Souder's Sandwich Fit

Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) must have been upset about some of the commentary surrounding his recent embarrassing attempt to use religious discrimination as a straw man to defeat ENDA during House debate. The Hill reports Souder became quite testy with a Capitol Hill cafe worker over whether his turkey sandwich was grilled or toasted. The Hill's "In The Know" column writes today:

Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) stormed out of a café in the Capitol basement in a fit of irritation last week. The reason? His turkey sandwich — it was grilled, not toasted.

With just a few people in line at the deli counter, the café was not bustling. But Souder was apparently in a rush and preoccupied, hunched over his BlackBerry for much of the time. First, he asked for his sandwich to be grilled. Then, toasted. The deli employee grew confused.

“Big guy, you want lettuce and tomato?” he called out to Souder.

Souder then realized his sandwich was being grilled, not toasted. “I said toasted,” the congressman said. To which the employee replied, “Nah, man, you said grilled.” Still, he offered to re-make the sandwich.

Souder then mumbled angrily, “It’s already taking too long,” and left, sandwich-less. Souder had a different take on the incident.

“Mr. Souder was asked for — and gave — his order three times,” wrote Souder spokesman Mark Green in an e-mail to ITK. “After around 20 minutes, he was still
waiting, so he canceled the order and walked out so as to get to his next meeting on time. Despite the poor service, he decided not to file a complaint. We are disappointed that what happened has been misrepresented to you.”

The Hill's gossip columns are great. The other day they reported on some congressman from West Virginia who had a little too much to drink at a local watering hole and kept bumping into and shoving everyone in sight, women included. You would think these guys would learn they're living in a fish bowl out in Washington and would behave themselves accordingly.