One of the best-known traditions on Capitol Hill is the practice of senators signing their wooden desks in the Senate chamber.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) uses the “Henry Clay Desk.” The Senate adopted a resolution ten years ago that requires the senior senator from the Bluegrass State to occupy Clay’s desk. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) sits at the desk of Daniel Webster. It’s been used by senators from New Hampshire since the 1930s.

Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) inherited President Obama’s desk. But over the years, Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) also sat there. And they were all preceded at that desk by legends like Sens. Henry Cabot Lodge (R-MA), Robert Taft (R-OH), Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) and Howard Baker (R-TN).

Slide open the drawers to those desks and you can trace the history of those who served in the Senate and discover who shared those hallowed workspaces. Some carved into the mahogany. Others inked with a Sharpie.

But there’s another unique spot in the Capitol where signatures reveal a lot about Congressional history, too. It’s a far from the spotlight of the Senate chamber. And rather than depicting the autographs of the country’s legislative elite, the names signed here represent perhaps the least powerful set of people work on Capitol Hill.

For now.

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White House Press Secy Robert Gibbs just told reporters that Leahy & Sessions will get visits on Tuesday, as well.  

McConnell's meeting is not coming together too easily.  His staff tells me that because there are no votes on Monday, the boss isn't in town until Tuesday - and he already has a packed schedule.  Sounds like Sotomayor might have to wait....

EARLIER NOTE:

Just found out Sonia Sotomayor, the President's nominee to replace retiring SCOTUS justice David Souter, will be starting the rigorous rounds of courtesy calls on Tuesday morning. Her first meeting - with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV.

In the past, it's customary for a nominee to meet first with the Senate's Dem and GOP leaders.

No word yet on Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) visit.

With chairman and top Republican of the Judiciary Committee on NBC's Meet the Press this weekend, perhaps we'll hear when their visit is and get some idea of when Sotomayor's confirmation hearing will start.

Republicans have been signaling that July might be too early. With Congress gone for most of August, there's no way they could then meet the President's goal of confirmation before the recess.

Symbologist Robert Langdon hit the silver screen again recently.

Tom Hanks first portrayed Langdon a few years ago in “The Da Vinci Code.” He reprised the role of the fictional Harvard professor in the recently released “Angels and Demons.”

In the movie, Langdon’s academic study of symbols, history, religion and art help him uncover a plot by The Illuminati to paralyze the Catholic Church. Langdon traces the path of the Illuminati through the cathedrals and sculptures of Rome. He finally discovers that the Illuminati have infiltrated the Holy See.

Unlike Langdon, I don’t know much about religious icons, Vatican lore and the geography of Rome. But as I watched “Angels and Demons,” I realized there was a version of Congressional symbology, too. And to the uninitiated, decoding Congressional symbols and icons can reveal volumes about the daily work that takes places here on Capitol Hill. The trick is knowing what to look for. And then properly interpreting these tokens to decipher the work of Congress.

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A senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, tells Fox that SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor placed a "courtesy call" to the leader Tuesday morning after her nomination was made public by President Obama. 

The President on Tuesday night, at a fundraiser for Reid, compared Sotomayor's "up-from-the-bootstraps" life story to the Majority Leader's, who grew up in hard scrabble Searchlight, NV, where his father, a hardrock miner, killed himself, and who's mother did laundry for a nearby bordello. The family lived in a house without plumbing; Reid hitchhiked to school. 

We can expect actual visits from the nominee to the Hill as early as next week, according to Senate aides. Usually, the nominee meets with leadership and then starts meeting with members of the Judiciary Committee, starting with the chairman and Ranking Republican.

Soon, the chairman, Patrick Leahy, D-VT, and his GOP counterpart, Jeff Sessions, R-AL, will send out the customary questionnaire to Sotomayor. 

Typically, this lengthy document poses basic questions about birthplace, marital status, employment history, and more detailed questions, like a list of all published writings (titles, publishers, and dates of books, articles, reports, letters to the editor, editorial pieces, etc) and speeches, interviews, political activity, potential conflicts of interest, sources of income, and pro bono work.

It's possible a schedule for hearings will be hammered out between Leahy and Sessions next week, but Republicans appear to be in no hurry to gets the process underway. 

In the past, it has taken about an average of 60 or fewer days from nomination to confirmation hearing.

Let the show begin.

One note on "the numbers" in the Senate. I keep hearing people say that Democrats have "the numbers" to get Obama's nom thru -- but that's NOT technically correct.

Dems currently have 59 votes, NOT 60 -- and they need 60, per the rules, to overcome a filibuster.

That said --- the outcome of the MN Senate race should be done by the time the Senate gets to a final vote on Sotomayor, and it looks like it's leaning in Franken's favor. That would give Reid 60 votes.

