VIP Visitors

I’ve had a chance to experience my first Congressional Delegation (Codel) this past week. We actually took to calling it the Mega-del because of the size of it. We had over a dozen Congressmen and a Senator in town, add in their support staff and it was more than 40 people. Granted, a visit of the President or Secretary of State would dwarf this visit, but our added difficulty was that each member of Congress considers themselves equally important and they all want the freedom to go in whatever direction they want. We had to be ready to accomodate that desire. All in all, I think it was pretty successful.

I had the opportunity to play tour guide to a couple of Congressmen. I found them to both be nice guys and I think they appreciated the tour. I actually wasn’t scheduled to do anything that day for the Codel, but I happend to be in the control at the time and wearing a name tag. That was my downfall. Still, it was fun and most people don’t get the chance to spend a few hours alone with members of Congress. I also had a chance to try out that Russian training I spent seven months enduring. I can’t say my interpreting was great, but since they didn’t speak Russian, they don’t know that.

Most of the delegates were Democrats, but I thought we had one or two Republicans. I also thought I knew which were the Republicans. It turned out I didn’t and this gave me an excellent chance to put my foot in my mouth during my tour. Toward the end of the tour we were walking back to the hotel and just chatting. I took the opportunity to get their thoughts on the presidential race. I also thought I’d poke a little Democratically-approved fun at a current news topic. I asked the two if Congress was on recess all week. They told me it was and I said, “So I guess theoretically this would be a good week to commute someone’s prison sentence if you didn’t want Congress around to complain.” They both chuckled and agreed, but about 30 seconds later the one Congressman started to ask the other how the Republicans were feeling about this issue and that issue. It clicked in my brain that one of my Democrats was in fact a Republican. I’m lucky he was a laid back guy. Some probably would have bit my head off.

Although I had to give up my weekend for this visit, it has been interesting to observe and I had to go through one sooner or later. I’m sure this is just one of many to come.