48. The Halls of Congress

Maybe it is a celebration of Washington's birthday, which was yesterday. Maybe not. In any event, we are having a political weekend here on the Left Bank of the Ohio River at Milepost 606. This afternoon our Congressman, John Yarmuth, the one who defeated Anne Northup just a few months ago, is having an open house at his rather cramped offices on the second floor of the Romano L. Mazzoli Federal Building. The event is to run from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm and wraps up the "In-District Work Week" which has all 435 members of America's lower house of congress back in their states visiting with the home folk. It brought to Louisville not only our congressman, but his press person as well. I've written about Stuart Perelmuter herein before and had the chance to see him today at lunch. I wasn't expecting him, as I had scheduled lunch with another of Congressman Yarmuth's local office workers, Marty Meyer, who brought Stuart along as a surprise. I am always pleased to see and speak with Stuart.

Tomorrow afternoon at the State Democratic Party Headquarters just a few miles up the road, Democratic Party Chairs from each of our Commonwealth's 120 counties are invited to a work session at which the seven slates for governor are expected to make an appearance. A few weeks ago, the Party Chair had all seven slates in to agree to a documents which says that each set of the six losers is committed to supporting the Democratic nominee, whoever he might be, whenever our Primary process is completed. That's a pretty tall order, since it something we could not accomplish four years ago when one of our Primary candidates went over to the Dark Side of the Aisle with his support in November. The Party Chair is to be commended for this effort and we should all pray is holds, as we must retake the Executive Mansion this fall.

Later in the evening, the Louisville-Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee is having its annual Wendell Ford Dinner at the Clarion Hotel off Hurstbourne Lane at I-64. This is a semi-formal affair which usually draws several hundred folks for a meal that is typically well-presented, but honestly sub-par in taste. As a non-cooking bachelor, I am hopeful the meal is worthwhile. Even if it isn't the conversation promises to be as the candidates for statewide office should all be in attendance, seeking support from the four corners of the room. Most everyone is already decided on their gubernatiorial candidate. The only other real race is for State Treasurer. Four Democrats are running including Louisville attorney Todd Hollenbach, IV and retired State Representative Mike Weaver of Radcliff, who last year lost his race for Congress against Ron Lewis, also of Hardin County. The event serves as both a fundraiser and homecoming for the Party faithful.

Sunday afternoon United States Senator Barack Obama, of Illinois, will be at the Downtown Marriott for a fundraiser. He is making a sweep through the area, indeed through the South, where one of the real questions is how many African-Americans will support him instead of United States Senator Hillary Clinton, wife of the sometimes-called "first black president." He has picked up some heavy-weight endorsements along the way and the two of them seem destined to slug it all for the next twelve months. Both Obama and Clinton, actually both Mr. and Mrs. Clinton, have given speeches in Louisville in the last few years, and all three seem to have a devoted following. Obama started his swing in South Carolina last weekend, a state where nearly 50% of the Primary voters are African-Americans. Earlier this week he picked up the endorsement of Virginia governor Tim Kaine and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. He also raised well over a million dollars at a fundraiser in Hollywood, usually the turf of the Clintons. It's going to be a long year.

Switching gears to religion, like political passions, another opiate of the people, this week for Christians marks the beginning of Lent, a period of forty days of preparation, leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the defining events of the various religions surrounding Jesus Christ. Ash Wednesday is a day where Christians of many faiths make their way to a service where ashes are marked on their foreheads or in their palms to remind them we are all human, and as such, are subject to being returned to dust. Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust. It is the same message which transpires in the conversation between Hamlet and his friend Horatio in the graveyard where two clowns are digging a grave, that each of us ends up a dirt, that we are all mortal. He used the examples of Alexander and Caesar.

"Alexander died, Alexander was buried,
Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth;
ofearth we make loam; and why of that loam,
whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?
Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw!"

Later in that same discussion are his comments on Man himself.

“What a piece of work is Man!
How noble in reason!
How infinite in faculty.
In form, in moving how express and Admirable.
In action how like an angel,
In apprehension how like a god;
The beauty of the world,
the paragon of Animals”

Shakespeare was quite a writer. I always find it odd that we have very few schools named for him. We often name buildings (and roads and interstate highways) for folks who have made a lasting impression on ourselves and our society. Have you ever come across Shakespeare Elementary or Shakespeare Middle School. I know I have not. I do find that odd.

We began this entry speaking of Congressman Yarmuth and his open-house in cramped quarters at the Federal Building in downtown Louisville. Congressman Yarmuth's Washington office is on the third floor of the Cannon Office Building, built in the Beaux Arts style in 1908. It was named for former House Speaker Joseph Cannon in 1962. "Uncle Joe" Cannon was Speaker of the House from 1903 to 1911 and had a reputation for control of the House similar to the one LBJ had when he was in control of the Senate. He was a critic of fellow Republican Theodore Roosevelt, whom he often criticised for operating outside of the confines of the United States Constitution. Cannon was the first person to appear on the cover of Time magazine and was also the first person to have a congressional office building named for him, where Congressman Yarmuth's office is located. Three years after the House named a building for Cannon, work work completed on the newest House office building, the Rayburn Building, named for House Speaker Sam Raybrun of Texas, a close friend of Lyndon Johnson's, and said to be the most effective Speaker in the history of our Republic. Rayburn served as Speaker during the presidencies of FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy, although his service was interrupted twice when his party, the Democrats, were in the Minority. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1913, the year after my grandfather Dan was born, until 1961, the year after I was born. The House office building bearing his name was dedicated 42 years ago today, February 23, 1965.