The week of repeats ends tonight with February 10th's episodes which feature Thomas Ricks on The Daily Show and explorer Dr. Robert Ballard on The Colbert Report. I remember Dr. Ballard's interview being pretty interesting.
As most of the regular thread readers know, I was in D.C. for the Inauguration and last night I said that I'd have an Inauguration story for tonight's diary. I tentatively called it "Larry Kissell Saves the Day." It's not much, I guess, but here's what happened:
It was about 3:30 on Monday (the day before the Inauguration), as I arrived at the Cannon House Office Building. I was there for a party put on by Maine’s House delegation for all Mainers who were visiting D.C. for the Inauguration. As the building came into sight I realized that the line to get into the building stretched down the stairs and to the curb. Compared to the lines into the other office buildings, this one wasn’t terrible, but it was still a really long wait. Most of the people in line were still trying to get their tickets to the swearing-in ceremony, and the cut-off time for getting tickets was supposed to be 4PM. Luckily I had come when the buildings first opened in the morning to get my tickets. But many of the people in those lines would probably end up ticket-less. As I stood in line, I chatted with some of the people around me. Strangely enough, I happened to be behind two couples from Maine and one of them knew my aunt. It was crazy to be so far away from home but to still find connections to people around me.
Anyway, it was past 4 o’clock and the line just kept getting longer. Some congressmen sent representatives from their offices (probably interns) down to the line to see if anyone from their district were trying to get their tickets. If the interns found people from their district then they’d whisk them away to a side entrance, but most of them went back inside empty-handed. Then one man came out and stood on the steps next to me, asking for people from North Carolina’s 8th District. He looked a little too old to be an intern, and he was wearing a trench coat and (if I remember right) a fedora or some similar kind of hat.
One group of three or four chimed up, asking if the 8th was Kissell’s district (they couldn’t pronounce his name). The group went over to him and he introduced himself as their congressman (they voted for him, but didn’t recognize him). I was shocked to see that a congressman actually came out personally insure that his constituents got their tickets. They stood there for a minute, chatting about what part of the district they were from before Kissell had them follow him to the side entrance. I wanted to congratulate him on his victory in November, but I guess I didn’t want to interrupt their conversation. In all likeliness, that group would not have gotten their tickets on time if it weren’t for Kissell, even though they didn’t know who he was. I’m sure he’ll have their vote in the future.