The Senate Gallery

Yesterday the Senate voted to raise the debt ceiling. If anything, that's kind of historic, given the length of the debate and the supposed dangers at hand. In the morning, all of the interns had a tour of the Capitol with an intern for Boehner's office, which afforded us the opportunity to see the House gallery. When entering the galleries from the visitor center, there is a security check point after which you decide whether to take a left to the House or a right to the Senate (important later). After our mediocre tour (if I'm going to be completely honest), 3 other interns and I decided it would be awesome to travel to the Senate gallery and watch the debate and vote on the Senate bill. The story follows:

11:00. We all headed to Sen. Orrin Hatch's office and play the constituent card in order to get tickets to the Senate gallery. Easy as pie -- we didn't have to fight for them.

11:30. In 90-100 degree weather, we hauled you-know-what across the Capitol, helped set up an event for the AAF on the House side, and then went back again to the Senate side.

11:42 (approximation). We enter the Capitol visitors center and notice there is a 200+ person line for the Senate gallery.

11:45. Matt the intern has a brilliant idea. We can bypass the line for the Senate gallery by taking the elevator to the House side. Once up there, we can swap our House badges for our newly acquired Senate badges, and voila, we've circumnveted the line and stuck it to the man.

11:47. Nathan and I realize we threw out the House badges we got at Boehner's office at the end of the tour. We can enter the elevator to House gallery and are stuck at the entrance.

11:50. Nathan and I beg unsuspecting tourists who had completed the tour for their badges. We eventually pressure (maybe too harsh a word) some nice foreigners who have already been to the gallery to give us their badges.

12:00. We triumphantly exit the elevator, having just successfully cut a 200 person line, to find out that the gallery has been full for hours, and there is no chance we can enter. We are turned away at security but are politely reminded we can visit the House gallery. How exciting! Twice in a day and the House is on recess.

Perhaps we should have done our research more thoroughly ...