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In his latest book, “The Joy of Politics: Surviving Cancer, a Campaign, a Pandemic, an Insurgency, and Life’s Other Unexpected Curveballs” (St. Martin’s Press), Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar explores the turmoil that has marked her political life in Washington, DC, and her personal life, as she faces threats to both her family’s health and to the health of democracy.
In this excerpt, the senator writes about one of her accomplishments as part of the Senate Rules Committee: getting new mom Tammy Duckworth (and every mom and dad after her) permission to bring their babies to the floor of the senate
Read the extract below and don’t miss Senator Klobuchar on “CBS Sunday Morning” on May 14th!
“The Joy of Politics” by Amy Klobuchar
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Getting the babies approved in the Senate was by far the most fun. And it wasn’t easy. Tammy Duckworth, the Democratic senator from Illinois who lost both legs in a helicopter crash while serving our country in Iraq, came to see me before the birth of her second daughter to ask permission to carry her soon-to-be-born baby. Senate floor in case there were late votes or had to keep the baby on a feeding schedule.
“No problem,” I said.
Months later, Tammy was, well, even more pregnant (surprise!), and I was met with all kinds of passive resistance. Apparently the senators had left a dog on the floor once, but no children.
I finally got into the mood. When Senator Orrin Hatch said to a group of reporters, “Maybe it’s okay to have this baby on the floor, but what if we have ten babies on the floor,” I replied, “We already have ten babies on the floor.” (This happened.)
Then, after sitting behind several elderly senators in a secret briefing and tapping them on the shoulders and asking them out loud if it was true that they had a problem with breastfeeding (red faces for everywhere), I finally channeled Dr. Seuss and I made a jingle to make my point:
He will not change the diaper on the floor;
He won’t bang on the door.
It will not change the baby in the House;
She will be still as a mouse.
It won’t burp the baby at work;
Stop being such an idiot.
bingo This worked. We have approved the rule change. And one day, during a close vote, the fifty-year-old veteran headed to the Senate with six-week-old Maile Pearl on her lap. Tammy made sure the baby was all dressed up in a little green dress so as not to violate the Senate dress code. Reporters winked and aahed from the gallery above. Many were bursting.
I was sitting with Mitch McConnell. “This is the time,” I said. “What do you mean?” he asked. “This is when you and I and Chuck and Roy come down and say hi to the baby. Since I made this change as an ode to the modern era and you went along with it, we might as well own it.”
“In all my years of campaigning,” he said, “I’ve never kissed a baby.”
“I don’t think it should happen,” I said. “You just have to say hello to the baby.”
And he did.
From The Joy of Politics: Surviving Cancer, a Campaign, a Pandemic, an Insurgency, and Life’s Other Unexpected Curveballs by Amy Klobuchar. Copyright © 2023 by the author and reprinted with permission from St. Martin’s Publishing Group.
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“The Joy of Politics” by Amy Klobuchar
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