With the news of the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, I wanted to share the story of the one time I saw Sen. Kennedy in person.
Back in May of 2007, liturgygeek and I met some friends for a week in Washington D.C. Liturgygeek arranged through Sen. Tom Harkin's office for her and I to tour the Capitol. For those of you steeped in backbencher lore, this is the same day Mechellle Norris gave me a gold star. Part of our tour included a few minutes observing the Senate at work. We sat silently in the gallery and looked down onto the Senate chamber. Only three Senators were present on the floor. Sen. Mike Enzi(R-WY) sat at a desk reading some papers. Sen. Amy Klobuchar(D-MN) addressed the Senate, and Sen. Kennedy sat at a desk in the front row talking to aides. During quiet moments a voice with a Boston accent could be heard from the gallery. The words were unitelligble but the voice and accent were unmistakable.
Sen. Kennedy gave no stirring speech and I did not gain any type of special insight into the person or the politics of Ted Kennedy. I was just glad to see the lion of Senate at work in a place that probably felt like home to him.
1 hour ago
Cool story, but does that mean that Amy Klobuchar was talking and no one was listening? She's cool. That makes me sad. How can they be so rude to each other?
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