D.C. Diary: Kerry Lester's notes from the trip
In the attempt to capture tiny details that can get lost with time, each night I kept a journal about the little things that struck me during my week in the nation's Capitol.
Here's my “D.C. Diary.”
Sunday:
Sat next to a D.C. native and new mom on the plane from O'Hare. She suggested that taking the Metro from the airport to close to my hotel was easy “if I was adventurous.” Couldn't resist. And, following editor and former political writer Madeleine Doubek's advice, talked to everyone I could along the way. A visiting scientist from Kansas State University who does work for the National Council of Sciences pointed me in the right direction on the train, and we talked about the potential government cuts being discussed by Congress this week. He said he's tenured and thinks he'd withstand layoffs because of seniority, but doesn't like to see them all the same. Walked to my hotel, getting a little lost along the way.
After unpacking, I decide to venture out to find something to eat. It's 8 p.m. on a Sunday — Oscar night — so wasn't sure what nearby might be open. I step into the hotel lobby to find former U-46 teachers union president, Tim Davis (who retired last June, just as I was finishing up on the Elgin Area Unit District 46 beat). He was here on the second to last day of a conference with the National Education Association. Went to dinner with him and Consortium for Educational Change executive Mary McDonald (an educational source I've talked to on the phone before but never met in person) at a nearby Thai joint “Thai Tanic.” Good and cheap. Some interesting insight into the political struggle in Madison from teachers union perspective, and nationally. What a small world.
Monday:
Got an early start in order to get my press pass before interviewing a lobbyist, who was a former GOP adviser, Dan Mattoon.
Walking from my hotel to the subway station, passed the Washington Post, the paper that, when you're growing up dreaming of being a journalist, had “the” journalists you wanted to emulate, Woodward and Bernstein. So, I took a picture of the masthead, and sent my political/investigative reporting partner, Springfield Bureau Chief Mike Riopell, a text. “Good morning Bernstein, Love, Woodward.”
“I can tell you're already enjoying this trip,” he texts back.
The Metro blue line was filled with young congressional staffers, in expensive and rumpled shirts, already scrolling through their Droids and BlackBerrys.
We all got off at the Capitol South stop, as they filed into one of the three House staff buildings — Cannon, Rayburn and Longworth.
I kept walking, straight across Independence Avenue and onto the Capitol grounds.
It being a little before 9 a.m., and neither the House or Senate yet in session after a week's recess, I was completely alone, aside from a few security guards. Surreal.
Entered the Senate, and made it up to the Senate press gallery, where I got my pass.
The man helping me, Joe Keen, said his wife was from Cary, and his brother from McHenry. For such a big and seemingly cutthroat place, I've been lucky to run into remarkably friendly people (with suburban connections) so far. Joe let me help myself to several of the inside of the beltway papers, and told me I could come back to work out of the press room (which still has the old-school telephone booths for reporters to “call in” their stories) anytime. He even gave me an umbrella, as the weather forecast called for some torrential downpours later.
Next, I went, via Congressional tunnel — something I had only heard about, to the Dirksen Senate building to pick up my ID. Again, such a strange feeling to be walking around as if it was a perfectly regular thing to have business at the Capitol.
Walked about six blocks up Pennsylvania Avenue to meet Mattoon for coffee.
Meeting with Mattoon was fantastic. He provided valuable insight _ from both a Washington insider's perspective and a suburbanite's perspective (his wife's from Aurora and he knows the area well).
After meeting for an hour, got a call from Dan Conston, Roskam's communication director, about a 2 p.m. presser Roskam is involved in.
High-tailed it back to the Capitol... and got totally soaked (though fared considerably better with my umbrella). No hand dryers in any of the women's' bathrooms in the capitol. Go figure.
News conference turned out to be great. A million reporters squeezed into one room. It was Roskam's first one with leadership in the new Congress, so a bit of history I got to witness. I squeezed a question in at the end. Sort of felt like a rite of passage to prove yourself among the Capitol Hill reporting crowd. Interesting to observe Roskam's body language at that table next to Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
Stopped by Walsh's office in the Cannon House Office Building with Nicole Thompson, the Daily Herald's D.C. intern.
Following that, met with Roskam's staff two floors down about the schedule over the next several days. As we talked, we walked around the House office building, and then down through the tunnels that connect Cannon with Rayburn and Longworth. The walls of the tunnel are decorated with paintings from congressional constituent student art contests.
