"They would be explaining what your benefits were, then all of a sudden this embarrassed look would flash across their face like, 'Oh, sorry. I guess this doesn’t apply to you.'"

For the new gay members of Congress, "their freshman orientation sessions were a reminder of just how unequally the law treats them, since the entity that cuts their paychecks and provides benefits — the United States government — is barred from recognizing their relationships."

I wish members of Congress would have more opportunities to experience the embarrassment of having to live with the people their laws oppress. And I don't mean just things having to do with whether their colleagues are getting paid enough.

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Hillary time!

Here. Testifying on Benghazi to the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. 

ADDED, 8:31 A.M.: Hillary has a fairly authentic crying quality in her voice as she speaks of embracing the families of those who died in the attack. That comes just after she says in a steely voice that those who serve in countries like Libya know they are going into a dangerous place and cannot work "in a bunker." Risk comes with the territory, and Chris Stevens fully understood where he was going and what he would face.

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"As the 113th Congress takes its place in the Capitol, John Boehner has been re-elected speaker of the House..."

With 200 votes, says email, just now, from CNN.

Several conservative members of Boehner’s Republican caucus voted against him and others didn’t vote in protest of what they see as the speaker not holding a hard enough line on fiscal issues.

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C-Span is sorry it wrote "Just Plain Dick" and "I Want You to Shut the F#ck Up" at the top of your screen.

"Now on C-SPAN2: Just Plain Dick" appeared on screen at 1:30 a.m. ET on January 1 as Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) was speaking in the Senate:



Some people thought C-SPAN had been hacked, but it was just doing its usual thing of cutting away from scheduled shows when there's action on the floor of the House or Senate. The "Now on C-SPAN2" caption referred to a scheduled show, which was a BookTV interview with Kevin Mattson about his book "Just Plain Dick: Richard Nixon’s Checkers Speech and the 'Rocking, Socking' Election of 1952."

"I Want You to Shut the F#ck Up" was another accidentally apt book title that captioned congressional blabbery.

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