D – her replacement in our office – was very impressed by the international women’s day event she put on, something she apparently convinced the Virgin Mayor to allow her to do, and which put her in touch with a number of the most powerful political women in the town if not the county.
After weeks of wondering how she was going to justify her appointment, she came out with a very impressive effort, something she needed to do to quiet the whispering critics in townhall who had wondered what exactly she was doing for the money she earned.
D is quite taken with her, and praised her event not just in print, but in private as well, telling me how well she had done in pulling it off.
This fits the pattern – in which she starts off with a bang, even if it took a few weeks for her to get her wheels in motion.
She needed to establish herself as a viable power player, needed to stand out from the crowd, and needed to impress the all-boys network by establishing a power base of her own: women.
This is the second time she played this role, first at the Virgin Mayor’s fundraiser, where she got to hobnob with his key people, then at a more or less official photographer, but this time she has elevated her status, getting a bit of her own political turf independent of the Virgin Mayor (well, sort of).
When she first started with us, I wondered how so many on her beat could offer her such honors, celebrating her as some kind of celebrity, holding a special luncheon in tribute to her, boasted of her performance at in the Neighboring Mayor’s performing arts center (which suggested they had a comfortable relationship back then but had resulted in some falling out later in which she came to despise him.)
This seems to be for the moment her crowning achievement, something that put her on the political map and will force all of the big wig boys to sit up and take notice of her.
Such attention, however, can be dangerous, too, as power distrusts the up and coming, and often see it as a threat – and to maintain power, you must somehow build on it, which of course raises the next question: what can you do to top this?
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