Michael Smerconish: 1-800-Political-Venom

I'M ON vacation this week. It couldn't have come soon enough.

This is the first time-off I've had in eight months, and 2009 has been an incredibly exhausting and newsy year.

I was looking forward to some neglected leisure activities and projects around the house. I promised our sons that we'd go kayaking on the Delaware, and told my wife that I'd finally clean up a makeshift pet memorial in the back yard.

The to-do list also included trying to get new home-phone service straightened out with Verizon. On Tuesday, I called Verizon and was connected to "Annie" (not her real name).

She asked what number I was calling about, and I offered one of several that might get her to my account. She told me that line had been disconnected (even though I'd just used it) - and that it had last been called by "Obama for America," cavalierly sharing her access to far too much information.

Too bad she didn't let it go at that. "He's not for America," she volunteered. "Excuse me?" I said. She repeated herself, then casually told me the president "is a communist," a "Marxist-Leninist."

Of course, I'm no stranger to discussing politics by phone. I make a living fielding calls and debating the issues with my listeners. But I didn't field this call; I made it. And having initiated it, I couldn't exercise the radio host's prerogative and hang up on myself.

Even worse, I didn't make the call to talk politics. I just wanted to get my phone fixed. I'd done nothing to invite Annie's diatribe, yet she was insistent that I listen to her robotic regurgitation of the talking-points she'd likely absorbed hours earlier.

I TOLD HER I found her comments inappropriate (if not outright offensive). But she didn't let up. She proceeded to tell me that the president's parents and individuals in his administration were also communists.

So convinced of the righteousness of her beliefs, Annie was ready to espouse them to anybody who called. It was as if she fancied herself a talk-show host ready to do battle with her callers - even though her audience was simply those people whose phone lines needed Verizon's attention.

This is the sorry state of political discourse in America today. Annie was so certain of the opinions that someone else had told her that she was ready to regurgitate them to any hapless caller, the brazen audacity that transformed so many town-hall meetings into shouting matches.

I told Annie she should save her views for after hours and concentrate on my phone. When she persisted, I told her I wanted her last name, and the names of her supervisors. She initially demurred on supplying her own name, but readily offered two names - one male, one female.

When I asked to be connected to the woman, she said she was off. When I requested the man, our connection ended.

By then, the kids were dressed for the kayaks, and the last thing I wanted to do was get into a squabble about politics while on vacation, much less wait on hold to recount what had just happened.

But there was no way I was letting this pass. So I called the same 800 number, and tracked down her male supervisor. He heard me out but seemed more intent on telling me to calm down than getting my name or phone number. I demanded he take both. He promised to look into the situation.

That day on the Delaware, I told my sons what had happened. I explained that I complained to Verizon just as I would have if an operator had volunteered that George W. Bush lied about Iraq, or offered some equally reprehensible view from another political extreme.

And I explained that I viewed this as more than just an aberrant woman in a company call center.

As we paddled, and I recalled our conversation, what stood out was not only the outlandish charges against the president, but the ease with which she recited them. To a stranger. And while on someone else's dime.

It was as if the mention of the president's name - which she herself brought up after accessing my billing records - had pushed a button that caused her to spin out of control.

And the manner in which she stated her views told me she was someone who viewed her own disparagement of our nation's leader as some kind of a badge of patriotism.

Well, Annie, you're no Tom Paine. Nor is there a war being fought for independence.

And if the venom being spewed against the president isn't reined in soon, I fear your mind-set will give aid and encouragement to some sicko who thinks it's his place to protect the republic through the barrel of a gun.

Just before the business day ended, my cell phone rang. It was some big mahoff in Verizon's Pittsburgh call center. He wanted to apologize on behalf of the company.

I told him I appreciated the call, had no ill will toward Verizon, and that I hoped the call had been recorded "for training purposes" and would indeed be used for that.

I suspect that when Annie is confronted with my complaint, she won't hedge, but will readily admit her behavior because she believes she is fighting for some principle higher than her job.

I conveyed my suspicions to the mahoff.

His chuckle told me I was correct.

We are truly in a sorry state. Can you hear me now, Annie?

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.smerconish.com.