Ok, so Close-Up proved to be the best trip I've ever been on. I loved seeing all the sites and stuff, but the people there were the best. I made so many friends from EVERYWHERE. We had a lot of kids from Louisiana (because we're cool that way) but there were people from Wyoming, Ohio, California, Nebraska, Texas, Mississippi, Missouri, Utah and other places too.

The best part of the trip was Capitol Hill Day because that's when I got to meet the LA senators. I didn't really like Landrieu that much, though. It's not just because I don't support a thing she says, it's a lot because she couldn't answer a question straight. It seemed like she was trying to cover all the bases at once. She couldn't pick a side. Plus, she kept changing the topic and never really answered the original question.

However, David Vitter was the PERFECT man. I am so in love with him! Not only did he take everyone's questions (something Landreiu didn't) he also answered them. He gave his opinion on it and told us what the other side's (the Dems) view on the problem was and said which he thought was better. I agreed with just about everything he said too. He's a very smart man. And he cleared his afternoon to meet with everyone from LA, not like Sen. Landrieu who just held a quick meeting in the lobby with us. Vitter actually secured a conference room for us. He was a really sweet guy.

Anyway, the trip was fantastic and I'm missing all of my new friends! But we're all keeping in touch and some might come down for Mardi Gras.

Tomorrow I go on a week-long vacation/experience to Washington DC!!! I'm going with Close Up, which is this government sposered program for high schoolers to get a "close up" view of government!

I chose a roomate (for the hotel room) from my school and when we get there we get assigned two more roomates from somewhere else in country! How exciting is that going to be?

As a little "hey, we're here!" gift, me and my friend are making a little New Orleans gift package. It's just a litte bag for each of them with Mardi Gras beads, a New Orleans music mixed CD, 1 Dead in Attic by Chris Rose, fleur-de-lis necklaces, and Mardi Gras procelain clowns.

I hope they like it!! I'm really excited about getting to meet all the politicians. I'm only really bummed out because my favorite Louisiana representitive, Bobby Jindal, isn't going to be there and we can't meet him! But I will get to meet David Vitter and I admire him too, so that will be fun!

It's going to be an interesting air around Washington because the Mid-termn elections changed a lot. I'm pretty outspoken, so I'll probably be shot. It's only freedom of speech for Democrats, Republicans don't count....*sigh*

Oh well

It should still be fun!

Pray for me tomorrow morning because I'm flying up! And it'll be really really cold there - in the 50s!!!!!! So I'll freeze, so again, prayers are needed.

See yall later!

I, like many Republicans mourn and lament the majority power of the House and Senate. However, it wasn't until I read this newpaper article that I realized just how crippling this shift of power is. Since Louisiana is majority Republican and we have mostly Republicans elected in Washington, a Republican House and Senate helps the state. Now that the Democrats have control, recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and especially in New Orleans will be completely destroyed. New Orleanians lose. Any movement a Republican like the AMAZING Bobby Jindal tries to pass, will be automatically shot down because the Democrats control the House. No matter how much it would help us rebuild and recover, the Democrats will not vote for it because it would be a Republican bringing it up. In more detail:

From the Times-Picayune:

The Democratic takeover of the U.S. House in elections Tuesday will mean a drastic drop in Louisiana's clout on Capitol Hill as the state's Republican-heavy delegation moves to the minority and loses the chance to control two committees critical to the post-Katrina recovery.

Louisiana, with five Republicans and two Democrats in the House, now faces a much more difficult challenge in steering federal policy at a time when the state looks to Washington to assist in rebuilding after last year's devastating hurricanes.

"That's a huge loss," said former Louisiana Democratic Rep. Chris John. "We're going to go through a tough time. It will take a while to recover."

Control of the Senate remained up for grabs late Tuesday, but Louisiana's political power rested mainly in the House, where the state was hoping seniority would begin paying major dividends next year.

The party that holds the majority controls the levers of power -- the committee chairmanships -- and it is unlikely that Louisiana's two Democratic members will even hold the gavel of a lowly subcommittee. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, will be entering only his second term representing the 3rd Congressional District. The 2nd District seat will be decided by a runoff between state Rep. Karen Carter, who would be a freshman, and incumbent U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, who lost his Ways & Means Committee slot in the wake of a federal investigation that is still pending.

At the same time, two veteran Louisiana Republicans who were poised to move into leadership of highly influential committees are now forced to wait at least another two years amid questions of whether they will stay in Congress at all.

With the Republicans thrust back into the minority after 12 years in control, Rep. Jim McCrery, R-Shreveport, saw his long campaign to become chairman of the powerful Ways & Means Committee evaporate. The panel writes tax policy and was instrumental in crafting a package of incentives designed to boost the economy of the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast. As chairman, McCrery would have been positioned to provide additional business and housing incentives to speed the recovery.

