Marketing Jan Schakowsky, 2005, by Michael Andersen

From MemoryArchive

Who: Michael Andersen
What: Talking about Rep. Jan Schakowsky
When: Early Friday evening in late September 2005
Where: The National Press Club, Washington D.C.

In retrospect, the most emotionally effective bit of public relations I've ever seen in action came out of Rep. Jan Schakowsky's press aide, a kid a couple years out of Middlebury who was joining my gang of reporters for tacos at the Press Club. In the '60s Schakowsky hepled lead the consumer movement to put freshness dates on food, and now she represents my former district on the north side of Chicago and is generally an ass-kicking firebrand in the Democratic House leadership. Anyway, when the guy said he worked for her, somebody said "A powerful woman," or something like that.

And without a beat he said: "And a fighter by your side."

I'll never forget it.