Rep. Jackson Lee’s Past Comes Back to Haunt: ‘I Demand to be Treated Like a Queen’
Former employees compare her to a “master” on a “slave plantation.”
12.29.2017
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Perhaps it’s time to start referring to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) as Diva Jackson Lee because apparently, she demands to be treated like royalty everywhere she goes.
As we reported earlier this week, a woman was kicked out of first-class on a United Airlines flight to Washington D.C. and her seat given to the congresswoman. The infuriated passenger was moved to Economy Plus and launched a complaint against the airline. Jackson Lee said the only reason the woman filed a complaint was because she is a racist, even though the passenger didn’t know a black woman had taken her seat. Luckily, the woman was seated next to another Texas congressman who said Jackson Lee is known to be a traveling nightmare. And now, even more sources have come to light that indicate this is the norm not the exception.
According to a 1998 report in the Houston Press, Jackson Lee, who was voted into office four years earlier, was incensed that a white congressman was driven to a civil rights re-enactment while she didn’t get the same VIP treatment. She reportedly yelled at a staffer, “You don’t understand. I am a queen, and I demand to be treated like a queen."
She also proved to be trouble for Continental Airlines back in her early years in office. Once, she found out the flight menu didn’t include a seafood meal for her and she lost it.
"She screamed at the top of her lungs at least a minute," a Continental employee said at the time. "She embarrassed the flight attendants and the passengers in first class. And she embarrassed herself."
Jackson Lee was quoted as saying, “Don't you know who I am? I'm Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Where is my seafood meal? I know it was ordered!"
According to the congresswoman’s former staffer, Jackson Lee always demanded three first-class reservations that she would decide at the last minute which to use. Continental was “fed up with the arrangement” and downgraded her reservations to coach class. As you might guess, that didn’t go over well.
Check out yet another account from Daily Mail:
[I]n May 1999, Jackson Lee had boarded a Continental flight out of Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National only to find that she had misplaced her purse.The congresswoman proceeded to get off the flight to look for the bag back in the terminal, meanwhile the plane had left the gate – with the missing purse on board.According to aviation lobbyists that the Weekly Standard talked to, Jackson Lee demanded she be let back on the plane and didn't believe it was against Federal Aviation Administration regulation.‘She accused the gate staff of racism and demanded to see their supervisor, who was a black woman,' the Weekly Standard wrote. 'Her purse, meanwhile, was unceremoniously dropped out of the cockpit window and ferried back to her.'
Jackson Lee is just as tyrannical with her personal drivers. A 2002 report in The Weekly Standard noted that she only lived “200 paces” from her office but would still hire a car to get her there. However, she always kept the drivers waiting and idling the car for at least 20 minutes and up to an hour in some cases. Doing so blocked traffic near Capitol Hill. Aides were also required to open and close the car door for her. A staffer once noted getting the stink eye when Jackson Lee’s jacket and shawl weren’t removed fast enough before getting in the car.
In addition, as a Daily Caller article from 2011 indicated, drivers were instructed to run red lights and drive on the shoulder of the road. One time, she screamed at a driver to go faster and the car crashed into a wall when a sharp turn came up.
Jackson Lee often had her assistants drive her around town for unofficial business to get her clothing items or to and from salon appointments. One said, “She just didn't care. She'd come down an hour late and want you to open the door for her .... She's not cognizant of anybody except herself. Everything revolves around her."
"These poor little 22-year-olds who are making peanuts are forced into incredibly stressful situations and forced to do things she's not legally, morally or ethically allowed to compel them to do," another said. "Then on top of that, they're unceremoniously fired."
The Houston Press reported in 1997 that the employee turn over rate in Jackson Lee’s first two years in office “was the highest of any member of Congress.” In all, “19 staffers came and went” at a turnover rate of 180 percent.
Here’s a quote from the report indicating staffers felt like slaves:
"She is the boss from hell," says one former assistant, a young black woman. "She treats everybody like her slaves. To give you an idea of what I thought my [time] with Sheila was like, it was a slave plantation, and she was the master."
And these are just some of the incidents listed in these reports. It’s an infuriating read through all of them and shows just how much corruption is deeply rooted in our elected leaders. Jackson Lee has been at this for 23 years at this point and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. When will Democrats learn that draining the swamp is a good thing?
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