Tuesday:
Went for an early run this morning past the White House, where at 7:30 a.m. people were already lining up for tours. Passed the Washington Monument, looped around the Potomac River and headed back.
A jam-packed day it was. Met with 14th District Rep. Randy Hultgren, 3rd District Rep. Dan Lipinski, in addition to some Roskam shadowing. Meeting Lipinski in the Longworth House Office Building, I passed by Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' office. I stopped and stood outside the door for a few minutes, and eventually decided not to go in. What, after all, would I have said?
After interviewing Lipinski, and wandered through the tunnels down to one of the House office building cafeterias. I've found in my two days here there really are “members” signs for everything — specific elevators, cafeteria lines, you name it.
We observed two different television appearances with Roskam. One on Fox's “Happening Now” and another with CNN's Eliot Spitzer.
To do this, Roskam feeds a microphone in his ear and answers questions from the Cannon rotunda — one of the most beautiful places on Capitol Hill. Communications Director Dan Conston said there's been a big national media push among Republicans to get the word out about the Continuing Resolution vote.
Wednesday:
Day three, and I still get a little turned around in the underground tunnels connecting the congressional office buildings with the Capitol. Luckily, people have been friendly. Today, my directional guide is a teenage congressional page for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Giovana Meza. I asked her about Pelosi, and her first response, like a typical teen, was that she had “great hair.” Funny. Turns out, all pages are in high school, and while they're in the page program, go to school on the top floor of the Library of Congress. The blazer, gray skirts, ties and tights remind me of a sort of Catholic school uniform.
Today, like yesterday, was pretty crazy, schedule wise. Spent most of the day with Joe Walsh, as a fly on the wall during radio interviews, committee meetings, and meetings with constituents.
Walsh has made a vow to himself that he'll take the stairs instead of the elevator over the next two years. He'll stay in good shape — his office is on the fourth floor of the Cannon office building. He also gets so busy he forgets to eat, his staff tells me.
Walsh tells me that when he was a kid, he walked through the hallway of this building. Ever since, he wished he could work there. He's pinching himself some days that it's his office.
Thursday:
Following a full day of interviews, at night, our photographer Laura Stoecker and I walk around the Capitol to get some night shots of the dome from the outside and of the Washington Monument. It's been truly amazing to me, to both of us, just how friendly and helpful the police here are. Once we explained we were journalists and flashed our media badges, they let us up to the very top steps of the Capitol. I've been wearing heels all day and in the attempt to carry around as little as possible, don't have a coat on. I'm freezing and uncomfortable, but at the same time, totally awe-struck looking in on the illuminated offices from the House side. One of the rooms is huge, and painted in a vivid red, with staffers still milling about at 8 p.m. I imagine it's probably House Speaker John Boehner's, but I can't say for sure.
Don't want to forgot to mention what I saw en route to my dinner with Dan Conston, Roskam's communications director. On the drive to the restaurant, Conston, a George Washington College graduate who's spent much of the past six years in D.C., gives me a quick driving tour of the city.
The embassies are amazing — essentially huge (and architecturally diverse) mansions converted into offices, some with living quarters.
By the Danish embassy, a very modern white mansion, we also pass the Clinton House, a red brick colonial not nearly as ostentatious as one might imagine. A security detail was parked right out front, and a light was on inside.
Dinner is great but man, D.C. is expensive. $6.75 for a beer. Yikes.
Friday:
Finishing up some last bits of business before I head to the airport for my 2:30 p.m. flight. I take the Metro to the Hill one last time. But instead of heading to the Capitol, I head to the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee. Amazing how close each of these party headquarters are to Congress itself. Members can literally run the few blocks over to do campaign business on their lunch breaks.
The RNC (which I have to admit, smells a bit musty) has these bright patterned couches that stand out amid rows of newsroom-like cubicles and conference rooms. Framed photos of Republican leaders — Hastert, Boehner and Gingrich among them.
In the DNC, they don't let me upstairs, but screen my drivers' license and give me a visitors pass as I wait. A very different vibe than the RNC, where workers are reasonably dressed up. Here at the DNC, I'm seeing a lot of jeans.
Each headquarters has private eating clubs next door for members. I'm not allowed in there, either, though I ask.
All in all, it's been an incredible week that's gone by awfully quickly. I tell my editors that I'd be happy to stay and open the Herald's D.C. bureau. No dice.
“Get on that plane!” Doubek tells me.