In honor of Nancy Pelosi doing a Sam Rayburn today and grabbing the gavel for a second time, here's a thread containing my two favorite stories about the Democratic household that raised her. First story, her father, Tommy D'Alesandro, or Tommy the Elder, as he was known...
...in Baltimore -- because his son, Tommy, was also later the city's mayor -- was ensconsced in his office at City Hall trying to deal with some breaking reality but a Baltimore Sun reporter, trying to file on deadline, kept showing up at his door with just one more question...
...and with every fresh query, the reporter kept blaming his editors for the interruptions, "Sorry, Mr. Mayor, but my Desk wants to know how much the increase in the capital budget will be because of the new project..." Or, "Sorry, again, Tommy, but my Desk is asking whether..."
After about the fourth "my desk wants to know," Tommy D'Alesandro held up one finger in pause, then put his head down on the desk of Baltimore's mayor, pretended to listen, then he looked up at the reporter: "My desk is telling your desk to go fuck itself." Second story...
After leaving office, Tommy D'Alesandro mellowed into retirement in Baltimore's Little Italy, but he was active enough to be the Democratic precinct captain in that voting district. When William Donald Schaefer ran for reelection as mayor in '83, the vote total from...
...Little Italy came in as something like 563-to-1 for the Democratic incumbent. Reporters at the War Memorial building watching the returns turned to Tommy, incredulous. D'Alesandro just shrugged. "Yeah, we're looking for that guy now."
Go get the gavel, Ms. Pelosi.
