Why Preston Gates?

Washington politics is a league unto itself. Over the years, I’ve landed at the Nerve Center of the World and have come to grips with the way things are done on Capitol Hill. On every landing, the flight I was on floats as it makes its final approach.

We weren’t using any floating device for that would be pure adolescency, but one could feel the vapor of power ascending from the ground below. It brought a sense of humility as I turned into an inconsequential cotton ball flying in Spring air.

Indeed, it isn’t a place for tiny isle King Kongs for the beast existed only in a fiction movie. Even King Kong died in the end. It’s fairyland material superbly fitting for those with delusions of how the world’s nerve center works.

Interesting how over the years, we fly into the nation’s capital with an aura of self-importance sporting Sears Roebuck or JCPenney suit and tie, topping it all of with photos at the stairs of the Capitol building.

Several things instantly tell me what’s wrong with this picture: 1). Some of the guys are wearing winter suits in the blistering heat of summer months. We don’t even know that there’s such as thing winter and summer suits, yeah?

2). A picture with a single or several members of Congress isn’t the ultimate answer for purposes of our visit in that there are 600-plus combined members in both chambers. And so we meet a few and come home declaring “we’ve tamed the beast”. Nice try!

3). Unless you’re fully connected with key members of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, your trip (paid for by local taxpayers–air fare and per diem) turns into a happy kindergarten excursion.

4). Our chief executive and alleged Washington Representative are often at odds over whose turf it is at the firing line to present local sentiments. How sad that one struggles to educate members of pertinent committees, while the other sleeps with the enemy.

Friends, we must admit that we don’t have the skills to work Capitol Hill. This is primarily why retaining a lobbying firm remains the only route to working with key staffers or members of Congress to guard our interest.

It’s the future well-being of our people that is in the balance. It isn’t the future of foreigners that we wish to protect. It’s the future of our children! And if you’re an alleged political pundit who hails from without the CNMI, take a closer scrutiny at how you’ve failed to make amends to improve the lot of your people. If you’ve failed on that side of the ocean, your best bet is to keep your trap shut!

Now, if you’re one of the local air heads engaged in policy making and can’t fathom just what is at issue, I strongly suggest that you review if your hollow perception of issues is reason enough to place the livelihood of posterity on the end of abject poverty and hopelessness. Preston Gates has done a superb job protecting our interest.

Our Washington Office has done the exact opposite! The former gets us the most mileage for our tax contributions, the latter struggles to build up his self-importance. For what? Let’s see the tiny, hollow and shallow minded isle King Kongs speak their piece, di ba?