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Just before Mother’s Day, Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) reminded anyone who was listening to his House floor speech that grandmothers are mothers, too.
While some remember their Mom-Moms for their warm chocolate-chip cookies and even warmer hugs, Poe recounted a story of his grandmother beheading a live chicken as he, 5 years old at the time, looked on.
“Grandma Poe told me that Saturday afternoon that we needed a chicken for Sunday lunch. So I eagerly and happily followed her out to the yard … I saw her small, petite hands latch on to the neck of a hen, and with the slightest of movements, she popped the head off that chicken. I was horrified. I had never seen anything so ghastly,” Poe recalled.
Grandma waited until the headless chicken stopped running around, then plucked its feathers. The next day it was lunch.
“I don’t think that I ate chicken on Sunday, but I learned respect and a little fear of my Grandmother Poe that afternoon,” the lawmaker added.
But Poe didn’t stop there — he recalled his other grandmother’s adventures with a chicken the following year.
Grandmother Meme had a different first step to making fried chicken than Grandmother Poe.
Meme, Poe said, picked up her .22 rifle and “shot that chicken in the head and it flopped over with no movement at all. She picked up the carcass and fried it, just as my other grandmother had done.”
Poe noted that after the chicken-killing outings with his elders, he was careful not to anger them.
“And Madame Speaker,” Poe said in his floor speech, “I still don’t eat chicken.”
Capitol Police officer loses tip of trigger finger Staffers and lawmakers beware: You may want to stand a little farther back from the vehicle barricades while walking around Capitol Hill.
U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) officer Hansel Hirsch late last month lost the tip of his right index finger in a vehicle barricade, according to the police report on the unfortunate incident, which took place at 300 New Jersey Ave. S.E., near the Longworth Office Building.
“I am right-handed,” Hirsch told The Hill in a recent interview. “You don’t even think about how important a little piece of finger is.”
Hirsch explained that a senior officer asked him inspect the barricade, which had failed to slide into a “locked” position.
“The official supervisor asked what the problem was, and when I pointed it out to him, someone activated the barrier,” cutting off his index finger at the first joint.
“I still have a long way to recovery before I can start working again,” he said, adding that it was his trigger finger. “If there are other issues with officer safety I hope they are addressed ... and hopefully [an accident] won’t happen again.”
Such occurrences are rare, if not unheard of, say various officers who man the barricades around the Hill.
The USCP said that the barricades rarely malfunction and is investigating the incident.
“The barriers are mechanical in nature and, based on their use, malfunctions are extremely low. The department has protocols in place to immediately respond to any malfunctions and make immediate repairs,” USCP spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said. “The department had an unfortunate accident in which an officer was injured, but not due to malfunctioning equipment.”
Tubbs Jones gets what she wants Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) may inspire fear in some members as the top ethics cop in the House. But she can also inspire fear from the Speaker’s perch.
Presiding at the dais Wednesday, Tubbs Jones noticed the noise level rising and asked her colleagues to quiet down. When they failed to comply, she decided against the usual parliamentary jargon and cut to the point.
“I’m going to start calling names,” she said.
In the world of parliamentary discourse, that’s the equivalent of, “Don’t make me come back there.”
Members quickly got the point and quieted down.
Tubbs Jones later chuckled about the incident, saying it wasn’t her mothering skills kicking in.
“It reminded me of when I was a judge,” she laughed.
House lawmakers hope to survive on $21 diet Four House lawmakers are taking the “Food Stamp Challenge” this week, attempting to live on $21 worth of groceries.
Reps. James McGovern (D-Mass.), Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). are participating in the initiative, which is sponsored by the House Hunger Caucus and begins today with a press conference in the Cannon Office Building at noon.
Ryan was prodded into participating in the challenge by McGovern, who recently announced his involvement in the cause.
Ryan is likely to have a tough week because “he’s a tall and big guy,” said his spokesman Brad Bauman. In addition, he is set to travel to Concord, N.H., this weekend to give a commencement speech.
“My guess is he’s going to be eating a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Ramen noodles,” said Bauman.
Lawmakers, Bauman noted, will not be permitted to graze on private stashes of goodies.
On a serious note about poverty, Bauman said, “It’s insane that they are making people subsist on this in the richest nation on Earth.”
Jackie Kucinich, Kelly McCormack, Betsy Rothstein and Mike Soraghan contributed to this page. |
