So THIS is what me and my amazing coworkers put on this week.
A ton of work, a major success: Nancy Pelosi dresses to a T, Joel Madden is a tool, John Oliver is hilarious, Clinton in a power tie, Van Jones is the future...
Please also enjoy this Wonkette blog post, as it was my job to sit in that press room and wait for Maureen Dowd to not show up.
But my favorite part of this entire conference week was hanging out at the Senate office buildings on Thursday:
I got to discuss the ACES Bill with my ultimate idol, Claire McCaskill, for a full twenty minutes.
Okay, actually it was more like my Missouri-born coworker Brett, Power Shift guru Ethan and new friend Daniel earnestly discussed the bill with her while I tried to contain my joy and keep myself from hugging her/sputtering out how much I admired her blue-dog-democrat-ways every four seconds.
As Daniel put it, "Kate, you just sat there smiling!"
(He was also forgetting the fact that moments earlier he had freaked out about Chuck Shumer saying "hi" to him in the hallway. And our joint freak out after seeing Sonia Sotomayor limp out of a Senator's office, followed by a mob of cameras).
But seriously, listening to these three incredibly intelligent young men and the insanely well-spoken, smart Claire respectfully argue their points (a stronger climate bill vs. the reality of representing Missouri) was fascinating and will go down as one of the highlights of my life. Politics at its best.
The fact that one of her legislative assistants gossiped to me about Tom Coburn's involvement in the recent Ensign scandal (OMG stop claiming the moral highground!) was just icing on the cake.
Also, we launched this amazing campaign.
Paired with video (for which I had to be a stand-in while they set up the lighting...)
Anyway, full week. I'm still on cloud nine.
