Over the course of an hour on Wednesday afternoon, West Virginia’s most prominent political figure greeted well-wishers while clad in a pink tutu and sparkly birthday hat.
Babydog, the English bulldog that trails after Sen. Jim Justice in the Senate hallways, celebrated her 6th birthday on the 15th day of the government shutdown. Hundreds of Capitol Hill staffers and a few members of the public came to mark the occasion. The turnout stunned Justice’s staff, as a line wrapped around the fifth-floor hallway of the Hart Senate Office Building before the guest of honor had even arrived.
“Babydog is stuck in traffic,” legislative aide Aves Mocek called out to the line at 1:09 p.m. “She’ll be here very soon. Very soon!”
Mocek turned to go back inside the office and said under her breath, “This is crazy.”
By the time Babydog and Justice rolled into the office, more than 200 people were waiting to say happy birthday to West Virginia’s best-known canine. This was her first birthday celebration since Justice began serving in the Senate and his deputy chief of staff Rebecca Blaine, who worked for Justice when he was governor, can’t remember a larger one.
“People know Babydog here and they love her,” Blaine said. “[We thought], ‘Let’s throw her a birthday party and just kind of let everybody come.”
Justice and his staff suggested the celebration also helped provide a reprieve for shutdown-weary Capitol Hill staff.
“To be perfectly honest, I think what is going on with the shutdown is not good,” Justice said. “It’s way too much politics for me, you know.”
Staff from offices in both chambers and from every political persuasion came to wish Babydog a happy birthday. The Senate pages turned out in full force, snapping photos with the English bulldog, and the senator posed under a colorful balloon arch.
Blaine and a few others made the arch the previous evening, and the desserts displayed from a West Virginia baker included 450 cake pops shaped like bulldogs and two cakes featuring a replica of Babydog’s face. Staff volunteered their time to pull together the event, and Justice paid for the party’s food and decorations himself, Blaine said.
The festivities came to an abrupt end at 2:30 p.m., when the Senate cloakroom called to alert the Republican senator of an impending floor vote on a procedural motion related to the House-passed GOP stopgap funding measure.
Aides hurried through the last few photos and then whisked the senator off to afternoon votes. The table once covered in cake pops had dwindled to just nine. And Babydog retreated to the back of the office, ready for her afternoon nap.
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