Grief Counselors Help Dem Staffers Work Through Their Loss

By Doug Powers  •  November 8, 2010 10:06 PM

**Written by Doug Powers

What Democrat staffer riding a wave of Hope & Change into Capitol Hill after the 2008 election would have guessed that a mere two years later they’d need to be offered access to grief counselors?

From Politico:

A staffer for a congressional Democrat who came up short on Tuesday reports that a team of about five people stopped by their offices this morning to talk about payroll, benefits, writing a résumé, and so forth, with staffers who are now job hunting.

But one of the staffers was described as a “counselor” to help with the emotional aspect of the loss — and a section in the packet each staffer was given dealt with the stages of grief (for instance, Stage One being anger, and so on).
[...]
While Tuesday was definitely a major loss for the Democrats, I hadn’t heard it cast in a stages-of-grief way before.

Compounding the disappointment of finding themselves out of work must be the frightening prospect of being stuck in a health care system their bosses just lost their jobs for passing.

The five stages of Democrat grief — a current political offshoot of the Kübler-Ross model — that are being worked through at various levels in DC are as follows:

1) Blame Bush

2) Anger (Why didn’t those idiotic voters understand our message?)

3) Bargaining (From “I won” to “okay, maybe we can work things out between us”)

4) Depression (The country is on the brink of a depression; see #1)

5) Acceptance (Yes, it was Bush’s fault)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

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  1. #1
    On November 8th, 2010 at 10:15 pm, chapoutier said:

    psssst…

    I heard from a top government official who declines to be named that these grief counselors are costing $200 million a day! Also, they are arriving in DC on 34 battleships.

    It is from a top government official and is now officially on the Internet. So you know it must be true. Run with this, Doug! Run!

  2. #2
    On November 8th, 2010 at 10:21 pm, Pasadena Phil said:

    And what better counselor could there be than the ever empathetic “touchie-feelie” Lee Ermey.

  3. #3
    On November 8th, 2010 at 10:38 pm, BrianNY said:

    Ah yes.

    The firm I worked for on 9/11 called in one of these counselors to ask us all “how we felt” about what we just saw.

    I remember thinking, what an interesting job…ask traumatized people “how they feel,” then just sit back and collect a paycheck for watching the train wreck.

    I guess there are bad grief counselors…and in the case of Lucy Van Pelt, there are “good grief” counselors.

    (snare roll)

  4. #4
    On November 8th, 2010 at 10:41 pm, cnredd said:

    I say we get R. Lee Ermey to throw a box of tissues at them over there in namby-pamby land…

    cnredd
    Political Wrinkles
    http://politicalwrinkles.com

  5. #5
    On November 8th, 2010 at 10:42 pm, regularguy said:

    Really, some empathy is in order. I suggest about 5 grams of sodium thiopental, then about 100 millligrams of pancuronium bromide, then a healthy dose of potassium chloride for each of our unhappy democrats. We’ll all feel better in the morning!

  6. #6
    On November 8th, 2010 at 10:43 pm, Flyoverman said:

    Good one Phil.

    I think a Tony Snow approach would be appropriate:

    Give then a hug, a cookie, packing boxes, and a roll of packing tape.

    Adios, have a nice life.

  7. #7
    On November 8th, 2010 at 10:53 pm, Hangfire said:

    On November 8th, 2010 at 10:38 pm, BrianNY said:
    I guess there are bad grief counselors…and in the case of Lucy Van Pelt, there are “good grief” counselors.

    (snare roll)

    And a rimshot to you.

  8. #8
    On November 8th, 2010 at 10:55 pm, Hangfire said:

    Give them all a copy of National Lampoon’s “Lemmings” and tell them to run with it.

  9. #9
    On November 8th, 2010 at 10:59 pm, John Deaux said:

    Toughen up, buttercup.

  10. #10
    On November 8th, 2010 at 11:07 pm, NC BLUE said:

    Hey Chap–that’s a bargain compared to what their bosses cost this country. Adios to them all. Odumbo can count them as jobs saved since they will be replaced. Maybe you can get in on the counseling to.

