BOB DOLE!

This is probably the coolest story so far:

So the day after the President's Dinner my department head, Lindsay, calls a staff meeting. We gather in the conference room and she tells us how good of a job we did, then Senator John Ensign of Nevada (the chair of the NRSC) came in and told us how awesome we are, then Lindsay tells us that we can leave at noon!

A typical day for me goes from 9 - 6, so getting out at noon is a pretty good deal. Since I'm always stuck at work until 6 I never get a chance to go see the Senate floor in action or see Committee hearings. Seizing the opportunity provided by this half day I decided that I would take the rest of the day to do things I normally can't do. I consulted the Senate calendar and planned out planned out my day like this: watch the Senate in session from the visitor's gallery, sit in on the Appropriations Committee hearing because Robert Byrd is the chairman (Byrd's like 90 years old, about to die, and HILARIOUS to watch. If you don't believe me, watch this), sit in on the Foreign Relations Committee hearing, then go home.

I watched the Senate for a few minutes, but there were only like three Senators on the floor and nothing interesting was going on (Senators Chris Dodd and Richard Shelby of Alabama were discussing a Housing bill). So I left the gallery and made my way to the committee rooms. I went to the Appropriations Committee room first, only to be greeted by a mass of people waiting in line outside the room. I stood there for a few minutes before getting impatient and leaving to go see the Foreign Relations Committee.

The Appropriations Committee meets on the first floor of the Dirksen Building, the Foreign Relations Committee meets on the fourth floor, so I went to find the nearest elevator shaft. I waited for an elevator for a few minutes, then Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina (whom I met at breakfast the day before) joined me as I waited, but he also with a guest. I made small talk with him ("How ya doin'?" "Did you enjoy dinner last night?" "I saw your car outside..." (Burr drives the coolest dune buggy), ect. ect.). After a few seconds of that, he turned to check on his guest, who was taking a picture with someone (obviously this guy must be a big deal). Then I heard the guy talk and he turned around, and it's BOB DOLE! You may remember Bob Dole as the former Senate Majority Leader/1996 Republican Presidential Candidate/Viagra spokesman. At this point I'm going crazy because I used to be obsessed with Bob Dole (back when I was in second grade). I raised my arm out to shake his hand, before remembering that his right arm is paralyzed, then offered my other hand. I said "hi" and he shook my hand, then got on the elevator with Senator Burr. To avoid awkwardness I hesitated joining them, but asked anyways and they let me on.

At this point I'm even more jittery because I'm in an elevator with Bob Dole. Turns out he's also going to the Foreign Relations Committee hearing. We get out the elevator on the fourth floor. I was hoping there'd be a cameraman there to get a shot of me walking off an elevator with Bob Dole, you know, like I was part of his posse or something. We walk down the hall for a few feet and he and Senator Burr went to the staff entrance to the committee room, and I went to join yet another line waiting outside to get into the visitors section of the room.

Thirty minutes go by and I'm still in line. We've moved up a bit, but not much. Then the doors to the committee room fly open and Bob Dole walks out. Everyone in line is going crazy, he stops to talk to a few people. Realizing that I hadn't really made the most of my Bob Dole experience, I decided that I needed to ask him for a picture (in true John Lin form). I stepped out of the line and went to the end of the hall to wait for him, and he came towards me about a minute later. Here's how the interaction went down:

Me: "Hey Senator Dole! Can I get a picture with you?"
Bob Dole: (smiling, I think he remembered me from the elevator) "Sure, let's get my assistant to take it"
Me: "Your campaign (for President in 1996) was the first campaign I ever followed!"
Bob Dole: (laughs) "You must have been this high back then!" (commenting on height)
(Assistant takes picture, we check to make sure the picture wasn't blurry, and this is wehre the story gets 1000x better)
Bob Dole: "So you weren't able to get into the hearing were you?"
Me: "No, the line was really long and it doesn't seem like they're letting anyone else in"
Bob Dole: "Did you try going through the staff room?"
Me: "err...am I allowed to?"
Bob Dole: "Try watching from the staff room, I think it's room 415. Tell them that Bob Dole said it was alright for you to watch the hearing in there."
Me: (EXTATIC and confused) umm...ALRIGHT!

Umm...AMAZING!!!!! Not only did I get to talk to Bob Dole and get a picture with him, he gave me permission to sneak into a private room to watch a hearing! Bob Dole just shot up to near the top of my list of coolest people in the world.

Anyways, so I ran towards the staff room, before realizing I dropped my camera case, ran back to pick it up (drawing Dole's attention causing him to ask if I had tried yet...I'm not sure if I responded or not...oops), then ran to the room and told the secretary what Bob Dole told me. Obviously she looked skeptical, but she let me stay in the room and I sat and watched the hearing (which, compared to the events that just happened, wasn't that interesting).

So that's my amazing story of my journey thus far. I'm going to go ahead and say that this beats out the President's Dinner...


On another note, for those of you keeping score of my quest to meet as many Senators as possible, here's the latest tab:
Graham, Dodd, Snowe, Ensign, Cochran (funny story about this one, I'll explain later), DeMint, Isakson, Thune, Wicker, Barrasso, Murkowski, Coburn, Burr. 13/100...getting closer.
"Meeting a Senator" means anything more than just seeing them at a distance or seeing them walk by.