Sissy Emerson - Press Secretary

Talking to Representative Sugarbaker's Press Secretary, Sissy Emerson, you actually get the impression that she enjoys working for the Congresswoman -- but that wasn't always the case.

Emerson walked in and applied for this position with no regard for Miss Sugarbaker at all. Rumor had it that Sugarbaker was either a lesbian, stupid, or had killed a man. Of course, having been drinking heavily for quite some time, Sissy really was in no condition to apply for the job, regardless.

The Congresswoman, however, had no intention of doing anything but keeping her late husband's seat warm until an election could be held, so she hired the former reporter without so much as checking her references.

Her references; Emerson had been a respectable reporter for the Washington Post style section until losing her position and starting to drink. Shortly thereafter, she began working for Sugarbaker, but not before losing her credit and subsequently being evicted from her apartment.

The Congresswoman's impassioned speech before the House -- coming out on behalf of the unique and downtrodden -- snapped Emerson out of her haze. "It gave me a reason to be proud of my position again," she says. "From that point on I really didn't need the alcohol."

Not one to sit idly by in silence, Emerson takes on the sarcastic role in the office -- often doing battle with her conservative counterpart, Administrative Assistant Natalie Hollingsworth. "That Natty can be so insufferable and uptight," she notes. "It used to give me a headache just looking at the bun in her hair."

With Emerson being very left-liberal and feminist-oriented, the two are often found sparring around the office and taking digs at each other's party affiliation. It is not unusual for Emerson to be heard making cracks aimed at specific politicians, often solely to annoy Hollingsworth, but even general comments about her own life are padded with sarcasm.

"The closest thing I had to a date recently was when two homosexuals took me out to dinner and asked me to incubate their baby," the reporter muses.

She also expresses annoyance with the attitude of today's Generation X'ers --- spawned on by the new office intern, "These kids, they have no right to be so cynical --- not having been around when Kennedy was shot or having had to fight for women's rights. They need to get back to watching MTV and just shut up."

In regards to Sugarbaker, the Press Secretary has really changed her tune though. "Under all that hair and behind all those pageant stories, sometimes she actually makes a good point -- whether intending to or not," Emerson says of her boss. "Washington really needs to worry less about appearance and show us some substance." She laughs. "It's funny that I could actually learn that from someone like Suzanne Sugarbaker. What irony."