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259 11 Barney, We Hardly Recognize Ye “i gain weight when i am nervous, which i usually am during campaigns,” Barney explained. “i was particularly nervous [during the race against heckler] because i was afraid i couldn’t win.” Barney coped with the tension of the 1982 campaign by eating. “when you’re under stress, you fress,” he said. he ate everything in sight and then came back for dessert. he often ate half a pecan pie and five hamburgers as a snack between meals. in his eating habits, he followed the advice of miss Piggy, who once said, “never eat more than you can lift.” “we would take him places in Fall river to meet people and all he would look at was the food. ‘you’ll eat afterwards,’ i would tell him,” mark Sullivan said. Sullivan recalled attending a campaign event with Barney in a private home. Just as the host came up to be introduced to Barney and reached out his hand, Barney grabbed a sandwich and took a bite, causing sauce to spurt out all over his tie. “i’m not full but my tie is,” Barney said as the introduction began. at a 1982 fund-raiser for state representative Philip Johnston hosted by Johnston’s sister at her home in Boston, Barney was a featured speaker. Johnston recalls that his sister had already set out most of the food when Barney arrived. “he was like a vacuum cleaner and ate all the hors d’oeuvres before the other people got there,” Johnston said. campaigns in the United States, according to Barney, have always been very food-centered. he would spend fifteen to sixteen hours a day campaigning throughout the district and go to ten or twelve events, all of them centered on food—be it bagels or lasagna. “you are meeting with the elderly, better give them coffee and a donut because that is hospitable. you are going to a Portuguese festival or a Jewish event, you have to sample the food,” he said. at these campaign events he would eat, in the words of Pooh Bear, “a little something” at each of them. “i have a very fast mouth. i talk fast and i eat fast.” By the end of the campaign, he had gained more than 55 pounds and his weight had ballooned back up to 270 pounds. chapter eleven 260 during the congressional recess in the spring of 1983 when Barney was traveling around the district, he ran into kevin Poirier, a friend with whom he had served in the state legislature. Poirier was the republican representative from north attleboro. when Poirier asked Barney, “how does it feel to have a safe seat?” Barney said he was sort of shocked and realized for the first time that maybe he was in pretty good shape politically and that maybe he could keep his job if he worked at it. after that conversation with Poirier, feeling that the pressure was off, Barney began to act more relaxed. Staffers who had worked for him during his first term in congress found that he was less moody, less prone to temper tantrums, and easier to get along with. also, he began to share the reins with senior staff and to delegate more. “That first term, i couldn’t send a letter to a constituent on a stupid issue without running the letter by Barney,” richard Goldstein, who had been one of Barney’s legislative assistants, said. “now it turns out that ronald reagan has been kind of a role model for me. i’ve learned to delegate a lot better. as far as management style goes, ronald reagan was right and Jimmy carter was wrong,” Barney said at the time. “For years, i really let the job run me and in the last couple of months i’ve finally learned how to control my time.” with the confidence of knowing that if he did a good job he could hold onto the house seat for a while, at least until redistricting in ten years, Barney established himself more permanently in washington. Barney was then able to work on the other parts of his life. The first project was to lose weight, which was no easy task for him. “Food was a very important part of my life. i like to eat. Food made me feel good,” Barney said. The challenge for Barney was to find other ways to feel good. Barney was so successful in his...

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