Sourpusses like Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell make the U.S. Senate look like the most humorless place on earth.
Lucky for the World's Greatest Deliberative Body™, Missouri's own Claire McCaskill is around to keep things light. When times get dull, McCaskill has been known to pantomime an erection, according to a magazine article.
McCaskill plays a featured role in a newsstand-fresh New Yorker article about obstructionism and dysfunction in the Senate. The piece opens with an exasperated McCaskill complaining about an arcane rule that prevents her from holding a committee meeting at the scheduled time. "This is just one of those days when you want to throw up your hands and say, 'What in the world are we doing?' " McCaskill is quoted as saying.
The writer, George Packer, visited the Senate in March, as lawmakers tried to wrestle health care -- and each other -- to the ground. At one point in the debate, Republicans lacquered the reform bill with a bunch of amendments designed to annoy the Democrats. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma introduced a measure to prohibit sex offenders from buying Viagra with taxpayer money. Stunt, howled Democrats.
The debate ran into the wee small hours, prompting McCaskill, whom Packer describes as an iconoclast, and other senators let down their guard. Packer writes:
Claire McCaskill sat down beside Tom Coburn, held up an erect finger in his face, as if casting her Viagra vote, then let it go limp. Coburn could be heard to joke, "The longest it lasted was thirty seconds."The piece does not specify if Coburn was referring to McCaskill's digit or his own experience with erectile dysfunction remedies.
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