Internship search nightmare

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I can't vent enough of my frustration elsewhere, so I thought I'd make a post. I'm a grad student at GWU studying "Political Management", and I'm required to have at least 400 hours of experience within the field in order to obtain the degree. I've applied to 10 or so internships since mid-March and I'm still without an internship. I started off slowly and was somewhat picky about the orgs I applied to. In particular, I wanted to work with land-conservation advocates. As my first few applications began to fade about a month in, I became more desperate and open-minded.
Around this time, I applied for what ended up being my best chance for being hired, although the phone-interview process was drawn out over a month. That position was for a presidential-exploratory PAC for a guy who actually has a good chance to at least become a VP candidate. Nevertheless, I did feel uneasy about possibly pigeonholed later on as a person interested in personality/candidate politics. All of this was pointless however, when I was told they didn't have enough office space for interns anymore, about a month after my first contact. Since then I've continued watching craigslist and my own school's listings, but to no avail. I've applied to a few more interesting slots but no one ever contacts me. (Actually, I called Audubon early with just questions, and the guy apparently lied about ever getting back with me.)
I'm in a bit of a jam, because I really can't handle working alongside school. By working, I mean writing much of the day, and by school I mean copious writing homework and reading, which I'm often quite slow at due to monotropism and other factors. I have concerns about handling a job alone -- much less juggling it with a difficult semester (even with courseload reduced from 9 to 6 hours). I've thought I might try for spots that would last as late as 6 weeks into the Fall semester, but it's not like good listings are popping up left and right.
Also, I believe my lack of volunteer and/or "grassroots" experience has been the primary factor in my rejections. I've never gone out of my way to socialize these ways, because there was never a local cause I felt strongly about, I didn't know I wanted to work in this area until late senior year, and informal club interaction is a major turn off. I'm probably going to do a once-a-month trail-maintenance thing starting this month, but even I see that isn't going to compare well with the records of the overachievers who swarm into the capital every summer. What's more, it's too little too late. By the time I've bolstered anything, my next option to wait until the next ultra-competitive summer application round. I'm not even sure how the school will handle me not fulfilling the work requirement by the time my credits are satisfied. (Most of my cohorts work through their entire time here, and I think they're amazing folks.)
There's not much anyone here can do about the situation I guess. I just felt like complaining. Comments welcome!