Obama’s Inauguration makes tourists out of lawmakers

To get to the Inaugural platform for the swearing-in of President Obama, members filed out of the Capitol by seniority. Line leaders for each class held small black-and-white placards announcing which Congress they’d joined.

Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) came to Congress in 1989. But he wasn’t marching with his contemporaries. Taylor lagged behind even the freshman at the end of the line. And even then, he turned and set his coat down next to the door. No reason to go out just yet.

{mosads}“I can’t stand to be cold,” Taylor explained, standing in shirtsleeves and his trademark khakis. “I’d rather be last than be cold.”

It was hard to avoid getting cold. But he was able to be last.

Instead of heading to his seat, he cooled his heels, or perhaps warmed them, for more than 20 minutes. Then, with just a few minutes until 11 a.m., he said, “All right — let’s go.”

Avoiding the cold was on everyone’s mind for the chilly January swearing-in, though most, giddy with the thought of history, were less willing to risk their seat.

“I didn’t think I’d ever see it. It’s the realization of Dr. King’s dream. It seems like divine intervention,” said former Rep. Carrie Meek, mother of Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), as she waited to join the spouses and former members on the platform.

Republicans also said that, at least for a day, there’s no hard feelings and they’re ready to celebrate, too.

“It’s exciting to see this many people so excited about anything,” said Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho). “We — white people, Caucasians, whatever — intellectually we can think we understand what it means to the African-American community, but we can’t.”

When a president comes to Capitol Hill, especially for an event as large as this historic inauguration, lawmakers can become tourists like the rest of us. With better seating assignments.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) held up his cell phone to take a photo as he walked down the marble hallway toward the Crypt to go out with leadership. Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) took photos with a real camera.

Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) found himself fretting over whether family members would get their chance to see history being made.

“I have to call all the uncles and cousins and make sure they got where they’re supposed to be,” Larson said. “The ones who are sitting are happy. The ones standing are not.”

Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) wore a New York Yankees cap. Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) wore a Boston Red Sox cap. Fortunately, they were kept separate. Cowboy hats were also popular.

Colorado’s Salazar brothers, Congressman John and Interior Secretary Ken, both sported Stetsons. John’s was white. Ken’s was black.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) stopped to get a drink from a fountain. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) tapped her on the back as she leaned over and chided her with a laugh — “Drink at your own peril.”

In line, members passed around digital cameras and took photos of each other. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) asked a colleague to photograph her with congressman and civil rights legend John Lewis (D-Ga.).

Lewis said he was thinking of those civil rights battles as he waited to watch the swearing-in of the first African-American president.

{mospagebreak}“Dr. Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy — all these wonderful people started this. They didn’t live to see it. I just wish they were all here,” Lewis said.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) saw decades of political and civil rights history coming together Tuesday.

“LBJ would be thrilled. He knew he was blowing apart the Democratic Party with the Civil Rights Act,” Obey said. “This is the ultimate vindication of that effort.”

{mosads}But Obey had less grandiose thoughts about driving in.

“What a mess,” Obey said. Driving in from Virginia, he said, was no problem. But then he and his wife hit Constitution Avenue and got stuck for an hour.

After sitting out in the cold for hours, a select group of the Washington power elite got to warm up with a meal of pheasant and duck in Statuary Hall. It was at this lunch that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) suffered a seizure.

Obama had made a point to seek out Kennedy, whose endorsement was an early victory for Obama, at his table as he entered the hall.

Obama had plenty of former adversaries in the hall, but in the afterglow of his Inaugural address, it was clapping, backslapping and plenty of pecks on the cheek.

Obama gave a quick pat on the shoulder to his general-election opponent, Sen. John McCain, now back to being a Republican senator from Arizona. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) took out his cell phone to snap a photo of Obama as he entered.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), whom Obama defeated in the primary and then nominated to be secretary of State, attended with her husband, former President Clinton.

Sen. Max Baucus’s (D-Mont.) Western wear — jeans, a blue vest and a bandana around his neck — was the hit of the party. Baucus drew a chuckle from Obama when the Montana senator bid his farewell at the head table in order to get to the Inaugural parade, where he’d be riding a horse.

Attendees washed their lunch down with Pinot Noir. There were seats for 232 people — 23 tables of 10, plus 12 at the head table. Among the guests were Vice President Biden, the justices of the Supreme Court, Cabinet designees and members of congressional leadership.

The details of the lunch, down to the red and white china, were designed to reflect the theme of the 2009 Inaugural ceremonies, “A New Birth of Freedom,” commemorating the bicentennial of the birth of President Lincoln.

Before he donned his hat and walked out to the platform, Taylor said he was thinking about the hero of the story in the book The Winds of War: a Navy captain who was sent to Pearl Harbor to command a battleship on Dec. 8, 1941.

“You get your life’s dream and it’s sitting on the bottom of Pearl Harbor,” Taylor mused. “It’s remarkable to see all these people so excited. I certainly hope they’re just as excited a year from now.”