Thread by @rdonoghue

No No No No No

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1354212559881175042

Pat Leahy is the heart of my faith in the Senate. He was a friend of my father. His son and I crossed paths at random points. He sponsored me in the Senate page program, I worked for him as an intern, later a staffer. He's a huge nerd and the biggest Batman fan you know.

Before he chaired the Judiciary committee, he chaired the Agriculture Committee, and that seems like kind of a throwaway unless you know a bit about agri-politcs, and then you realize that a chairman who's not from a huge midwestern farm state is SUPER WEIRD.

And it *was*. Because while Vermont has plenty of farms and farmers, it's not an agribusiness state, and Leahy didn't have an Agribusiness agenda. See, the agriculture committee is also the nutrition & forestry committee.

And Leahy (I can't honestly call him "Pat", though he'd probably insist I do so) stepped into this seat that was traditionally more or less a voice for monsanto and company and said, "You know what's broken? Food Stamps."

Things like WIC and a ton of other reforms got pushed through under his watch because he had the Leverage of someone who cared to do the right thing, and was not beholden to the usual structure.

He moved onto Judiciary when Biden vacated the seat for Foreign Affairs. This was good timing because this was the 90s, and this whole Internet thing? Most of it fell under the auspices of the Judiciary committee.

Most senators are very smart people, but can barely handle their own email. Leahy was an exception - he's got a genuine interest in technology and its implications, and that served as a powerfully effective smell test on the committee.

I had forgotten until last week that in a Democratic senate, he would be President Pro Tempore. It seemed impossible that this guy, who spent one election campaigning *alongside* the GOP Candidate, had not retired. I was proud as all hell.

To this day, I'm intimately familiar with his signature. Congressional offices do fake signatures, but they're really *nice* fake signatures. They use a big carved piece of wood and an arm to move an actual pen in the right movements. As an Intern, you use it a lot.

So I'm watching this news and I'm hoping like hell. This is a friend, and I am not ready for this one right now.

Local news is reporting he's gone home, so *whew*.