You Voted for Them…

“Don’t blame us, You voted for them.”

The Capitol Steps

After a 3 day motor up the Potomac River we anchored in front of the Capital Yacht Club in DC. In the morning we had an appointment in the Hart Senate office building, courtesy of our friends on Kokomo. They setup a Capitol tour through their extensive DC connections with Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski’s office. ALL VIP, all day!!

(above is good old Abe just getting ready to roll his eyes after the last vote in the house)

  For me, this was best part of the tour. We got to ride in the senate underground railway from the Hart Building to the Capital.

We had to rush right by the This elevator is reserved for SENATORS ONLY at all times sign. We were VIP, but not that VIP.

We got to hang just outside the House Gallery while the boys and girls inside were voting on funding the government for fiscal 2014 and de-funding ObamaCare. It’s an embarrassment to see these guys ignore their responsibility to govern the country while focusing solely on their petty party needs. As far as I can tell the secret Republican strategy that they are pushing is to guarantee that Obama does not get voted into a third term as President. Beyond that there doesn’t seem to be any substance.

Our Senate and House Gallery passes

Here’s the crew in the Capitol lobby – photo courtesy of our Senator Murkowski’s aide, Nick, who took us on the tour. He had only been with the Senator’s office for a month, but did a great job.

The Capitol rotunda

Part of the frieze in the rotunda

This is a close up of the palms in the the frieze in the picture above. If you look close you can see where the final painter decided to paint his own image sneaking out from behind the palm.

Or maybe this this is where he snuck his image in at the bottom of the tree. Either way, it makes a good story.

The old House of Representatives meeting room.

The original Supreme Court chambers

And where the Justices hung their coats

Here I am trying to get a refill of my mug from the Sam Adams beer distributor.

We stopped into Senator Murkowski’s conference room. Here’s the 60+lbs salmon, Walter, that she caught up in Kenai in Alaska. You can see her struggling to hold it in the photo below Walter.

The Senator (center, in orange) came out and spent some time with us. That’s Denny’s sister-in-law to the Senators left. She works in the office and setup the tour for us.
Paul