  11. #11
    On November 8th, 2010 at 11:22 pm, Trollman said:

    That is poetic justice. Now they get to hunt for a job in this train-wreck of an economy they helped create.

  12. #12
    On November 8th, 2010 at 11:49 pm, Straight_Talk_Luigi said:

    psssst…

    I heard from a top government official who declines to be named that these grief counselors are costing $200 million a day! Also, they are arriving in DC on 34 battleships.

    It is from a top government official and is now officially on the Internet. So you know it must be true. Run with this, Doug! Run!

    Unlike Bush, Chap thinks Obama deserves to go on vacation because he was raised by a single mom and he’s Black.

    In Maryland, where Chap lives, that’s the story as he shakes his finger at the rest of us from his ivory tower. Meanwhile, all sorts of minorities live in poverty beneath his feet.

    Maybe Chap and the rest of the liberal elite can cover the cost of Obama’s vacations.

  13. #13
    On November 9th, 2010 at 12:01 am, chapoutier said:

    Luigi, there are so so many things that make no sense there, but I do have to take special note of the “ivory tower” comment.

    My “ivory tower” is a 850 sq.ft, one bedroom apartment in a complex that contains subsidized units on the corner of the busiest intersection in my neighborhood, where I am awaken on average once a night by ambulance and/or police sirens blaring outside my very non-noise resistant windows.

    But I still love it here. You probably wouldn’t understand.

  14. #14
    On November 9th, 2010 at 12:10 am, rambler said:

    Get out the violins!!! Sucks to be them. Just think, they get to join the ranks of the employed. Maybe if their bosses had listened to their constituents instead of Nancy and bho, none of this would have happened. DC created this economic climate and now some of their own get to wallow in it too.

  15. #15
    On November 9th, 2010 at 12:37 am, Straight_Talk_Luigi said:

    My “ivory tower” is a 850 sq.ft, one bedroom apartment in a complex that contains subsidized units on the corner of the busiest intersection in my neighborhood, where I am awaken on average once a night by ambulance and/or police sirens blaring outside my very non-noise resistant windows.

    But I still love it here. You probably wouldn’t understand.

    Try living in residental DC. I have. Unlike all the elite liberals who just want minorities and illegals in this country to keep voting Democrat so they can sit on their lazy butts in some fat-cat union job (cops and teachers, this especially includes you) and retire at 55, but no way in hell are they gonna live in your pristine suburban condo-esque rich city parts.

    It makes perfect sense to me. For starters, I’m not like the other posters on here. I’ve been around the blogging block too long to fall into one of your “woohse me” left-wing pity parties.

    Simple: Quit wasting your time trying use the federal government to get everyone else to pay for your social programs that you think “help the poor” when you and I both know they don’t and it’s just a bunch of smoke and mirrors to make sniveling minorities and guilty whites like you feel good.

    As for your apartment, no surprise there. Most liberals don’t own private property, which explains away nicely why they are so against it.

    That’s what it always is. Try to get someone else to give while you take not the only the credit but a piece of their pie as well.

    So if you think that Obama and Biden are owed and that Gore deserves to be rich because of global warming, get out your checkbook and start signing away.

    Leave me out of it.

  16. #16
    On November 9th, 2010 at 1:27 am, Republicanvet said:

    On November 8th, 2010 at 10:15 pm, chapoutier said:

    psssst…

    I heard from a top government official who declines to be named that these grief counselors are costing $200 million a day! Also, they are arriving in DC on 34 battleships.

    It is from a top government official and is now officially on the Internet. So you know it must be true. Run with this, Doug! Run!

    Given how whiny the left can be, that’ll never be enough.

  17. #17
    On November 9th, 2010 at 1:31 am, Republicanvet said:

    What Democrat staffer riding a wave of Hope & Change into Capitol Hill after the 2008 election would have guessed that a mere two years later they’d need to be offered access to grief counselors?

