Word: repped
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...surprisingly, the Blue Dogs aren't too happy about being put in such an awkward position. "I am so thoroughly disgusted with the Senate this morning," said Rep. John Tanner, chairman of the Blue Dogs, who originally voted for the bailout but now is undecided on the package. "It is just breathtakingly hypocritical for them, particularly the minority leader in the Senate, to claim that this is their finest hour and they're sending us the bill here and we've got to make some tough decisions...
...been warning about for several years; their gripe is that the supposed solution now includes the same out-of-control pork barrel spending that they have been decrying. "The way I see it, the bailout forced us to go into the flooded basement and pump out the water," says Rep. Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Blue Dog, "and while we're down there we see there's termites everywhere...
...about the Senate's maneuver, will likely sign on reluctantly as well. But even with Barack Obama calling some of the Blue Dogs to get their support, not all of them have been convinced. "I don't believe this bill is the right medicine to cure the disease," says Rep. Jim Matheson, a Utah Democrat who co-chairs the Blue Dogs. "The Senate version is even worse. It's larded up with more debt and doesn't include long-term reform language that would prevent this kind of crisis from happening again." Matheson, who voted against the first bill, remains...
Another role for the stand-in, experts say, is to make candidates comfortable going up against rivals - and not just rhetorically. "For Dan Quayle I put on a golf sweater, put a golf tee behind my ear and twirled a putter," says former Ohio Rep. Dennis Eckart, who worked with Democratic Vice Presidential candidates Lloyd Bentsen in 1988 and Gore in 1992. "It broke the tension...
Others agreed that mock debates are often designed to be exactly like the real thing, with stand-ins even playing moderators. "We debated right at 9 o'clock. Same temperature setting, same distance, same format," says former New York Rep. Tom Downey, who spent four days playing Jack Kemp before Al Gore's Vice Presidential debate in 1996. "I tried to be as good at Jack Kemp as Jack Kemp would...