What Happens When You Get Into Politicians' iPods?

This morning Christiane Amanpour had General Stanley McCrystal on CNN for a little chit-chat. I missed it but I did run upstairs to put my shoes and socks on so I could go for a walk when we were, briefly, between storms. I heard her last question as I pulled on my left sock, something to the effect of, "What do you listen to in your iPod when you're out jogging?" If you were hoping he's a fan of Fleetwood Mac's Peacekeeper (or Green Day's take on the same title from 21st Century Breakdown, Peace Train by Yusuf Islam, Masters of War by Dylan, Hate and War by the Clash or even Sabbath's War Pigs, you must have been mighty disappointed to hear that the general doesn't generally use his iPod for music. He said he listens to books on it while he's jogging and said he's listening to one-- I think this one about Washington and Lafayette.

Nothing wrong with that. Some of my best friends listen to books on their iPods. But, I don't know, I would somehow have felt something a little more human about the general on whose shoulders our country's political future rides, if he had even just said he listens to Eve of Destruction or Holst's Mars, the Bringer of War from The Planets. When I was first getting to know then-candidate Alan Grayson, we bonded on our mutual appreciation of Joni Mitchell, his favorite musician of all time. You get to at least think you know something about a political figure when you know what music has been meaningful in their lives.

I would have never guessed, for example, that Harry Reid is a major music fan, that his iPod is always being updated and that he loves Wilco-- especially when they team up with Billy Bragg to do Woody Guthrie songs! Reid's one of the only people I know of who gets Rolling Stone delivered to his house-- which I hope means that, aside from getting turned on to good tunes, he's getting turned on to some of Matt Taibbi's good insights. Right now the songs he's listening to and currently loving most are Time by Tom Waits, Berkeley Girl by Harper Simon, and "Solitary Man," although I didn't catch if it was Neil Diamond's original, or the cover by Chris Isaak or Johnny Cash that he's so gaga over.

I doubt Christiane will ever ask any of them but I bothered some members of Congress enough so that they told me what their favorite music is. Connecticut Congressman Jim Himes loves Ben Harper's Diamonds on the Inside, while Jared Polis seems equally enthusiastic about Peter Paul and Mary, John Denver, R.E.M. and They Might Be Giants. For Raul Grijalva it's all about the Rolling Stones and Gary Peters loves Royal Scam and Aja by Steely Dan.

Barney Frank was asked by someone else what his favorite music is and explained a somewhat unconventional pick: "Sounds with clever lyrics, for example the songs in the musical Fiorello. Given that I’m the main sponsor of a bill to repeal the stupid congressional law prohibiting people from internet gambling, the song Politics and Poker is my single favorite."

We'll leave it at that... or, better yet, with this: