ShareThisBy CAROLINE E. RUSE and BRIAN DUGGAN
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
They were witnesses to history, say several former House pages, and their time in the nation's capital made it hard to return to their former lives as high school students.
Jeff Leider, 22, a 2000 page sponsored by Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., said in an e-mail the job brought him close to history in the making _ including the recount of the 2000 presidential election.
"Going home and returning to a normal teenage life is not particularly appealing after the page program," said Lieder, now a University of Texas law student. "Many pages don't even try, and head straight to college."
Adam Estes, 22, who served as a page in 2000-2001, said the program was a positive and life-changing one for him.
"It was completely surreal," said Estes, who was sponsored by Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn. "I learned about the politicians of America by actually having lunch with them."
Clinton Morris, 23, a graduate student in U.S. history at the University of Kentucky, was a member of the 1999-2000 congressional page class.
"We had quite a bit of interaction with the members," Morris said. "We had to remember their names and states. While there were 400 people on the floor, we'd have to find them so they would have time to get to the phone."
Morris said he delivered messages, and during votes would remind members, who were sometimes sleeping in the cloakroom, how much time remained for the vote.
"It was our job to interrupt them while they were doing things they wanted to do," he said.
But Morris said members were always friendly and appreciative of the pages' jobs and regularly thanked them. Morris said he didn't notice any unusual or inappropriate behavior between members of Congress and pages during his time on the Hill.
Sam Michelman, 17, worked as a page in July and attends Head-Royce School in Oakland, Calif.
"On less busy days, I remember having casual conversations with members, including one time asking Rep. (Jose) Serrano of New York for help with the difficult crossword puzzle I was doing while the House was in recess."
Michelman said pages' work hours varied.
"Sometimes we'd get to leave at 5 with all the other pages," he said. "But some nights, like my last in Washington, we worked until 2 a.m. trying to ram through the pension/minimum wage bill before the House recessed for the summer."
Lieder recalled munching pizza with Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., during the first round of President Bush's tax cuts in 2001.
Outside of work, the pages said they lived a regimented life. A nightly curfew of about 10 p.m. and other rules enforced by the page staff made it difficult to act like a normal teenager.
"Even kissing a significant other was prohibited. There were legitimate consequences for doing it," Lieder said. "Rooms were cleaned and checked every week, right down to making sure the beds were made."
Former page Patrick Fortune, 19, who was sponsored by George Radanovich, R-Calif., in 2003 said of the dorm, "Essentially it was stronger than some prisons."
"To leave the dorm you had to be signed out with a buddy," said Fortune, who is studying international relations at Stanford.
Fortune said the pages become close friends after spending so much time together.
Pages could spend the night elsewhere, he said, as long as their parents approved and the adult whose house they were sleeping at signed them out.
One of Fortune's friends had dinner and spent the night at a congresswoman's house. He said this wasn't uncommon.
Pages could be expelled from the program for stepping into a liquor store or smoking a cigarette, Fortune said. Two pages were kicked out during his year for sneaking a cigarette outside of the page dormitory.
Leider, who never heard rumors about former Rep. Mark Foley, said it's normal for congressmen to send e-mails to former pages. Leider said he and his brother Robert, 25, who was a page in 1999, keep a running friendship with Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz.
"During my time in Washington and after, we have been good friends, occasionally corresponding by e-mail," he said. "Many pages leave Washington having made friends with some of the congressmen, and the vast majority of these relationships, like mine, are perfectly normal, healthy friendships and mentorships."
