It was years ago when I was first elected to the Representative Town Meeting in my hometown of Fairfield CT. We had finished the organizational meeting in January when, after the formalities and I was collecting my papers to walk out, Rep Nello Ceccarellii indicated he wanted to speak to me. Nello had seemingly been on the RTM forever and came across as a real old-school Yankee.
“So Thomas!” he asked in that reedy voice that could cut concrete “what kind of Republican are you? Do you vote your own way? Or do you only vote the Republican way?”
“Mr. Ceccarellii, I only vote the Republican way. But sometimes the other Republicans don’t know which way that is.”
I expect I’ll be telling that story often over the next few weeks.
Shouting Down a Lift Shaft 