Inaugural planning under way as campaign heats up

As voters in Illinois head to the polls this Tuesday to pick a Republican candidate they’d like to see challenge President Obama in the fall, planning for the 57th presidential inauguration next January is also picking up steam on Capitol Hill.

Just after 6:30 p.m. on March 1, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) came to the floor, made some closing remarks on the highway bill under discussion, and then asked for unanimous consent on two resolutions at the desk. One (S. Con. Res. 35) would establish the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC), while the other (S. Con. Res. 36) would allow for the use of the rotunda and Emancipation Hall should inclement weather force the proceedings inside, as had happened in former President Reagan’s second inaugural in 1985. The House followed suit four days later, thus formalizing a planning process that had been under way for several months. Both chambers tweeted the news to the world, but with little fanfare.

For just the seventh time in the nation’s history, the inaugural date falls on a Sunday, so the ceremony will shift to the following day — Jan. 21, which also happens to be the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday. The last time the date shifted was also 1985.

“It is the symbolic beginning of not just a new administration — Americans unite,” said Georgetown history Professor Michael Kazin. “It’s a celebration of the office. Generally, people refrain from protesting. It’s part of what we call the civic religion.”

More than $1.2 million in funding for the inaugural ceremony was approved and signed into law last December. In an ironic twist, perhaps, the only current member of Congress seeking the presidency, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), did not vote on the measure, and neither did his son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

Members of the JCCIC have been appointed and are expected to hold their first organizational meeting in the coming days and decide on a theme. A core group of staffers, led usually by Senate Rules Committee’s staff director, in this case Jean Bordewich, will then begin planning every last detail of the inaugural ceremony and the luncheon for the president and vice president that will take place afterward in the National Statuary Hall.

While they will be starting fresh, they will not be without help. Susan Wells, who served as staff director for former President George W. Bush’s second inaugural in 2005, left behind a 100-page bound volume laying out a step-by-step approach to staging an inauguration. Nothing will be left to chance or the last minute.

Optics are important.

“It’s a TV production. Now that’s not your main function, but you think about all the people that are watching. You think about the flags, you want to order the new carpet, pick the proper color blue so that it doesn’t look washed out on camera,” Wells said from the Lott Leadership Institute at the University of Mississippi.

A lot of time and effort is also put into the official gifts from Congress to the president and vice president. For the last six inaugurals, Lenox Corp. has been tasked with designing crystal bowls featuring the White House and the Capitol, which are presented at the luncheon. Tim Carder, vice president of design, works with master glass cutter Peter O’Rourke.

A native of County Galway, Ireland, O’Rourke worked at Galway Crystal before joining Lenox in the 1970s. Reached at his home in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, O’Rourke talked about his collaboration with Carder.

“He gives me the idea and I make it happen. It’s one thing on paper until you’ve got it on glass,” O’Rourke told The Hill.

Each bowl takes up to three weeks and most of the work is done in July and August. Then, like everyone else, O’Rourke has to wait until Election Night before he can do the inscriptions. The bowls are then cleaned, polished and boxed up for delivery to the inaugural committee in Washington.

While the inauguration is officially a coordinated event between the Senate and the House, the Senate takes the lead and guards its turf carefully. Former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who was Rules Committee chairman at the time of Bush’s second inaugural in 2005, recalled some of the tension that exists.

“The House tried to nose in, and the White House. You had to push back. We’re running this show,” said Lott.

Being chairman of the committee also has its benefits — inaugural tickets are the hottest items in town every four years. “If you are chairing the event you have a chance to curry favor … and I look after my friends,” Lott added.

Those very tickets, which incidentally do not bear the president’s name, are being designed and readied for approval and printing at the Government Printing Office.

Security is also a major concern and undertaking, and Sergeant At Arms Terrance Gainer, chief law enforcement officer for the Senate, has a lot on his plate. While Secret Service will oversee security, Gainer and his staff will lend support. It is his job to escort the president and vice president to and from the platform.

In 2009 he accompanied the Obamas and the Bushes to the East Front for the departure ceremony. In a break with tradition, President Obama and Michelle Obama didn’t bid their predecessors farewell from the steps, as is custom, but instead walked them over to the waiting helicopter.

Gainer told The Hill recently that he has been reviewing some 27 pages with more than 200 different action items. And that’s just the unclassified version.

“There’s a lot of moving parts. We’ve already had our planning meeting and we have our timeline. We play a very supportive role,” said Gainer.

It’s estimated that some 8,000 to 9,000 personnel will be involved in security operations, including his staff, the Capitol Police and Washington, D.C.’s military district, as well as officers from D.C. and out of state. “It’s a national security event,” said Gainer, “and the public should not fret about security. We have that well covered.”

Gainer must also worry about the mundane tasks, such as ordering jumboTrons for the thousands that are expected to attend, framing supplies for the official inaugural photos and, of course, all the furnishings needed for the event itself.

The Architect of the Capitol (AoC) is responsible for building the platform. “Construction begins in September usually right after Labor Day and all the summer concerts are over. We close down the West Front,” said Communications Officer Eva Malecki.

The decision to use the West Front instead of the East Front was first taken in the summer of 1980, just before Reagan officially became the GOP nominee. “This idea that Reagan made the decision is hogwash,” said Senate Historian Don Ritchie. “What Reagan was smart to do was to incorporate it into his speech and take ownership of it,” he added.

While specifics for the new platform were not disclosed for security reasons, the one used in 2009 was more than 10,000 square feet, with seating for more than 1,600 dignitaries, including all living former presidents and first ladies, members of Congress, the Supreme Court, the diplomatic corps, governors, incoming Cabinet officials and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Bleachers built on the West Terrace above the platform will hold an additional 1,000 guests. “We try to improve the function each time,” said Malecki.

The AoC must also provide a large supporting role, including the sound systems for the ceremony and the luncheon, assisting the media and maintaining the grounds of the Capitol. If there’s snow, it needs to be cleared.

“On the eve of President Bush’s second inaugural our folks were out all night removing snow,” said Malecki. “A lot of it is what we do everyday in supporting the Congress, but on steroids.”

The hours might be long, the planning arduous, but the reward is something else entirely. Howard Gantham, who now works with the Motion Picture Association of America, was staff director last time around. He traveled in the motorcade from the White House to the Capitol and led the committee that escorted then-President-elect Obama on to the inaugural platform. Speaking from his office, Gantham recalled “walking out on to the platform and seeing the masses and all those people responsible for our nation. It’s just an overwhelming experience.”

And O’Rourke, who has yet to attend an inauguration, is ready to go to work on two more crystal bowls if asked. “It’s an honor really. I never get into the politics. So it’s nice to do it.”
If the call is going to come, it’s likely to happen in the coming weeks.