Passing the torch: Mikulski says goodbye to the Senate

[DonViejo]

By Paul Schwartzman December 12 at 3:29 PM

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski bristled at the pop quiz a pastor sprang on her at his Baltimore church on a recent Saturday, a visit that was part of an informal farewell tour after 40 scene-stealing years on Maryland’s political stage.

Do you remember my father? the reverend asked. And if so, who was he? Mikulski let the pastor know she did not appreciate being put on the spot. But she aced the test anyway: His father was among the first union leaders to endorse her Senate campaign 30 years earlier. Triumphant, the senator smiled and headed for lunch.

Mikulski, who retires in January, has cultivated deep ties to generations of constituents. Many know her as “Senator Barb,” the irrepressible, wisecracking everywoman who began her political career fighting a highway that threatened to pulverize Baltimore’s working-class neighborhoods.

That the senator is only 4 feet 11 inches tall — a veritable shrub in a forest of soaring redwoods — seems only to have guaranteed her more attention.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/passing-the-torch-mikulski-says-goodbye-to-the-senate-after-30-years/2016/12/12/0899821e-bbd3-11e6-91ee-1adddfe36cbe_story.html?utm_term=.8aa20bd327ca&wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1

[MADem]

1. She most certainly was the sort who would "bristle."

I met her in Europe and spent a day or so with her twenty some-odd years ago.

A tough cookie and a quick study. I think she served her constituents well.