People that work under people that are given to have an air of importance about them often know how that person really is when nobody is watching.
Case in point, the UFC referee John McCarthy once did a guest appearance on an episode of Friends when both the UFC and Friends were at the height of their popularity in the 1990s he was in a backroom and one of the female stars of the show absolutely blew a gasket when they were asked to work through half of their lunch break. From all accounts he said it was a tantrum for the pages.
After recent reports of Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s spoiled behavior while traveling, more stories of bad behavior are starting to surface. It is not a pretty picture.
On a recent United Airlines flight, Lee reportedly demanded a first class seat, causing a teacher to get booted from her premium seat to economy class. That’s the story many critics believe, but United claims the teacher canceled her seat. The teacher said she did no such thing. Lee claims she didn’t do anything, and accused the teacher of being racist.
This isn’t the first incident of bad behavior. In fact, congressional staffers named her the “Meanest Member of Congress” in 2014.
Jackson Lee, D-Tex., appeared on Washingtonian magazine’s “best and worst of Congress” list in 2014. The biennial survey polls congressional staffers on what they really think of their Capitol Hill bosses. At the time, the Texas congresswoman “won” the titles of “meanest” and “show horse,” with her employees citing heavy workloads and harsh criticism.
Former aides detailed Lee’s allegedly abrasive behavior, telling the Houston Chronicle she would hurl personal insults and demand menial errands be run.
A former executive assistant told the Chronicle that Lee insisted being treated like royalty.
“You don’t understand. I am a queen, and I demand to be treated like a queen,” Lee allegedly once told an event organizer.
The Daily Caller has more on her spoiled behavior. Several decades worth of coverage of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee suggests she’s behaved badly on planes – and on automobiles – before this week’s incident.
But previous reports show the House member, who was elected in 1994, has had a history of transportation drama, including berating flight attendants on first class flights and making her Congressional staff drive her one block, while waiting on her for hours and disrupting traffic.
She’s been documented calling her employees ‘you stupid motherf***er,’ while referring to herself as Congressional royalty.
In 2002, the Weekly Standard did a deep dive into her travel demands.
The congresswoman, the article noted, lived about ‘200 paces’ from her Cannon Building Capitol Hill office, though still insisted on a ride.
In a 2011 article in the Daily Caller drivers for the lawmaker said she demanded that they run red lights and on highway shoulders – antics that caused one accident.
Jackson Lee was screaming at a staffer to drive faster when the aide turned too sharply and ran the car into a wall, the Daily Caller reported.
While her time was precious, staffers’ testified theirs was not.
‘Whatever time she told me to be there, I would always show up at least 20 minutes later, and expect to wait at least 45 minutes,’ one of Jackson Lee’s drivers told the Daily Caller. ‘She was making me wait in the car, sometimes upwards of five to seven hours per day.’
Before this week’s United debacle, Jackson Lee had a tense relationship with Continental, the Houston-based carrier that merged with United in 2010.
Jackson Lee’s staff would book seats on multiple flights for her week-end trips back to Houston, allowing the congresswoman to pick the trip that would best fit her schedule.
