Sen. Boxer abandons Gore's climate crisis hearing to 'mull over carpet samples'

While former Vice President Al Gore was waxing lengthy about the devastating effects of global warming in his most recent Capitol Hill appearance, one of the Senators before whom he was testifying had some more pressing matters to attend to.

Sen. Barbara Boxer left the Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Jan. 28 to mull over carpet samples, a spy told HOH. The California Democrat slipped out during the hearing to consult in the committee’s anteroom with a guy holding a board affixed with swatches of carpet. Boxer, our witness said, was musing over whether to choose the “linen” or “straw” shade of floor covering. As Boxer pondered such weighty matters (the spy says she feared the linen option had a “touch too much gray” in it), the committee was engrossed in a discussion of what Gore called “the most serious challenge the world has ever faced.”  Among the topics: the very end of humankind. A Boxer spokeswoman told HOH that a pipe had burst in the Senator’s home, damaging the carpet and necessitating an emergency repair job — hence the unconventional design consultation. Still, the contrast between the important business taking place in the committee room and the ... slightly less pressing matter Boxer was engaged in caused some chuckles. Clearly, Boxer cares deeply about the environment — especially her own.

1/21/09, Washington, DC: Cold Does A Number On More Area Pipes - washingtonpost.com

A boil-water order that followed a series of water main breaks was lifted yesterday for about 90,000 homes and businesses in Prince George' s County, even as freezing temperatures caused dozens of other pipes across the region to rupture or leak.