Born to be a political reporter

I always get so behind in blogging! Last night as soon as I got home, we went out for Vietnamese food and then watched 30Rock, The Office and Bush's farewell address until I fell asleep, so it's hard to keep up!

But the last few days have been really exciting! On Wednesday I met one of the court reporters, Bob Barnes (who used to be Ann Devroy's editor! So he had lots of funny stories), at the U.S. Supreme Court building! He got me a pass to sit in the press gallery so I could sit almost in the very front and get a better view of the justices. They happened to be delivering an opinion that day about police searches, and then there was an argument (kind of like a trial, but it's mostly a back and forth between the lawyers and the justices, with the justices asking really difficult questions) about procedures in lower courts. This one was especially funny because the justices themselves said they didn't know why the case was brought to them and they spent a lot of time making the lawyers look like idiots. I don't know if they're always like that, but it was pretty good entertainment. Justice Anton Scalia (who's friends with Dick Cheney! haha) and Justice Breyer were especially tough. I felt like I was going back in time, because they're all really formal and are kind of Socrates-ish.

So then on Thursday I went to Capitol Hill with the congressional reporters because it was Joe Biden's and Hillary Clinton's last day as senators! They both gave goodbye speeches, but Biden was especially a talented speaker. When Biden spoke, every single politician, bystander and journalist was just glued to him, hanging on every word he said. Both of their speeches were about Senate memories and favorite moments. Clinton spoke mostly about her involvement with 9/11 as a New York senator, but I noticed there were fewer people actually listening to her. Maybe she should have taken a few more public speaking classes before she ran for president!

Thursday was a really great day to be at the Capitol, because then Roland Burris, the controversial choice (picked by the corrupt Illinois Gov. Blagojevich) to replace Obama as the Illinois senator, was sworn in! They finally let him in after he turned the senate into a freak show a few weeks ago when the Senate wouldn't let him in the chamber. I also went to a couple of press conferences, one with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and another with Dave Obey, who's the chairman of the appropriations committee, as he explained the latest draft of the stimulus plan. So then for a while I just sat in the senate press gallery and listened to people speak: John Kerry, Democratic majority leader Harry Reid, and John McCain and a few other people stopped by too.

I even passed Harry Reid in the hallway later and he smiled at me! That was when I was exploring the capitol, waiting for the senate to vote on giving Obama the second half of the bailout money. Little did I know that while I was waiting, Obama himself was at The Washington Post!! Shaking hands with everyone, and apparently he even walked by my desk!! I had originally thought about going back, but then thought against it, but I would have had I known he was going to be there! Oh well, I knew my day had already been too perfect to be true. Everything comes at a price.

The Washington Post interviewed Obama in a big group and he got pictures taken with everyone. Though one of my editors was really upset by how everyone in the newsroom freaked out when he came in. She thought it was really unprofessional and a conflict of interest to treat him like a rockstar, when we're the ones who aren't supposed to fall for political rhetoric and be critical of him. That just goes to show you how excited America is to have him in the White House; even the cynical Washington reporters are on his side. I'll be at the parade on Tuesday, between 7th and 8th streets on Pennsylvania Avenue. So hopefully I'll see Obama then, but I doubt he'll shake my hand because so many other people will be there. I already have my hand warmers ready to camp out in the cold, and I'm going to leave here at 5:30 a.m. to walk the two hours into the downtown. They're expecting the parade route to be filled to the 300,000 limit by about 8 or 9 a.m. so I need to get there early!

But watching the senators vote was pretty cool too. They had to vote by 5 p.m. because that was when they said Biden would no longer be a senator, and Hillary will step down once she's officially appointed as chief of staff. The way they do voting is really weird. They all walk into "the well," the bottom of the senate chamber and they just tell the staff members how they voted, and then they can leave and the staff reads it out loud to everyone. I was really confused until about halfway through. Feingold (from Wisconsin) was one of only nine Democrats who voted with the Republicans, against the plan. The Democrats still won though by 52-42, and now Obama gets to decide what to do with the money. Hopefully it works.

Though I've always been fascinated by the Supreme Court and watching them do their thing was really interesting, I felt so alive on Capitol Hill -- just watching and taking notes from people that I usually only see on TV. If I had to pick one job from all of the ones I've witnessed at the Post, congressional reporting would be it. They tell me it's stressful and tough on the nerves, but someday, I just want to try it, even if it's not forever.