    Maybe they can ask Bela Pelosi, Barney the Frank, Dodd, Conrad, et. al., for some “assistance”.

    Friends of Thieves.

  18. #18
    On November 9th, 2010 at 1:43 am, Sanddog said:

    Grief counselors?

    Perhaps an involuntary committal at the psychiatric hospital of their choice is warranted.

  19. #19
    On November 9th, 2010 at 4:13 am, AlohaGuy said:

    My “ivory tower” is a 850 sq.ft, one bedroom apartment in a complex that contains subsidized units on the corner of the busiest intersection in my neighborhood, where I am awaken on average once a night by ambulance and/or police sirens blaring outside my very non-noise resistant windows.

    But I still love it here. You probably wouldn’t understand.

    You live in Johns Hopkins’ Hospital? Right above the ambulance entrance?

  20. #20
    On November 9th, 2010 at 5:51 am, Jaded said:

    This story is all you need to know about those who have been destroying OUR Country for the last 4 years. They are pathetic, grow up you whiny babies!

  21. #21
    On November 9th, 2010 at 6:02 am, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

    Good grief.

  22. #22
    On November 9th, 2010 at 7:45 am, chapoutier said:

    Luigi,

    Truly, it is amazing the time and effort it must have taken you to construct this narrative of me which is simultaneously so detailed and yet so very very wrong on just about every single level. How you go from me taking a jab at Doug for reporting that absurd Obama India Trip story to pouring out your vivid fantasies of my personal circumstances is, to say the least, disturbing.

    Let’s make a deal. I won’t waste your (and everyone elses) time going through exactly why your addled little posts are so incorrect nor will I speculate on the various psychoses that manifest themselves in them.

    And in exchange you agree to take your ritalin and stop obsessing over (or at the very least stop writing about your obsession with) my personal life.

    Deal? Deal.

  23. #23
    On November 9th, 2010 at 8:13 am, Rogue Cheddar said:

    Give in to your grief, let it consume you, end it now, Jackwagons all!

  24. #24
    On November 9th, 2010 at 8:28 am, tre said:

    Well BOO-FREAKIN’-HOO!

    More than 10% of this country is outta work now, including one of my best friends, ‘cuz of you guys! So suck it up and deal with it!

    An’ if this is the worst thing to happen to you in this life, you are Blessed more than you deserve!

  25. #25
    On November 9th, 2010 at 8:35 am, rike101 said:

    Democrat grief is very real. I worked with a woman who was inconsolable at her desk the morning after John Kerry lost. It was bizarre.

  26. #26
    On November 9th, 2010 at 8:39 am, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

    On November 9th, 2010 at 8:13 am, Rogue Cheddar said:

    Give in to your grief, let it consume you, end it now, Jackwagons all!

    We could take them to Namby Pamby Land and buy them some self-esteem-the sissies. But I still won’t buy Geico Insurance.

    If you ever host a Meet the Candidate lay done some runners. Congressional staffers are rather oily.
    ===
    Let your sidearm be like American Express:
    Don’t Leave home without it.

  27. #27
    On November 9th, 2010 at 8:39 am, BruceB said:

    On November 9th, 2010 at 7:45 am, chapoutier said:

    Luigi,

    Truly, it is amazing the time and effort it must have taken you to construct this narrative of me which is simultaneously so detailed and yet so very very wrong on just about every single level. How you go from me taking a jab at Doug for reporting that absurd Obama India Trip story to pouring out your vivid fantasies of my personal circumstances is, to say the least, disturbing.

    Let’s make a deal. I won’t waste your (and everyone elses) time going through exactly why your addled little posts are so incorrect nor will I speculate on the various psychoses that manifest themselves in them.

    And in exchange you agree to take your ritalin and stop obsessing over (or at the very least stop writing about your obsession with) my personal life.

    Deal? Deal.

    Actually I got inside info from the politico, which was verified by the NYT, that the actual cost was 350 million a day and it was 123 ships.

