Obituary of Roy Grenaway, Aide to Senator Cranston

A few months ago, I wrote "Why I am No Longer A Democrat." Well, looking back at the post, I didn't make it clear that I left the Democrats for good a long time ago, back in 1990. I voted for George Bush in 1988. But before then, I had supported and tried to work with a lot of liberal Democrats. In 1980, I thought Ted Kennedy was great. In 1984, I recruited fellow Berkeley college students to get on a bus from California and drive to Iowa to help Senator Alan Cranston (D-CA) win the Iowa Democratic Caucuses and eventually the Democratic nomination for President. As I matured, my politics changed and I no longer felt comfortable in the Democratic party.

This obituary of Roy Greenaway, the former Chief of Stafff to Senator Cranston, brought back a lot of forgotten memories for me. In 1989, seven months after moving to the D.C. area, I interviewed for a job in Cranston's Senate office. As it happened, it was Grenaway who conducted the interview on a hot July afternoon. Well, I thought I had bombed because Greenaway fell asleep during the interview! How boring I must have been! Imagine my surprise when they called and offered me the job. I considered the offer and realized that although this was an entry level job, I no longer felt comfortable with the Senator's politics so I turned it down and focused instead on finishing up my Master's Degree.

The Post obituary on Greenaway included this: "Mr. Greenaway was known for the unpredictable questions he asked job seekers during interviews." I don't recall any off the wall questions during my interview, but perhaps he was trying to see how I would react when he fell asleep on me! I remember being pretty mad afterwards and wanting to write a nasty letter complaining of his unprofessionalism at falling asleep. But I held back and never wrote that letter and lo and behold, I could have had the job. I guess I passed his test by not being flustered by his somnolence.