On Friday my friend arrived from Seattle for a visit. We dropped in on another friend at the Senate. She wanted to take us on a tour but since time was tight we opted to view the Senate floor. Having been on a few Capitol tours but never having seen the floor, this was a treat.
The usual friendly guards must have been on break, because we got the third degree from every single one -- regarding our ID tags, their location on our clothes, our bags (mine had a computer in it and was unceremoniously flopped on a marble counter), what we could and couldn't bring into the viewing balcony and so forth. The searing attendants then chewed us out for sitting in the front row of the balcony -- but everyone was doing it! Finally, seated in the cramped, velvet-lined seats of the second row, we watched the Senators vote. Every man and woman that walked unto the floor voted "yay" so the vote must have been for something extremely uncontroversial, like a pay raise.
We saw the usual suspects - Kerry, Clinton, Obama, Byrd. Then we saw something profoundly historic: Senate Majority Leader Frist standing on the floor for the last time and speaking to incoming Senate Minority Leader Lott. Living in DC means you get to see stuff like this from time to time and it's cool to remark upon and remember. Living here also means that you get to see how these so-called rival party members act when they are on their home turf. Talk about good old boys -- they're all buddy-buddy, index-finger-pointing and back thumping. It's a bit ridiculous.
There is something about this city though -- I'll miss it.
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