Tuesday, July 28, 2009
My day on the Hill
I’m currently in the Nation’s Capital, preparing for the SABR convention. Got here a few days early for sightseeing, including Sunday’s 10-inning Nationals victory over San Diego.
Yesterday was my day on Capitol Hill ... the one that’s a country away from Seattle. I wanted to, and did, drop in at the offices of all of my representatives in Congress. Jim McDermott’s office came first, followed by Patty Murray’s and Maria Cantwell’s. Patty’s was by far the busiest, with a bunch of guys in suits waiting to see her (or maybe just one of her staffers), as well as a half-dozen college students on some sort of lobbying/volunteering mission. I also swung by the office of my college classmate Paul Hodes (D-NH-02). As with my reps, I wasn’t there to address any sort of issues, just to fly the flag with them.
Well, OK, I did register my support of the public option with Maria’s staff ... the others don’t need my urging to do the right thing.
A staffer in McDermott’s office gave me gallery passes for both Houses of Congress, so after the disappointingly-perfunctory Capitol tour, I went to both chambers. In the Senate, Bob Bennett and Dan Inouye were rambling on about some bill or another—it was never particularly clear to me, though they basically agreed on whatever it was. Mark Warner looked amazingly bored in the Senate President’s seat on the rostrum.
Over in the House, the floor wasn’t very much more populated than the Senate. A few staffers lounged in the back rows, mostly doing whatever one does with a Blackberry or Palm.
When I arrived at the House, Jim Marshall (D-GA-08) and Joe Wilson (R-SC-02) were finishing up a resolution honoring Army NCOs. The next several actions were directed by William Lacy Clay (D-MO-01) for the majority and Michele Bachmann (R-MN-06). The first item they took up was Neil Abercrombie’s H.Res.593, titled Recognizing and celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the entry of Hawaii into the Union as the 50th State. Abercrombie and his Hawaiian colleague Mazie Hirono spoke in favor of the resolution, as did Clay and the Delegate from American Samoa, Eni Faleomavaega. Even Bachmann spoke in support, though she (unlike her Democratic colleagues) failed to mention one particular clause in the resolution:
Whereas the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961;When debate ended, the Speaker-designate asked for the yeas and nays, and then began to declare the passage of the resolution. At which point, Bachmann demonstrated her well-earned reputation for nuttiness with this:
If the camera focused on Bachmann had panned upward into the gallery, you would have seen me sitting in the front row.
The “no quorum” objection is a standard delaying tactic in the House, used to force a time-consuming roll call vote on a bill. It would be merely innocuous and silly in most cases, but this one ended up forcing the wingnuts inhabiting the GOP side of the House to go on record as either:
- opposed to a resolution honoring the anniversary of the admittance of a state into the union (by voting nay), or
- acknowledging that President Obama was born in Honolulu (by voting yea)
Earlier in the day, I had lunch with Darcy Burner, who’s now the Executive Director of the American Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation, AKA “Progressive Congress”. We had a very enjoyable conversation, in which I learned a lot about the activities and posturings that go on on Capitol Hill. I’m still mulling over what Darcy had to say, and I’ll be watching the legislative machinations all the more carefully as the next couple of months pass. We talked of paradigmatic changes that may be under way in the political community. I’ve been thinking in Hegelian thesis/antithesis/synthesis terms for some time now, and much of what we discussed fits in with that. As noted in my prior post, interesting times indeed.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
(Too) interesting times
May you live in interesting times...
Supposedly a Chinese proverb or curse, though it appears that nobody has been able to tease out the original Chinese from which it was supposedly borrowed.
In a way, though, it explains why I’ve been silent here lately. There’s simply too much happening, in too many places.
When not thinking about the upcoming local elections, I’m obsessing over the healthcare debate in DC. When the foundering economy isn’t on my mind, it’s because I’m worried about the ever-worsening climate change problem. Preparing for next week’s SABR convention in Washington DC takes time away from studying up on GIS for a big project at work. And then there’s the dental implant that I’m getting done.
Overload much??
Ah well, maybe I’ll just forget about all these issues and go out for a drink and good conversation at DrinkingLiberally. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
