What's Driving Miss Shelia?

According to Lee, everything is fine in her Washington office. She maintains that her high staff turnover rate doesn't affect her constituents. In fact, she believes her staff turnover is nothing out of the ordinary.

Asked about various personal services she allegedly requested from her office workers, she offers a quick answer: "Anything that my staff does in my office is pursuant to congressional rules."

Allowed by the rules, maybe. But is it appropriate to keep a worker sitting in a car for hours to chauffeur her to an office two and a half blocks away?

"Whatever staff does is pursuant to congressional business," she replies.
Only at one point does Lee's reputed temper surface. Asked why former staffers would invent stories of her rudeness and bad behavior, she begins a strange answer: "Why don't you check with people who have been in the Civil Rights movement or been under siege in the White House, whether it's been the Bush White House or the Clinton White House? Working hard and that kind of thing ...." She reaches for her own throat, and a Press photographer snaps a picture.

Lee is flustered, and asks that the photo not be used. Her voice becomes strained. "I am saying that seriously," she says. "I would like my picture not to be in there .... Is our tape working? ... It'll be on the tape that I asked that it not be in there."

Never mind the questions about serious employee allegations and tales of shameless self-promotion. Lee is more worried that a photo might be unflattering. For a few seconds, she reveals the frantically self-absorbed politician described by former employees -- the people in her realm who knew her best.