The election returns likewise turned off the lights on Baton Rouge Rep. Richard Baker's bid to become chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. The panel has jurisdiction over the insurance industry whose future is seen as a linchpin of the Gulf Coast recovery. After the 2005 hurricane season, many residents and businesses in south Louisiana and Mississippi have found it hard to afford flood insurance policies -- if they can find coverage at all. Baker had said that if he became chairman, overhauling the flood-insurance system would be his top priority.

But Former Louisiana Rep. Jimmy Hayes, a Democrat-turned-Republican, said the power shift doesn't mean the federal financial spigot will be shut off for Louisiana. A plank in the Democrats' campaign to retake the House was a pledge to fix the failures of the Republican-controlled Congress and administration to respond adequately to the disaster. Hayes said that Democratic leaders and committee leaders, although not from Louisiana, will be sympathetic to the state's cause. (load of horse-hooey!)

"I think you'd have Charlie Rangel's help on Ways and Means," said Hayes, referring to the New York Democrat who is all but certain to run the tax-writing committee.

On the Financial Services Committee, Hayes said Democrats have been similarly keen on making changes that would reduce the premiums on flood insurance policies and put them within reach of more Americans. (if they don't, heads will roll...)

He said that Democratic control of the two panels will matter more on national issues -- such as minimum wage, income taxes, Medicare -- than locally.

"It would have more repercussions on Wall Street than Canal Street," Hayes said.

Chairmanships aside, some wonder whether the loss of power in the House will mean the defections from Congress of McCrery and Baker, the delegation's two most senior and influential members. McCrery, 57, and Baker, 58, could be enticed to follow the lead of several former Louisiana congressional colleagues and trade on their seniority and connections to become highly paid Washington lobbyists.

McCrery came close to leaving Congress in 2004, when Republicans were solidly in control of the House, prompting a call from President Bush pleading with him to stay. Now as a member of the minority party, some believe he will step down. Asked about it recently, McCrery didn't dismiss the possibility.

"Why would he wait?" said Hunter Johnston, a Washington lobbyist. "He was more or less retiring before. It would be an easier decision now."

The Democratic House takeover also puts the Appropriations Committee seat of Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, is some jeopardy. Alexander is the most junior member of the panel, so if the Republicans lose slots, he would be the first to go.

The diminution of clout continues a long slide for Louisiana that has accelerated recently as veteran members have been enticed from public service by the big pay checks they can earn as Washington lobbyists. Former Reps. Bob Livingston, R-Metairie, Billy Tauzin, R-Chackbay, and Sen. John Breaux, D-La., all quit Congress in the past six years for the private sector. Livingston was the Appropriations Committee chairman in line to be speaker of the House; Tauzin was chairman of Energy and Commerce; and Breaux was considered an influential deal-maker on both sides of the aisle.

Louisiana is far short of the kind of clout it enjoyed at its peak in the early 1970s when Louisiana Reps. Hale Boggs was House majority leader, F. Edward Hebert chaired the Armed Services Committee and Sen. Allen Ellender served as president pro-tem of the Senate and chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee.

At the time, the entire Louisiana delegation was Democratic and the party was ensconced in what would be 40 years of domination in the House that ended with the "Republican Revolution" in 1994. The Republican takeover made it easier for many conservative Southern Democrats to switch parties, a trend that has turned the region into a bastion of GOP dominance. Now, with the House in Democratic hands, other Southern states whose delegations are likewise controlled by the GOP are certain to see their own influence diminished. (*cough* Gulf Coast *cough*)

"I think you will see a lot of people quitting," said Johnston, the lobbyist.

Since Katrina, Louisiana has grown accustomed to looking to other states for help in Washington and it will have to rely on its regional allies now more than ever. Just over the state line in Mississippi, Louisiana will have an ally in Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat who is seen as likely to control the Homeland Security Commitee, which has jurisdiction over emergency preparedness and security at ports and chemical plants.

John, the former Louisiana congressman, predicted that in a Democratic-controlled House, Melancon is likely to get a seat on the influential Energy and Commerce Committee, which touches almost every aspect of the U.S. economy. John also said that with a closely divided House, moderates such as Melancon will be sought out by both sides on a host of issues, boosting his leverage somewhat.

And while Louisiana's influence will decline, the state won't be without access to federal resources. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is on the Senate appropriations committee. (I hate Landrieu politics, but I really hope she can help us)

The state's drop in influence may not be over. The state came close to losing one of its seven House seats after the 2000 census. With a dramatic population decline after Hurricane Katrina, there is a good chance that in three years, the already-battered delegation could be shrink by one.