Live Blogging!!

Of a sort.  I am alive, and I am blogging.  What an absurd and ridiculous day on Capitol Hill.  Currently (live), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is speaking on MSNBC about his earlier conversation with the other Illinois Senator, Roland Burris, in which Durbin called on Burris to resign his Senate seat.  In case you haven't been following this whole Illinois debacle, in brief, there has been some grumbling about Burris' acceptance of the Senate appointment from our dear, old guvn'r, Rod.  Now there is more confusion about Burris' initial testimony that he never talked to Blagojevich about the seat.  Apparently they did chat about it, or Burris at least spoke with Blago's people about it, and now Durbin's telling him to stop this farce and go back to the Chi-town (my words, not his).  This is important to the blog because A: Durbin and Burris are my senators, and B: I was just in the Capitol and opted not to go to the photo op with Durbin following his closed-door meeting with Burris.  So I found out about this whole business on MSNBC, while I was scarfing down a delicious turkey burger.

I did not photograph Durbin because I was otherwise indisposed when he was posing for the cameras.  Not eating, that I am doing now (live!).  No, I was in the midst of my stealthy senator-tracking.  New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) has graciously allowed me to follow her around today for a photo story for class and hopefully for the New Hampshire Union Leader.   Let me tell you: if you want to talk about a busy day, spend some time with a Senator.  Not to give away my whole story, but Senator Shaheen gets in to work around 8:30 a.m., goes right into meetings, and keeps on traveling all over the Capitol for meetings and hearings and votes for pretty much the rest of the day.  Today, as well, she was the President pro tempore of the Senate, which is the honorary Senate President for the day, so she called the Senate to order in the morning and listened to debate over whether or not DC should have Congressional representation (it's looking good for DC, incidentally).  I left her office around 3:30 because she was going to be in closed meetings for the rest of the day, at least until the event tonight.

As for the event tonight, the Senator's day is nowhere near over, and neither is mine.  I just desperately needed some food and outside time, so I found a delicious burger place.  But anyway.  So, Obama is speaking to a joint session of Congress tonight.  I have heard it called his State of the Union, but I am unclear whether that is technically correct.  Either way, it is a big deal.  The Capitol is all a-bustle with press and camera crews and security.  So much security.  I was walking around some of the halls, and there were a surprisingly large number of policemen with German Shepherds - and one poor schlep got stuck with a Golden Retriever.  They are all over, sweeping the building, making sure no one has managed to sneak in any explosives or heroin.  Obama is not speaking until 9 p.m. tonight, but I am pretty sure press are already lining up and getting ready.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to watch his speech from the Gallery.  The Press Photographers Gallery had a limited number of photo passes, and they were all distributed about two weeks ago.  Apparently they have 12 passes for 41 people, so the photographers are going to have to go in in shifts anyway.  My game plan for the evening is to stalk around in Statuary Hall and get the pack of Senators as they make their way over to the House side.  Afterwards, I am also hoping to get some shots of Senator Shaheen who is speaking with a DC TV station, I believe.  So.  Like I said, long day.  It's awesome though.  I'll post photos when I can.