  28. #28
    On November 9th, 2010 at 8:56 am, PKAmmoTroop said:

    If these namby-pamby jackwagons had any brains in their heads they would have been shipping their resume’s out the moment Nancy Pelosi whipped out that ginormous gavel and did her arrogant “Smell Me” pimp stroll through the crowd of constituents on her way to destroying the economy with the vote on Soroscare Obamacare. You don’t have to be Cpt. Edward Smith to realize that’s a big honkin’ ice berg headed at your ship and it’s going to eat your freaking lunch.

  29. #29
    On November 9th, 2010 at 9:02 am, DiamondMair said:

    Can someone PLEASE explain how it is, whenever Dems/”Progressives”/Liberals lose, they cower into the fetal position & start sucking their thumbs? Good God, and they wonder why they don’t rate respect?

    Semper Fi’
    DM

  30. #30
    On November 9th, 2010 at 9:09 am, IndyRich said:

    Maybe they just need to following the footsteps of one of their esteemed collegues.

  31. #31
    On November 9th, 2010 at 9:10 am, IndyRich said:

    oops…..colleagues.

  32. #32
    On November 9th, 2010 at 9:16 am, sbw999 said:

    Grief counselors???? Now Ive truly seen everything.

  33. #33
    On November 9th, 2010 at 9:30 am, Savage24 said:

    Are these “grief counselors” jobs going to be listed as jobs saved or new jobs created for the unemployment records? Washington is full of wimps.

  34. #34
    On November 9th, 2010 at 9:30 am, Rorschach said:

    I say hand them all loaded handguns, direct them into a closet (with plastic sheeting on the walls and floor, wouldn’t want to make a bigger mess for the republicans to clean up now would we?) and tell them to just do what needs to be done and get on with it.

  35. #35
    On November 9th, 2010 at 9:54 am, tarpon said:

    Every action spawns a reaction — Something liberals never seem to be able to handle.

  36. #36
    On November 9th, 2010 at 10:37 am, walterc said:

    So, have we been providing grief counselors to all the people that have lost their jobs since Jan 2007? How about just since Jan 2009?

    Why do we suddenly need to fund grief counseling for the soon to be unemployed? Is their unemployment more traumatic than say a factory worker in Cleveland?

  37. #37
    On November 9th, 2010 at 11:04 am, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

    walterc said:

    Why do we suddenly need to fund grief counseling for the soon to be unemployed? Is their unemployment more traumatic than say a factory worker in Cleveland?

    To the Nose in the Air Elite? Oh yes-the unwashed of the Flyover do not count. Well maybe last Tuesday the unwashed mattered but that was so long ago. Opera is sending six box cars of tissues and Dr. Phil to fill the void in their achy breaky hearts. Some damn fool sent them a copy of the Want Ads and caused a panic. Work?!
    ===
    Let your sidearm be like American Express:
    Don’t Leave home without it.

  38. #38
    On November 9th, 2010 at 11:31 am, Dave Turson said:

    The “Letter from Defeated Members” sent to Pelosi made me somewhat weepy. Especially the part about recovering: “It is impossible not to judge the results of November 2nd as anything but a profound loss. We want to recover. …”

    Alas, Pelosi’s pals are not worried:

    Pelosi supporters did not take the letter too seriously, since no one has publicly signed on to it. And defeated members won’t have a vote in leadership elections expected next week.

  39. #39
    On November 9th, 2010 at 11:43 am, Living in the PSRK said:

    Now I am REALLY hating these people.

    The taxpayers are providing GRIEF COUNSELORS to Jacka$$es that didn’t listen to the people they were supposed to REPRESENT?

    While Community Grief Counselors are cut for people who lost their jobs (and even committed suicide) because of the hopelessness they saw in our local areas? (Yes, there are people committing suicide: young, elderly and unemployed – some “taking” family with them!)

    Got two words for all of them: first letter of first word is F. Y’all can use your imaginations for the second.

  40. #40
    On November 9th, 2010 at 11:46 am, Living in the PSRK said:

    Oh and Chap, I know it’s difficult to ignore rabid animals like Luigi, but you are an attorney. (You really need to do less pro-bono work so you can be a Democrat again, Dude!)

