House Minority Leader John Boehner dismissed Democratic aides writing the financial regulatory reform bill as 'little punk staffers.' 'Little punk staffers' fuming at GOP

First, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Capitol Hill staffers have no “contact with reality” and spend “their entire life being arrogant to visitors from back home.”

Then, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) dismissed Democratic staffers writing the financial regulatory reform bill as “little punk staffers.”


Then, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) accused House Democrats of employing “staff thugs” to watch over lawmakers during key House votes.

And then, the National Republican Congressional Committee produced T-shirts mocking Democratic aides who will lose their jobs in November if their bosses lose theirs.

Hill staffers often feel overworked and underappreciated. Now, they’re feeling abused — and they say that a handful of outspoken Republicans are to blame.

“Most members of Congress appreciate the hard work that the staff does, which enables members to do their jobs,” said Brendan Daly, spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “It’s unfortunate that some of these Republican members are unnecessarily criticizing aides who are just doing their jobs.”

And it’s not just Democrats like Daly who are taking offense.

A House Republican staffer, who didn’t want to be identified taking issue with the words of the Republican leader, told POLITICO: “Most staffers on the Hill are younger than you think they would be, making them an easy target for such remarks, but in reality they are also smarter than you think they would be. As one who had to fight for my job here, I can say that getting a job as a ‘little punk staffer’ is a competitive process where only the very qualified succeed.”

Although nearly 2,000 House staffers earn six-figure salaries, most Hill aides make relatively little, and many worked repeated 80-hour weeks during the height of the health care debate — living on too little sleep and too many meals from office vending machines.

But the health care debate also offered a lot of Americans their first points of contact with Hill staffers. And the ones who came away unhappy haven’t been shy about sharing their disappointment online.

Tony Shreeve, a Tennessee organizer for American Patriot Taxpayers, has been venting about what he says he saw on a Capitol balcony while rallying during last month’s weekend debate on health care.

Staffers “were outside, drinking wine, playing guitars and laughing. It was totally disrespectful,” said Shreeve. “They were up there celebrating while people below are obviously upset and trying to get their voices heard. They were pretty much mocking us. The arrogance up there was unbelievable. The problem is not just politicians; it’s their workers, too. I think the American people need to know what kind of people we have up there.”

An anonymous blogger on Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com wrote that a staffer in the office of Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) hung up on him several times and that he was referred to the Capitol Police for “harassing” the staffer. The left has its complaints, too.

An anti-war protest group that visited the Hyannis office of Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) last month reported that it was shuttered and the staff was nowhere to be found, even though it was only 4 p.m. on a Friday. A spokesman for Delahunt told POLITICO the claim was not true.

“It has been observed that the staff of this congressional office has been gone from the premises as early as 3 p.m. on Fridays,” one angry protester complained to the local newspaper. “I trust that appropriate measures have been taken to adjust the pay and salaries of those associated with the described premises.”

Michael Robinson, a crisis management expert with Levick Strategic Communications, said anecdotes like these can have a damaging effect — and not just on the staffers but on their bosses as well.

“This is going to splash back on their bosses and the whole institution,” Robinson said. “Every opinion poll I’ve read shows that Americans want Washington to be more serious and less partisan. It’s going in the opposite direction. ... Staffers need to grow up. It’s their job to do the work, not become the story.”

But aides said that’s part of the problem: The publicity pecking order on Capitol Hill prevents them from speaking out in their own defense, at least on the record. Privately, they say the attacks are unfair.

“The recent Republican criticisms are more political than anything. They’re attacking legislative staff to push the idea of ‘backroom deals’ in the health care debate,” said one Democratic staffer. “The reality is that staffers do as we’re told, and so to criticize our work is unfair and unfortunate. We don’t make the decisions; we help carry out the decisions our bosses make.”

Most Republican staffers interviewed by POLITICO said they’ve also been bothered by the name-calling, but they stopped short of calling out the Republican leaders behind it.

“Name-calling is not needed,” said one Senate legislative aide. But “I would assume that many of the members complaining have been here a while and perhaps have a point.”

Some Democratic members have come to the defense of staffers.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts has printed and distributed hundreds of snarky “Little Punk Staffer” pins to aides.

“They are underpaid [and] overworked, and people are taking cheap shots at them,” Frank told POLITICO. “You’re seeing an arrogance and meanness and anger coming out that’s part of this anti-government effort. Then you see Republicans egging them on. It’s despicable behavior.”

“I deal with staffers all the time, and I do not think they are arrogant,” said Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.). “I saw one up recently at 3 a.m. I don’t know how they can work any harder.”

Boehner himself has been known to have a soft spot for his staffers, and he was visibly devastated this winter by the sudden death of his longtime chief of staff, Paula Nowakowski.

Spokesman Michael Steel said Boehner wasn’t talking about all staffers when he told a group of bankers not to let “those little punk staffers take advantage of you.”

“Congressional staff should treat every American citizen with respect. Clearly, Boehner was talking about any that don’t,” Steel said.

In a different political environment, current staffers might get some kind words from former staffers who are now running for Congress. But in an anti-incumbent, anti-Washington environment, the former staffers aren’t exactly racing to defend their own.

Jack Bailey, a former chief of staff who’s running for the Republican nomination in the race against Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-Tenn.), said he’s been away from Washington “long enough not to be part of the problem” and is promising to “bring a gun to a gunfight” if elected.

Princella Smith, a former aide to Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao (R-La.) who’s now running for Congress in Arkansas, likewise says she’s been in Washington “long enough to see how certain legislation got pushed through and long enough to see that I didn’t like it.”

Still, she said the staffer-bashing is a “bad-apple issue.”

“There are some staffers that get so caught up in the fact that they work on Capitol Hill and the power in their positions. ... These isolated stories get a lot of media attention and perpetuate the image. Stuff like that is giving staffers a bad name.”