Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Nancy Floreen Joins the Blogosphere

The blogosphere has a new member: Montgomery County Council Member Nancy Floreen. Welcome to our world, Nancy! You will soon learn the joys of staying up until two in the morning to overcome writer’s block, trying to figure out html script errors and wondering who is using those anonymous screen names to make the snarky comments you’re tempted to delete.

Other politicians have tried to run blogs before. They have usually succumbed for two reasons: lack of regular postings and boring content. Now I am not worried about regular postings with Ms. Floreen. She is a very hardworking council member who labors on many issues every day and knows them all inside-out. I am sure she will feed her blog well. But on content, well...

You see, we really like Nancy Floreen. She is extremely charming, has a playful sense of humor and is very engaging in person. But we the voters give our politicians every incentive to be boring. I mean, when they say anything halfway interesting, we punish them for it. Just look at Robin Ficker. OK, bad example… How about George English? OK, another bad example, but you get my point. Only a few politicians regularly flout this rule (including our friend Dana Beyer, who is always good for an occasional blog post). So as one of Ms. Floreen's supportive constituents, I would like to start her off to blogging fame and fortune by suggesting she answer a few questions of mine. If she did, it would surely draw lots of eyes to her blog! Here goes:

1. Is it true that it once took four MCPD officers to force Marc Elrich to wear a tie for a council hearing?

2. Forget transgendered people. Can we pass a law that keeps the shower nuts out of the bathrooms?

3. True or false: George Leventhal once beat Mike Knapp in a game of one-on-one basketball.

4. Why do council staffers escort visitors out of the council offices? Don't you trust us not to steal the staplers? Or is this policy only used for me?

5. MoCo is not getting enough transportation money from the state. What if the county council members formed a human chain across the Beltway as a show of resolve?