compassionate conservatives. Send a few more packing — we’d be happy to give a severance package to them as well.”

http://www.hillnews.com/news/11242004/daschle.aspx

that the rest of us get.

OR, tom daschle can give them a parting gift.

We all argue that the standard unemployment rate is inadequate and when congress does something to ease the passage of people that work their ASSES off to help this country you bitch. These people work 14 and 16 hour days, 5 to 6 days a week. The cost of living in D.C. is insane and aides are not the bad guys. Most aides get into it wanting to help our democracy, if they wanted to be shits they would run for congress as most of them are just as qualified, just younger.

Severance pay is given to almost all people that work in a corporate environment. Why shouldn't the govt do the same? You make it sound like they are going to pay the congressmen who lost extra pay to find new jobs..

And these people are DEMOCRATS! Oh yes let them just go and work for the private sector quickly because they have to pay their rent and bills as they probably have no savings considering their pay rate and loose them on the hill..

Real patriots these inside the beltway wannabees are. I am sick to death of seeing HOMELESS people out on the streets, people barely making it, kids not getting educated. But we can find extra mulah for some people who no doubt have been living high on the hog for a good long time. That's america, all right: welfare for the privileged. And that's exactly what this is.

if unemployment, period, is good for a steel worker, it is good enough for well manicured washington staff person. Why is the washington staff person more ENTITLED?

Anyone working for an elected official knows that their end of service is determined by the electorate. They already have the period between the election and the swearing in of the freshman to 'keep them afloat' while they seek new employment.

Give with one hand, take away with the other (not endorsing lobbyists here, just pointing out the hypocrisy of the smarmy Republicans)

http://www.thehill.com/news/111604/blacklist.aspx

Dems fear lobbying blacklist
By Geoff Earle


Scores of soon-to-be-unemployed Democrats fear that their party’s electoral defeat could hinder their ability to find work on K Street, a traditional safe haven and source of employment for Capitol Hill staff.

At a time when many Democrats are anxious about their ability to earn a living, some even fear that a conspiracy to blacklist aides to certain Democrats, such as Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), could be afoot.

keri rasmussen
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.)

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Daschle, who is reviled by many congressional Republicans for his efforts to stop GOP initiatives and judicial nominees in the Senate, was defeated in this month’s election by former Rep. John Thune (R-S.D.).

Some Democrats, still singed by Sen. John Kerry’s defeat in the presidential election and party losses in the House and Senate, even suggested that House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) might be behind an effort to convince K Street firms to think twice before hiring Daschle staff.

Several Democratic aides said that a midsize Washington lobbying firm, the Alpine Group, declined last week to hire a Daschle staffer with whom the group had been in long-standing discussions about a possible job. They said the Daschle aide, who The Hill agreed not to name, believed he would get the job based on conversations with the firm about three months before the election.

According to one Senate aide familiar with the situation, the firm told the Daschle aide, “This is a cold town for Democrats. It’s especially cold for Daschle’s staff.” Asked whether DeLay or any of his associates had specifically conveyed a message to the firm, the Senate aide said, “The implication was that DeLay had put the word out that Daschle staff should not be hired.”

My kids will be screened for mental illness.
Liberals and their supporters are being blacklisted with impunity.
Social Security is FIRST on the chopping block.
Etcetera, Ad Nauseum.

C'mon. SOMEONE tell me to stay and fight. I DARE YOU.

I'm in California and we have a webpage for our independence movement

http://moveoncalifornia.org/index.html

..type of blacklisting of Dems. Just ask IBM.

so I don't see any problem with these people getting severence pay, too.

Staffers have low pay, long hours and work in a highly tense political environment. I'm glad they at least get some severance pay and COBRA.

Many will find jobs for other Senators or Congressmen on the Hill, however the opportunities for Democrats are really diminishing, sadly.

and fund it as the "lobbyists for the middle class" obtaining
communication as well as funding from the Internet.

I'm not aware, beyond the AFL-CIO of any strong lobby organization that
represents growing a strong middle class in general.

When someoone works for a politician, the lengh of their employment is guaranteed to be only as long as the politician is in office.

These staffers were probably people who worked on campaign after campaign, never having any sort of decent pay - being an official staffer was probably the first time that many of them even had health insurance. Why should we deny them a severance package?