More DC photos! I will try getting some captions on them at some point, but most are self-explanatory.

**UPDATE**

FYI, the guy in some of these photos is my partner, Greg.

Everyone just chill out. That pretty much sums it up. Although I am disappointed that Frist didn’t actually make the Democrats filibuster and I was initially pretty pissed at McCain, the Democrats are pretty well backed into a corner by setting the bar for “extraordinary circumstances” by allowing people they claimed were extremist and unqualified to get confirmed.

I can live with this.

And it is about damned time.

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Priscilla Owen as a federal judge, ending a four-year effort by Democrats to derail one of President Bush’s prime judicial nominees.

The vote was 56-43 in favor of sending Owen to the federal bench. Rhode Island Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee opposed her confirmation. Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana voted for Owen. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, one of the 14 negotiators who sought to allow Owen’s vote and Democrats’ to maintain the filibuster option, did not vote. (ed. note - emphasis mine)

Hell, even former Grand Kleagle Byrd voted to confirm her. Lincoln Chafee can kiss his Senate seat goodbye next election, I imagine; the GOP will likely run someone against him.

On to Bolton and Janice Rogers Brown!

What a trip too! Sorry for the late update and lack of posts this week, but Monday was a late night and we were just dog-tired. We had a really good time though and packed a lot into just three full days.

The schedule rundown:

Friday
• Capitol Tour - House of Representatives
• Attempted Senate Gallery, no access when not in session (and we just missed it by an hour - I was really hoping to get in and see the judicial debate live - more on thoughts on that topic later)

Saturday
• Smithsonian National American History Museum
• Washington Monument (closed, but we could see it up close!)
• WWII Memorial
• Lincoln Memorial
• Vietnam Memorial

Sunday
• Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum (Mall)
• More Capitol Building photos

Monday
• Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum (Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center @ Dulles)
• Home (Northwest SUCKS BTW)

We had a terrific time, but we will definitely need to go back to see everything. More pictures are on the way as well, after I get them organized and published this afternoon.

Greg has put some photos up on his .Mac site. Enjoy!

We’re off to dinner. More photos tomorrow!

Well, except for Stephanie - she is the only Northwest employee I haven’t wanted to toss from a tall building today.

We are currently sitting in the TGI Fridays in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport waiting for our new flight to Reagan National. We were originally flying into Dulles, but when we got to the airport this morning the flight that supposed to leave at 6:40 was already delayed until 7:10. Then about 7am, they come on and inform everyone that the FAA requires a 10 hour rest period in between flights for all pilots and, since the flight they were on last night arrived late, we would not be leaving until 8am. They actually expected everyone to believe they didn’t know that - “We thought it was eight hours,” she says.

Anyway, we finally took off at 8:20 and they made up a good amount of time, but we still missed our connecting flight. So, here we are, enjoying a plate of chicken fingers. Oh. What. Fun.

The bright spot is we had originally wanted to fly into Reagan National but it was too expensive, so at least that worked out. We also managed to get our bags and our rental car rerouted to Regan too, so aside from a few hour delay, things are back on track.

OK, so that’s it. Everything is packed. The Abbey has a dog-sitter and the car arrives at 5:10 AM. We should be in DC early tomorrow evening, but I likely won’t get to a blog entry until tomorrow. Expect some photos Friday night!

Love him or hate him, The Donald hits the mark on this one.

Give it up for Crystal!!

Dear Robert and Greg,

Thank you for contacting our office regarding congressional tours during your stay in Washington, D.C. Below, you will find your REVISED confirmation dates and times for tours that we were able to secure for you. Should you have any questions please feel free to contact us at 202-225-8104. We look forward to your arrival and to making your visit to our nation’s capital a memorable one.

Capitol: Friday, May xx, 2005 at xx:xx am. Please come by our office located in the Cannon House Office Building, Room 205. (Metro: Capitol South)

Sincerely,

Crystal

Crystal xxxxxxx
Staff Assistant
Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo

I am so excited I could piss myself!

I don’t know if you have been watching or listening to the start of the judicial nominee debate this morning, but it sounded to me like Reid & Kennedy were doing their damnedest to head off starting the debate on Owens & Brown by offering to start on other nominees the minority finds acceptable. That doesn’t smell of high principles to me - it smells of fear…well, and the scotch and/or bourbon Teddy is likely sweating out of this system this morning.

I do not believe they are going to filibuster a single one of these judicial nominees. There is simply too much at stake for them with the Supreme Court vacancies that will surely open before Bush leaves office.