SECTION B
      Page 2

Senate Moments...

November 1857

Constructing a Senate Theater

For dozens of decades, journalists have employed theatrical metaphors to describe proceedings in the Senate chamber. High drama, low comedy, soaring oratory, play-acting, and staged colloquies have long since become commonplace usages.

In November 1857, visitors to the site of the current Senate chamber found a stage set under construction. A rare photograph reveals a large, mostly bare room with exposed brick walls, a simple scaffolding above a partially completed rostrum, and a floor littered with boards and nail kegs. Hoop-skirted ladies and stovepipe-hatted gentlemen stand observing a lone construction worker.

Those who designed Congress' new chambers in the mid-1850s were acutely concerned that these rooms have the acoustical and line-of-sight qualities of good theaters.

As soon as senators moved in on January 4, 1859, however, they began to complain about poor acoustics, chilling drafts, and the deafening sound of rain on the glass-paneled ceiling. Despite these objections, the chamber quickly took on theatrical functions beyond the purely legislative.

In January 1863, for example, a gala crowd turned out for a prominent actor's presentation of The Sleeping Sentinel. This narrative poem recounted an 1861 incident in which a Union soldier fell asleep at his guardpost and was sentenced to be shot. In the chamber's audience was President Abraham Lincoln, who months earlier had pardoned the young sentinel.

With few other theaters of comparable capacity in Washington, the Senate received numerous requests to use its chamber. Finally, members grew tired of the competition. On May 8, 1866, they permitted one final performance--a free public lecture on postwar reconstruction by Mrs. M. C. Walling, advertised as "the greatest female speaker of the age." Then members unanimously adopted a rule, still in force today, "that hereafter the Senate chamber shall not be granted for any other purpose than for the use of the Senate."

The Pros are Coming
With amateur political webloggers demonstrating they can have an impact on actual campaigns, the professionals are ready to join the fray. A group of political science professors just launched PolySigh to give their ivory tower take on current events. And professional pollster Mark Blumenthal started Mystery Pollster to provide better interpretation of polling results and methodology.

Meanwhile, Salon notes the Internet has turned everyone into James Carville: "There is just so much out there that we didn't have access to four years ago: polling data, fundraising data, media-buy data; instant access to every TV ad and press release and unguarded gaffe and well-timed leak to jolt the campaign; insider dish on what the media's covering and what it's not covering and why..."

Cheney Flip-Flop

According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Vice President Dick Cheney was against the Iraq war before he was for it.
"In an assessment that differs sharply with his view today, Dick Cheney more than a decade ago defended the decision to leave Saddam Hussein in power after the first Gulf War, telling a Seattle audience that capturing Saddam wouldn't be worth additional U.S. casualties or the risk of getting 'bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq.'"
A transcript of Cheney's original remarks is available and shows he was very concerned about governing Iraq in a post-war environment. Say what you want about him; he had stunning foresight at one time.

The Carpetbagger Report notes Sen. John Edwards, who will debate Cheney next week, "was quick to pounce on the story," telling talk show host Don Imus this morning: "[Cheney] was against getting bogged down in Iraq before he was for it."

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyrightowner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

HISTORY SCRAMBLE

Pets of
the Month