    Luigi – you need to get off your Tea Party high-house. Not all liberals are elitist b@stards. Chap is a nice guy. Wrong on some issues, but nice.

  41. #41
    On November 9th, 2010 at 12:14 pm, greenfairie said:

    Honestly, if you work on the Hill you have to expect that your guy or gal could lose an election. It happens all of the time. In fact, it should happen all of the time. Public service should be a temp job, not a career.

    By the way, most of these staffers are very well-connected people. They’ll be back in the saddle at some posh law firm, some Wall Street firm, some lobbyists’ office, etc. in no time.

  42. #42
    On November 9th, 2010 at 1:52 pm, WarEagle82 said:

    Historically, incumbents are re-elected more than 90% of the time. It is a fairly rare event when one loses. Thus, staffers do get surprised by defeats.

    And a staffer who moves his/her family to DC to take a job will certainly face some economic pain when their Congress-critter loses.

    The senior staff are often well-connected. That is not necessarily true of junior staffers. Some of them will end up at Center for American Progress, HRC and other ueber-liberal organizations around town but some of them are going to be scrambling to find work.

    But staffs are too big, and too entrenched and staff work, like service in Congress, should be a part time gig and not a career.

    They will simply have to deal with it like 17% of the American labor pool. Sometimes, reality bites though it appears Dim-o-crats are rarely acquainted with reality…

    On November 9th, 2010 at 12:14 pm, greenfairie said:

    Honestly, if you work on the Hill you have to expect that your guy or gal could lose an election. It happens all of the time. In fact, it should happen all of the time. Public service should be a temp job, not a career.

    By the way, most of these staffers are very well-connected people. They’ll be back in the saddle at some posh law firm, some Wall Street firm, some lobbyists’ office, etc. in no time.

  43. #43
    On November 9th, 2010 at 2:29 pm, sunshinerbray said:

    On November 9th, 2010 at 8:28 am, tre said:

    More than 10% of this country is outta work now, including one of my best friends, ‘cuz of you guys! So suck it up and deal with it!

    The numbers of people without jobs are much more than 10%.

    A personal example:
    My husband went without work long enough that he decided to go back to school and finish his degree. That was in June 2009.

    He graduated in August 2010.

    He still doesn’t have a job, but since he doesn’t collect unemployment, he’s not counted in those totals.

  44. #44
    On November 9th, 2010 at 8:32 pm, Speakup said:

    I had every confidence the moonbats would go down in flames but they did so in such spectacular fashion this can only be for you sad sad bitter children of Marx.

    Want a tissue?

  45. #45
    On November 9th, 2010 at 8:44 pm, frontierguy said:

    Is their unemployment more traumatic than say a factory worker in Cleveland?

    I would say no, but everytime I try to feel for these people I remember how their area voted. I just can’t find it in me to feel sorry for them. It’s like the mosque in New York City. Oh well, enjoy New Yorkers and I hope the mosque gets to blast their victory song (call to prayer) across your heads 5 times a day everyday. Enjoy. Remember where that “sensitivity” got you and how your vote for the sensitive politicians got you to where you are.

  46. #46
    On November 9th, 2010 at 9:23 pm, dan708 said:

    Grief counselors – I should’ve thought of that before. I’ve been grieving for my country for years WITHOUT professional help.

  47. #47
    On November 9th, 2010 at 11:20 pm, Republicanvet said:

    Pelosi supporters did not take the letter too seriously, since no one has publicly signed on to it. And defeated members won’t have a vote in leadership elections expected next week.

    Shouldn’t that be losership elections?

  48. #48
    On November 10th, 2010 at 3:45 am, BobUSMC said:

    Welcome to MambyPambyLand!!!

    Happy Birthday U.S. Marines!!

  49. #49
    On November 12th, 2010 at 9:30 pm, Tuesday said:

    Good grief, Charlie Brown! HOW much is it costing taxpayers?

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