Senate Coverage -- (April '05)

Thomas ^ | 4-04-05 | US Congress

[OXENinFLA]

Dorgan up talking about the WMD report.....

[ken5050]

Since we're all Senate junkies on this thread, two questions for the group...

1. Has the Senate ever considered electronic voting?.....if they didn't have all those long votes..wait, I withdraw that...then they'd have MORE time to bloviate..

2. What's the story behind the puny little gavel the presiding officer uses..unlike the "REAL MAN's" gavel the HOuse uses..?

[OXENinFLA]

2. What's the story behind the puny little gavel the presiding officer uses..unlike the "REAL MAN's" gavel the HOuse uses..?

I've wondered the same thing....

[Bahbah]

Dorgan has apparantly just discovered waste, fraud and abuse in government contracting.

[JFC]

John Cornyn is an upcoming star in the GOP. I have watched him here in Texas for several years. I agree.. he would be excellent SJC Chair.

[deport]

"What is the history of the Senate gavel?

"The original ivory gavel is one of the most precious articles in the Senate's
collection. According to tradition, Vice President John Adams (our first Vice
President and therefore our first President of the Senate) used this gavel to
call the Senate to order in New York in the Spring of 1789. Although we cannot
document that, we know for certain the gavel was used as early as 1831. In the
late 1940s the old gavel began to wear out, so silver tips were added to each
end to strengthen and preserve it. In 1954, as Vice President Richard Nixon
presided over a heated discussion about atomic energy, the precious gavel fell
apart. Senate officials wanted to recreate the original as exactly as
possible. When no ivory of sufficient size could be found commercially, India,
through its embassy, provided the ivory and had the new gavel hand-carved in
exactly the same dimensions as the new one. The new gavel began service on
November 17, 1954, and is still in use today. At the end of each long day of
service, the gavel is placed in a box beside the mended original gavel."

[ken5050]

Thanks..that's fascinating..wonder why Adams used such a small one originally..BTW..whenever the current one cracks..which may well happen during the upcoming embroglio about judges..it won't be PC to use ivory again..

[OXENinFLA]

CHINA'S SPREADING GLOBAL INFLUENCE [Senator INHOFE's floor speech]

[OXENinFLA]

Well isn't that interesting, thanks

[Bahbah]

I just received a news alert that Peter Jennings has been diagnosed with lung cancer.

[Mo1]

1. Has the Senate ever considered electronic voting?.....if they didn't have all those long votes..wait, I withdraw that...then they'd have MORE time to bloviate..

Reminds me of the Ghost voting that happened in PA

[Txsleuth]

I wish both the House and the Senate had electronic voting that shows the congresscritters names and shows the "yea" or "nay" as the vote is being taken...

Then we would know right away who is messing things up! lol

[ken5050]

The House does..there are displays on the chamber wall..you can't see it from the camera angles.

[Txsleuth]

Oh, thanks for the info---convenient that you can't see it on TV, though---

I mean, wouldn't it be nice if the constituents could see how their reps and senators vote-at the time-so they could call/e-mail right away to express their opinions....

I don't know, I guess once a vote is made, it is moot what the "folks" want---actually BEFORE the vote is made is seems that it is moot what the "folks" think, unfortunately!

[OXENinFLA]

Ooooooooooo Steve Forbes is on C-span2 right now talking about Social Security. I caught some of this last night.

[ken5050]

FYI..The cameras and microphones..the camera angles..when they are on or off, etc.. in the House and Senate are controlled by the House and Senate respectively, and NOT C-span. That's so that when, for example, "Sheets" is rambling on..you can't tell that the Senate chamber is empty..The only times that isn't true are when it's a joint session of Congress, like for the SOTU..then C-span puts more cameras in, and they control the shots and the angles..

Here's something I discovered accidentally a few years ago. I was watchig the Senate debate, late at night, on the Iraq war issues, and so as NOT to disturb the wife, I plugged my headphones into the TV..You can pick up hushed, whispered comments..that are not audible over regular TV sound speakers..I heard a muted "son of a bitch"..among others..

[Mo1]

Ooooooooooo Steve Forbes is on C-span2 right now

Oh yea

Well FNC has it's 2nd car case this hour

[OXENinFLA]

2nd car case this hour

Awwwwwwwwwwww.

What states?

[OXENinFLA]

The only times that isn't true are when it's a joint session of Congress, like for the SOTU..then C-span puts more cameras in, and they control the shots and the angles..

Or when they do special order speeches.

[Mo1]

Take 3 guesses

the first two don't count :0)