A morning in the House ...

Another early morning. We were at the Capitol this morning by 7 a.m. for a visit to the House of Representatives. We were ushered into the chamber and the first thing you notice is how much bigger, and then, smaller it seems. Bigger, much bigger than the Senate. Its has five times the number of members so that is understandable. Smaller in that when you see it on TV for the State of the Union, it looks so much bigger.
The freshman congressman from Northern Mississippi, Rep. Alan Nunnelee, spoke for almost an hour about serving in the house. Sen. Alexander and Rep. Nunnelee were interesting bookends.Yesterday we met with Sen. Lamar Alexander, one of the longest serving Republican in the Senate, today a first term Congressman. To distinct perspectives. He talked about service, time management and balancing both governing and running for election. He then opened it up to us and we spent about 20 minutes asking him questions. His aide reminded him a few minutes before 9 a.m. that he had another meeting. The meeting was with House Republicans to set talking points for the debt ceiling discussions that day. Another reminder that this is not a normal week for them, or us.

The photo of the House of Representative comes from MSNBC.

We spent the rest of the morning touring the Library of Congress. The Capitol is beautiful and impressive and was designed to be both an office building and political hall. The Library of Congress is both beautiful and impressive as well, but its day job is as a working library and research facility. I've been to the LOC before but I had forgotten how beautiful it is. There is an exhibit of Thomas Jefferson's library, which he donated after a fire in the early 1800s. 6,500 books. To see them all together is really cool. The pictures below are mine.