BUT --- there's always an appeal to SCOTUS for Coleman -- and national Republicans have been pushing him to leave the option open. This nominee fight -- IF it gets ugly -- COULD encourage this highest appeal for Coleman.

AND --- there's always Specter, Mr "I'm not going to be an automatic 60th vote." (Tho his voting record since switching might suggest otherwise.)

A senior Senate Democratic
aide predicts to Fox, however, "She's going to be confirmed with more than 60 votes."

The source says Senate Republicans appear to be less critical of Sotomayor than the conservative groups, suggesting senators might not be anxious for this fight. "Groups will hit this hard. It helps with fundraising, but Senate Republicans don't really appear to have the appetite right now," the source said.

Now --- the confirmation process:

It SHOULD take about 60-80 days for the entire process, from nomination to confirmation.

BUT ---- the Ranking Republican, Jeff Sessions, has suggested 60 days might be needed just to prepare for the hearings. He has said it might be better to hold the hrngs in SEPTEMBER.

Reid and Chairman Leahy have taken great pains NOT to antagonize Republicans, so both have not pushed on a timeline. Perhaps that will change today.

That said --- we should expect that meeting Obama's deadline of confirmation BEFORE the August recess begins on the 2nd week of that month will be a top priority for Reid et al.

The filibuster, the right of lawmakers to seize control of the floor to speak, is historically the province of the United States Senate.

But on Friday, that Senate tradition mutated across Capitol Hill to the House. Specifically to the weekly press conference held by embattled House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

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A senior Republican senator, working in tandem with a Motor City Democrat, secured assurances on Thursday that the 789 Chrysler dealers, set to close by June 9, per a Chrysler bankruptcy mandate, will have help recouping the costs of the inventory and equipment left on their lots.Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-TX, working with Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-MI, brokered a deal to help the roughly 40,000 people who will be affected by the closure mandate.

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The House Thursday rejected a Republican effort to withhold federal funds for a controversial airport that bears the name of Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) in Johnstown, PA.

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by Mosheh Oinounou

Is a Guantanamo Bay Version 2.0 in the works?

A Democratic Congressman is developing a unique proposal that attempts to strike a middle path in the debate as to whether the U.S. should permanently close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay next year or keep it open indefinitely.

Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) said Thursday that he is open to keeping a more transparent Guantanamo facility, complete with more aggressive third party monitors, open beyond the White House January 2010 closure deadline to hold the most dangerous inmates.

"If we have transparency and accountability, than you can leave Gitmo just like it is. The physical plant of Guantanamo is built to hold people. And therefore I argue and will purse the administration to give a look at legislation that I am developing that will give transparency and accountability and may satisfy our allies as well," Hastings said, noting that he would enable groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Wach and the Red Cross to have better access to monitor the facility.

Hastings has yet to seriously discuss the proposal with the White House but asserts that it could be a viable solution given that the new Gitmo comes with a guarantee of no torture.

Hastings, a former U.S. District Court judge, cited a problematic prison he once ordered closed, renovated and eventually reopened.

"I went in--same facility--we just changed what was going on inside and therefore the perception changed," he said, when asked about President Obama's assertion Guantanamo poses a international perception problem for the nation.

Given that Obama has vowed that no torture will take place at the facility, Hastings said Obama will be able to declare that "the new Guantanamo is open."

He said that his plan could proceed once the administration review of the 240+ detainees concludes and the President determines which suspects to put on trial, deport or move to prisons in the U.S. Hastings estimates the new Guantanamo will have to accommodate about 30 of the ultra-dangerous detainees.

"So you try the ones you can and the ones that ultimately cannot be handled at all--where are you gonna put them?" Hastings asked.

He said that he doesn't see another short-term solution to the "political brouhaha, not in my backyard" problem the White House faces on Capitol Hill where numerous Democrats have joined with Republicans to say no to housing Gitmo detainees in their states and districts.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-TX, has emerged as a serious broker of a last minute deal to help the 789 Chrysler dealers that must shut down by June 9, per Chrysler, a move that would leave some 40,000 Americans out of work, and the senator says she will slow the emergency war spending bill until she has assurances in writing from the President of Chrysler that something will be done.

GM has given their dealers until the end of 2010 to close, and Hutchison, who is running for governor, says this is not fair.

Chrysler has told its dealers that they wont buy back their vehicles, diagnostic equipment, etc. Hutchison, who has 50 Chrysler dealerships in her state, second only to Pennsylvania, doesn't want to see dealers just axed, says a spokesman --- BUT -- now that it's happening, she's trying to find some middle ground, keeping these dealers from being left holding the bag, as Chrysler heads into a controlled bankruptcy.

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