I realize that this is hardly a political story, and as such is non-traditional Carpetbagger material, but it deals with Congress, a GOP office, and a damn amusing story, so let’s make an exception.
Roll Call reported the other day that an intern in Rep. Phil English’s (R-Pa.) office lost her job when she was caught with marijuana while going through a security checkpoint.
After getting acquainted with the office and her new colleagues, who described the intern as “weird” and a “strange character,” it was time to go on a tour of the Capitol with staff assistant Aimee Peterson.
When Peterson and her new charge reached the security checkpoint connecting the Cannon House Office Building to the Capitol, they put their purses on the X-ray belts and stepped through the metal detectors. Inside the intern’s purse, police officers spotted a small wooden box containing a little pipe — and a little something to smoke. As the police report put it, it was a “green leafy substance” and “paraphernalia.”
The officers called the intern over to the side for a chat, leaving Peterson to wonder what was so intriguing about the new intern’s bag.
“I didn’t know what was going on!” Peterson told [Roll Call]. “I told the cop she was our intern. He said, ‘We found something.'”
Yep, the 27-year-old intern, just two hours after she started working for a Republican House member, got busted for pot possession. Capitol Hill police put her in handcuffs and took her to Congress’ processing facility.
I just have to wonder what she was thinking that morning before heading off for her first day of work at a congressman’s office. “Yeah, I’ll show up with drugs in my purse at one of the most heavily secure buildings on earth. Who’s going to know?”
Needless to say, her internship came to an abrupt halt. Fortunately, she wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning out her desk; she hadn’t been on the job long.
Better yet, Roll Call added a helpful reminder to the story:
If two potheads a trend do make, then, by golly, potheads are the latest trend in interns. Five months ago, a 19-year-old intern in Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-Texas) office was arrested for marijuana possession. Unlike our latest participant with her fancy wooden box, Paul’s intern kept his leafy green substance in a “Zip-lock sandwich bag” and used a “blue glass pipe” to smoke it.
Must be something about interns in Republican offices, right?