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An Entry from the Archives

Last night, in a self-reflective capstone to the list of weird media moments at the Convention, Melissa Fitzgerald — CJ's assistant, Carol, on The West Wing — came by to talk with the bloggers. She was there to promote Environment 2004's ecological agenda. Why come to the bloggers? Because we're the future of the media, etc. etc.

Being a celebrity, um, camp follower — and having utterly failed to satisfy my children's requirement that I come back with photos of The Daily Show correspondents — I interviewed her. What's her political background? Her parents know Gov. Ed Rendell and she's been around politics all her life, and she's happy to be on a show that has social relevance. Ok. Then she told me what issues she's here to support. As one of her Environment 2004 handlers had said, she was articulate: She rattled off the mercury in the fish and the Clear Skies Act oxymoron stuff. After she'd made her way pretty far down the list, I asked her if she thought anyone in the stadium disagreed with her. No, she said, but some people may not know the facts.

So, here was a multi-level disconnect. She's a good actor, but she failed to read my face that was practically screaming "Stop the list! You're telling me stuff I know." But, so what, it's not like my time is so valuable that I can't afford to spend an extra 45 seconds listening to an actor on one of my favorite shows. But, what does she expect me to write about in my blog, other than the meta crap I'm writing right now? Melissa Fitzgerald came by to tell us that Bush sucks on the environment, a point of view I'd ignored until it came from Carol on The West Wing?

I spoke with her handler afterwards, mainly because I was recounting the interview in rather arch terms to Steve Soto, who I've gotten to know and like a great deal, not realizing the handler was standing next to me. I tried to say that if Fitzgerald wants to further her cause among bloggers, she should find something interesting to say, but I'd been so rude in my overheard comments to Steve that the handler was in no mood to listen. And I don't blame her.

I'm being snarky and I don't mean to be. I love her on the show and I'm happy she's hitting the hustings for a cause she cares about. It was just a failure of sympathetic thinking by the PR folks, which is hardly a big deal.

Melissa Fitzgerald visits the troops stationed in Blogonia