Republican Senator fights for technological progress on the Senate floor.

World Tech Tribune.com ^ | 19 June 2002 | Scott McCollum

[Scott McCollum]

A clip from the story:

"Mike Enzi, a former business professional and now junior Republican senator from Wyoming wanted to bring his laptop computer onto the Senate floor in 1997 because he used it to take notes. Kentucky Democrat Wendell Ford (who voted against the moratorium on Internet sales taxes in 1998) of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee told Senator Enzi to check his portable PC at the door, citing no specific rule barring laptop computers but relying more on burdens of sacred tradition.
The sacred traditions of the Senate include rules for brass-plated spittoons at the foot of most lecterns on the Senate floor. Nobody chews tobacco anymore but the Senate refused to allow something useful and modern like a laptop computer in their chambers?"

[usmc_chris]

incorrect. I was on the floor of the Senate last year and someone was quite clearly making use of the spittoons.

[Own Drummer]

What was Janet Reno doing in the Senate chamber?

[Bush2000]

Tell me something, Scott: Has Rep. Enzi ever heard of technology called ... a "printer"?

[snag_matic]

The sacred traditions of the Senate include rules for brass-plated spittoons at the foot of most lecterns on the Senate floor

How about sacred rules for protecting the constitution? Forget stupid rules about spitoons.