Mrs. Carnahan Goes To Washington

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As she plowed through the chaos of her first day, Room 480 in the Russell Building came to resemble the stateroom in A Night at the Opera. Visitors poured into an office stacked with newly delivered furniture. As a third camera crew pushed its way in her face, Carnahan rolled a chair to position a rescue for a pregnant woman about to topple. There was barely space for the bouquet of lilies sent by Missouri's senior Senator, Kit Bond, or the senatorial documents already arriving. Her first headline event is the confirmation hearings of Attorney General nominee John Ashcroft, the Carnahan family's longtime political adversary, whom her husband beat for the Senate seat. About Ashcroft's hearings, she will only say she's open-minded, but it's doubtful he is counting on her vote.

Gore gamely administered all senatorial oaths twice, first in private, then in a room where cameras are allowed. Everyone had family around but him, everyone welcoming a new day but him. Each Senator then held a reception serving the same Swedish meatballs and cold cuts. The parties for Clinton and Carnahan were jammed. Carnahan expects to work well with Hillary, whom she knows, partly from staying twice in the Lincoln Bedroom ("And it didn't cost us a cent"). Carnahan celebrated with the family left to her: daughter Robin, 39, and son Tom, 31, who may move to Washington to be near her. Son Russ, 42, was just then being sworn in to the Missouri house of representatives. All day, people cried as they came up to her. She held steady. Only when taking the oath did she fill up with tears, feeling her husband's presence "flood my soul. I had to push it aside," she said, "or I would have been overwhelmed."

"Life," Carnahan says, "takes you where you didn't plan to go." Many in the building would say amen to that.