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Q: Have you ever been fired from a job? |
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Posted: 03/05/07 07:41 PM [ET] |
Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.): “No. [Chuckles] Good luck to get anyone to tell you.”
Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.): “I was training Peace Corps volunteers in Bogotá under contract. My boss wanted to cut the number of volunteers, what he called ‘de-select.’ I’d been a volunteer myself so I went to the head of the Peace Corps [to object]. My boss found out about me going over his head and fired me. Members of the Peace Corps went on strike, and it became an international incident. In response, the ambassador to Bogotá convinced the Peace Corps to swear them all back in.”
Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.): “I’ve always worked very hard. All my employers are happy to see me come and sad to see me leave. I have a good Dutch work ethic.”
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.): “I’ve had over 30 jobs in my life and have even worked at McDonald’s. No, I don’t think I have [been fired].”
Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.): “Technically, no, I don’t think so. I’ve had my job go away at a company called Leaseaplane. The concept was, we were going to be the Hertz of the airplane realm. I was the national sales manager at the time. Once there is nothing to sell there is no need for a sales manager.”
Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.): “I haven’t been fired, but there was a job I left after one night. I showed up at this restaurant to be a busboy. In the first night, I saw too many 54-year-olds working there who didn’t seem to actually be working, if you know what I mean. It looked like a Mob situation. They kept on talking about Mr. Big coming for dinner, who was supposed to eat in a separate room, but he never showed up. I didn’t go back and didn’t give them a resignation or anything.”
Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.): “No, but there was one job I didn’t get. It was after I graduated from Seton Hall. I was thinking about graduate school and I was working for the dean of students at the time, and I applied for a job. Everyone wanted me to have it, but in the end an outside candidate came, the faculty supported [that candidate], and I didn’t get it. Instead, I ended up working on Wall Street and became one of the first women on the Stock Exchange. My mom still talks about me crying my eyes out over not getting that job, but if I had gotten it I wouldn’t have ended up on Wall Street.”
Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.): “I don’t remember. I can’t categorically deny it because I’ve sure made some mistakes.”
Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas): “When I was in graduate school, I thought I could sell vacuum cleaners. When they were training us, I questioned that the product would cure allergies like they wanted me to say when trying to make a sale. I wasn’t fired, but they never put me on the street. My career as a vacuum salesman ended before it started.”
Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.): “I can’t think of anything. My parents tried to fire me. Does that count?”
Rep. Cathy McMorris (R-Wash.): “I’ve never been fired. But I was disappointed when I didn’t get a job picking up trash for the Department of Ecology [at college].”
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.): “No, I’ve never been fired. I once applied to be an intern for Bill Thomas and didn’t get it. And now I ended up taking his seat.”
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.): “Nope, not really. I’ve been a pretty lucky guy.”
Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho): “Yes. I was playing [drums] in a band, and I got replaced.”
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.): “I haven’t, I’ve been really fortunate.”
Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.): “No, I haven’t, but I’ve left some not-so-great ones. When I was in college I was working for an animal-research program in the Science Department. I had to give different feeds to these different animals at all kinds of odd hours.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.): “Absolutely not.”
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio): “No, I haven’t, but when I [was young] I wanted to go to the Air Force Academy. I was rejected. I didn’t know that they didn’t accept women. So I applied to Notre Dame. I was the first person in my family to go to college. I didn’t know that [it] didn’t accept women. I applied for the FBI, and they also didn’t accept women.”
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