Oh WOW, this is something really cool - regarding PATTY MURRAY and Wendy Davis

[Tx4obama]

I received a book in the mail a couple of days ago that I had ordered titled “Nine and Counting: The Women of the Senate”

http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Counting-The-Women-Senate/dp/0060957069/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383113076&sr=8-1&keywords=nine+and+counting

The reason I ordered the book was because it has a chapter about the 'dinner get-togethers' that Senator Barbara Mikulski started decades ago for the female U.S. Senators. But the book if full of wonderful stories and history.

My book is the July 24, 2001 edition which has an additional section (.... And Then There Were Thirteen) regarding four additional female U.S. Senators that had been elected after the original edition came out.

Note: If anyone orders a copy of the book be sure to order the newest 2001 edition with 304 pages (not the 2000 edition which has only 256 pages).
I’m hoping that now since we have TWENTY women in the U.S. Senate they will release a new edition soon


Anyway, back to the point of this thread.. .

Senator Patty Murray tells a story in the book about a time before she had ever thought of running for office. She had been working as a parent volunteer for the Shoreline Community Cooperative School - it was a parent-child education program sponsored by the local community college. One day they announced that the program was going to end due to the state legislature taking away the funding. So, she drove with her two children to her state capitol in Olympia to talk to some legislators and try to convince them they had made a mistake. She didn’t get very far.

Below is a short excerpt from the book that was written thirteen years ago regarding what happened to Senator Patty Murray that day in Olympia

Finally, one legislator I’d pigeonholed listened to my story, and then let me know what he really thought. He crystallized my problem. “Lady, that’s a really nice story, but you can’t get the funding restored,” he said. “You can’t make a difference. You’re just a mom in tennis shoes.” And I could see that was how he honestly viewed me. I was not a policymaker, I was not a lobbyist, I was not somebody who knew what I was doing. I couldn’t effect change. I was just a mom in tennis shoes.

I was speechless. I was also furious. I couldn’t make a difference? I was just a mom in tennis shoes? What’s wrong with being a mom in tennis shoes, anyway? I was a voter. I lived with the policies. I understood them I knew this program. But according to a bunch of guys in suits over at the capitol in Olympia, what I cared about wasn’t important. I seethed all seventy miles back to Seattle, and by the time I arrived home, I had made a decision. I was not going to let them get away with this.

NOW YOU GOTTA CHECK OUT THIS TWEET from Patty Murray regarding Wendy Davis (D-TX) dated June 25, 2013

Here: https://twitter.com/PattyMurray/statuses/349719086487441409

How about that

[eridani]

1. But we are going to have to raise hell with her so she doesn't cut SocSec

--and Medicare.

[gopiscrap]

2. that is cool...Murray is my senator

[chknltl]

3. I suspect those tennis shoes have....

... a lot more tread left on them. I will not be surprised if Senator Murray plays a key role in the next Presidential election.

[demigoddess]

4. and now

she is one of the more powerful Senators in the country!