Whisper-Quiet Hill Aides Must Speak Up Without Standing Out

In this city of aides, the split goes like this: 535 members of Congress out front; more than 10,000 staffers in back. (This being staffer culture, who gets counted as "staffer" is itself intensely debated.) The many organize themselves to serve the few. Unwritten rules and traditions have evolved and they have one theme: deference. Yet sometimes, when the city's attention is drawn to a single room, as it is right now, the deferential get nudged, whether or not they like it, into view. They're the ones in the upper corners of the television screen, when the camera zooms in to Washington's high-stakes legislative obsession of the moment. The ones leaning forward. The ones at the top of the staffer organizational charts. The ones with all the degrees and, in some cases, the ones with all the interesting résumés. This can be an uncomfortable setting for the backstage operators to become faces du jour. With some notable exceptions, most staffers are doing everything they can to stay off camera. It's the preferred ethos of the Washington staffer -- do the homework, don't seek the glory . . . or else. In other words, never ever upstage the boss.