Post-blizzard, Sen. Murkowski notes that only women turned up to run the Senate

Something was a little different in the Senate on Tuesday morning. And Sen. Lisa Murkowski noticed it.

The Alaska Republican was one of only a few lawmakers in the Capitol building following the weekend blizzard, and it was her job to handle the formalities of delaying Senate business until her colleagues could get back to work. After finishing a bit of parliamentary business, she described what she saw in the ornate chamber.

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“As we convene this morning, you look around the chamber, the presiding officer is female. All of our parliamentarians are female. Our floor managers are female. All of our pages are female.”

Murkowski noted that she and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who was wielding the Senate gavel, hadn’t planned the all-women session. It was, she said, just a coincidence.

“Something is genuinely different — and something is genuinely fabulous,” Murkowski said.

She theorized that the lack of men in the ranks of members and staffers might not have been a simple fluke. “Perhaps it speaks to the hardiness of women,” she added, “that put on your boots and put your hat on and get out and slog through the mess that’s out there.”

What the D.C. area looks like after the epic blizzard

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Mike Mazza (R) and his son Gabriel (L) stand outside of their subdivision attempting to get plow service for snowy streets in Gaithersburg, Maryland January 26, 2016. Washington will need several more days to return to normal after a weekend blizzard dropped more than 2 feet (60 cm) of snow along the U.S. East Coast, likely causing billions of dollars in damage and killing more than 30 people. REUTERS/Gary Cameron (Gary Cameron/Reuters)

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