Congressmen Courageous!

When you fly out of Reagan National airport in D.C., you might get the perverse sensation that you could be escaping, by mere seconds and a few hundred feet, a terrorist-initiated destruction of the nation's capital. But also, you could share the ride with congressmen going home to their districts, where angry mobs with flaming Tiki torches now await them.

On my way back to Mississippi for a visit, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Home of the Delta Blues and Undergraduate Music Class Trips) was seated a few rows behind me. It's refreshing to see powerful government people surrounded not by aides but just by their spouses. Anyway, Thompson was seated in the eighth row, which means you have to open and otherwise deal with the emergency doors, located next to your seat. Asked by the stewardess if he was comfortable with this responsibility, Thompson answered in the affirmative, all cool and collected. Very appropriate for the chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee.

On my way back from Mississippi, U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper (R-No "D" Will Ever Be Placed After a Representative from this District) was seated a few rows in front of me. He also was seated in the eighth row, and took the same cool and affirmative approach to emergency responsibility. Mississippi congressmen are generally recognizable to Mississipians, right down to drooling babies, and are generally chatted up at every opportunity. In a slow-moving place like Mississippi, that's a lot of opportunities. But the woman seated next to Harper did the one thing the normally affable Harper probably wanted the most, namely, leave him alone. Perhaps he was steeling himself for dealing with a terrorist.

Of course, sitting in the eighth row gives you more leg room. But Thompson has a cheerful, gregarious shape, and Harper probably can't dunk. So I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say they took no thought for their ability to stretch out, only for the safety of their fellow constituents. Fellow passengers, too.