Share


View from DC: Inaugura-palooza grips nation's capital
1/19/2009

By Jane Norman

Washington as a metro area doesn't have a happy record when it comes to handling minor local crises like snowfall or water main breaks. With an inauguration expected to draw crowds of up to 4 million, the city is in the grip of full-blown hysteria.

Every day, speculation on inaugural weather expands. Too cold? Too wet? Too snowy? Will bad weather drive people away? Will good weather make the crowds even bigger?

And how cold is too cold anyway? Around here, 30 is regarded as bone- chilling.

Even the police are getting worried about this inaugura-palooza, though. A clerk at a camping supply store told me they've had a run on police officers coming in to shop for long underwear. Apparently that's not part of the issued uniform here below the Mason-Dixon Line.

Then there are the transportation headaches. Bridges from Virginia into the District of Columbia will be shut down to all but buses and pedestrians. Workers are planning to bed down on their office floors in downtown D.C. that night so they can avoid fighting the tourists expected to jam the Metro system when it opens at 4 a.m. Charter buses will descend like diesel-spewing plagues of locusts.

As for Iowans, they'll be partying among the masses, though the temperatures will seem balmy compared to the recent home-state blizzards and whiteouts.

Probably the biggest Iowa-oriented fete was the State Society of Iowa's celebration, held Sunday night at Capital City Brewing Company, a bar and restaurant within walking (or crawling) distance of the Capitol.

On Tuesday, the parade following the swearing-in ceremony will include the Isiserettes Drill and Drum Corps, a group of about 50 youths from Des Moines, most of them African-American. The corps will be staying at the Bullis School in Potomac, Md., a private school that offered to give them lodging and meal assistance to help defray the cost of the trip. The Isiserettes will give a performance on Wednesday morning for students before returning to Iowa.

During the parade and after the swearing-in ceremony, Iowans who want to warm up will head for a 2 p.m. reception in the Dirksen Senate Office Building hosted by Iowa's two senators and four of the five House members.

That's right, four -- not all five. U.S. Rep. Steve King, a Kiron Republican known for his warning that the election of Barack Obama would lead to terrorists "dancing in the streets," declined to participate, according to congressional aides.

King said in an interview that he would have had to use money from his campaign fund to pay for the cookies and coffee to be offered up at the reception and he didn’t think it was an appropriate use for the money. “It’s not anti-anybody,” he said. “My disagreements with Barack Obama have never been anything but philosophical.”

King added that for his swearing-in to a new term in the House he used a Bible carried during the Civil War by his uncle, a native of Palo, Iowa, who for three years fought on the northern side and to free African-American slaves. “My uncle paid a great price for the freedom and liberty of all of God’s children,” King said.

The reception promises to be one of those rare chances to see a rich stew of visitors from the state mingling with the members, congressional staff past and present, agency staffers, lobbyists and political operatives.

That night is the official Midwest Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center, which is expected to be mobbed since it covers 11 states stretching east to Ohio and west to Montana. Official balls are important because they are the only ones President-elect Obama and Michelle Obama will attend.

Web sites are selling tickets to the Midwest ball for as much as $2,750 each. At least in the past, the inaugural balls haven't been very exciting and hardly worth a tenth of that price tag.

While there will be a glimpse of the new president, it will be brief. The food is routine. There's just a lot of standing around and trying to talk above the music, and that after a long day of getting shoved around on the Mall.

Wednesday, it’s all over but the sore feet and the governing, assuming the hype about the problems and the cold and the gridlock is overblown.

Let's hope.

**Trouble in paradise?

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley's famous bipartisan accord with Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, may already be wavering. Grassley said he's not sure he can back a bill expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program pushed by Democrats. A major issue is whether the legislation will cover care for pregnant women and children who are legal immigrants.

Grassley said that in welfare reform in the 1990s, the idea was reinforced that those who take responsibility for sponsoring immigrants also agree to ensure they don't become public charges. He said he feels "very strongly" that "if you sign a contract with the government that brings people over here and you promise that they're not going to cost the taxpayers anything, you ought to keep your word to the taxpayers."

The SCHIP bill, which passed the House this week, might change in the Senate. "But right now it looks like if might be very difficult for me to be part of a bipartisan program," Grassley said. "And it seems to me it's coming not to Baucus' liking but to being pushed on him by other people."

Grassley during the last session worked to find bipartisan agreement on SCHIP, to the point that it damaged his relationship with the Bush White House, he pointed out.

"And, you know, for a guy like me that shed so much blood and took such a hammering from my own party, it's a real disappointment to me that I've been so cooperative that my side of the aisle is being so ignored," he said.

**Fred Grandy sighting

Contrary to F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous line, American lives have second, third and maybe fourth acts, especially that of Fred Grandy.

A source points out that the former congressman, a Sioux City Republican who lost a primary race for Iowa governor, is now enjoying a new TV career on a show that includes sex expert Dr. Ruth Westheimer as a special correspondent.

Grandy, who also co-hosts a morning radio talk show in D.C., is featured on the NBC show "Daily Café" on the "Retirement Living" network. You can view a clip at http://www.rl.tv/shows/Daily-Cafe/

-- Send your tips, thoughts, comments, or what-have-you to Jane Norman at iowacolumnist@gmail.com.

VIEW FROM DC COLUMN ARCHIVE


Printer-friendly version      Send this article to a friend      Share