I AM SPIRIT
&
I AM STARDUST

One of the courses I am taking this spring is Political Science 155, known bluntly as "Congress", but in reality it is not a mere survey course, but in fact it will be a full-blown simulation of the House of Representatives, with students portraying legislators of both parties and all major committees, lobbyists, media, and President Bush. Every Wednesday from 3 to 6 there will be congressional sessions, complete with bills, debates, hearings, votes, and so on, though violence is prohibited.

A couple of days ago all PS155 students were given role preference sheets, in which we could request which type of participant we would like to be, as well as our party afiliation and ideology. Lastly, we could request specific legislators we'd like to portray. I ranked a small handful of Dem representatives, and today I got my assignment.


(drum roll please . . . "dtdtdtdtdtdttdtdtdttdtdtdttd...")


I am Dennis Kucinich.

This means I don't have to show up at the sessions, right? Hehe, kidding. (:

He was my third choice, behind Barney Frank and Barbara Lee, neither of whom were assigned to anybody. After perusing the role assignment results, I noticed that every legislator shares the same gender with their corresponding students. Darn. That still doesn't explain why I didn't get Barney, since no other Massachusetts legislators made it into the simulation, while there are at least a halfdozen from California. (there are about 70 students total in the class)

Being Kucinich should be fun, though it will have the added perk that nothing I propose will ever get passed. This is especially true since the simulation is congressionally correct, with a Republican majority which corresponds to the current Congress.

So, anybody want a date?