Here in Washington, Congress seemed extremely normal today. We got to the Longworth building at 8:30 am. There were metal detectors at the building's entrances, but no lines, no dogs, no national guard, just local cops and guards, and not too many of them. Maybe 2 or 3 per entrance. It took under 30 seconds to go through security. No hand searches of briefcases, no removing shoes, belts or being hand-scanned by the "wand." The detectors don't seem to be set as high as they are in federal courthouses or jails. We walked in and out several times over the morning and neither us nor anyone else set off a detector.

What a contrast to our visit during the Clinton Impeachment trial. Now that was some high security. You couldn't go up or down an elevator without a special pass. Think about that, the elevators were guarded. At one point, the trial was stopped with no reason given and the cops/guards abruptly evacuated the chamber--we thought it was for a closed-door discussion, but when we got out in the hall, the buzz was that a "package" had been found. Most likely untrue, but you couldn't even leave to go the bathroom and come back without losing your seat and going to the back of the line and starting again. And this was the special line--not the public line-- as we had passes from the White House Counsel's office. Today was entirely different, You would never know there was anything critical taking place in the world.

This morning, once inside, we spent 45 minutes in a meeting with other defense lawyers who. like us, had flown in to lobby on the Innocence Protection Act. Our "group" included Larry Goldman, the President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Past NACDL President Jerry Lefcourt (you may remember him as Abbie Hoffman's lawyer in the Chicago 8 trial), us (we're Secretary of the Organization), Kyle O'Dowd, NACDL's Legislative Director, two members of the Board of Directors and one past member of the Board. Also at the meeting was Peter Loge, Executive Director of the Justice Project.

The atmosphere in the large Longworth cafeteria was very relaxed and lively--no hint of tension in the air. No tvs that we were aware of and the only people glued to their cell phones were some of the lawyers at our table. (Not us.)

We didn't see any extra cops or security inside the buildings. In fact, at one point we needed to ask directions to get from Longworth to someplace in Cannon and we asked a guy walking by in the hall. He spent over 2 minutes telling us how to get there, like it was a very important question and he had plenty of time. He turned out to be a Congressman.