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You gotta wear a tie in the Senate

Published on 33 Comments on You gotta wear a tie in the Senate

Our long national nightmare is over:

Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman will no longer be allowed to wear shorts and a hoodie on the floor of the Senate. Our weeklong experiment with casual dress is over and it is once again safe for women and children to watch the proceedings of the world's greatest deliberative body.

For myself, I have to say that it won't kill Fetterman to wear a suit and tie. He's not working from home and voting by Zoom, after all. At the same time, it's remarkable how unhinged everyone got over this. I mean, the dress code was restored by unanimous consent! When was the last time anything in the Senate passed by unanimous consent?

There are some who bitingly remark that the Senate surely has better things to do than fuss over its dress code. But not really. I guess they could approve another few military promotions over Tommy Tuberville's blockade, but anything else is little more than symbolic given the endless legislative deadlock currently embroiling the House. So I suppose they might as well restore their dress code instead of just twiddling their thumbs waiting for Kevin McCarthy to wrangle his herd of mad cows.

33 thoughts on “You gotta wear a tie in the Senate”

    1. bbleh

      Ima guess that there is a substantial number of Fetterman voters who think it's funny as sh!t. Other than that, I agree with you.

      My only interest in it is, what's he gonna do next? I'm sure he will wear a suit, probably a very conservative one, and just roll his eyes if anybody sticks a mike in front of his face and asks about it. But one suggestion I like is, a very conservative-looking tie, dark blue with little white lozenges on it, except on close inspection the lozenges are little hands giving the finger.

      1. tigersharktoo

        I was imagining a white suit, with yellow smiley faces all over. And a tie. And the tie clasp would be a hand with middle finger stretched out.

    2. lawnorder

      I have seen a few comments by people who think Fetterman was offending the dignity of the Senate or some such sentiment. I presume at least some of them were voters. Therefore my guess is that the answer to your question is "yes, there are voters who give a shit about this, but not many of them."

        1. lawnorder

          I'm not prepared to bet that Ron Johnson voters are among those who care about standards of dress in the Senate. On the other hand, I'm also not prepared to bet that they're not. I simply can't get inside the "thinking" of a Johnson voter.

    3. rick_jones

      As someone who wore coat and tie to school for nine years, I'd say I give at least some passed gas.

      There should be a dress code of some sort. Appearing on the floor of the United States Senate dressed in just a thong for example should be right-out. At that point, it isn't so much a question of having a dress code as where the "line" should be, and I'm fine with that being at a coat and tie or the women's equivalent.

      1. different_name

        What does your school experience have to do with the Senate?

        Appearing on the floor of the United States Senate dressed in just a thong for example should be right-out.

        I mean, I'm now suggesting things like this, because if people want to be utterly ridiculous about this stuff, fuck yeah, let's get ridiculous.

        But your reasoning is, "someone made me do it" and "this thing that nobody has done, and nobody is planning on doing, would be bad for unspecified reasons".

        And I'm going to say those are terrible reasons.

  5. Adam Strange

    It is important to look respectable, particularly if what you are doing isn't.

    I think we should make them wear clown makeup. I think we'd get better legislation that way.
    "Hey, Bozo. Prove to me that you're worth your salary. Otherwise, it's back to driving a dirty-diaper collection truck for you."

  6. n1cholas

    Sure, half of the Senators on the floor openly support fascism, but as long as they are wearing a suit it makes me feel much better about things.

  7. KawSunflower

    Guess no one was offended by Sinema's costumes due to her entertainment value.

    And over on the House side, those bare arms might have been concerning the past, when femake representatives/publicity seekers didn't dress like Fox "personalities."

    My expectations of decorum have more to do with behavior than with a rigid dress code.

  8. lifeman

    I vote, and I give a sh!t about this. Fetterman can wear a suit and tie, thank you. Dressing like you're going to clean out the garage is NOT OK by me. He is one of only 100 member of one of the most important elected bodies in the world, and he represents our country and his state.. Further, so many of my fellow liberals get a little bent out when Jordan doesn't wear a suit jacket, fer cripes' sake.

    C'mon, liberals, admit it, if this was Matt Gaetz, you would be apoplectic.

    1. different_name

      Then don't vote for him.

      No, I don't give a shit what Gaetz wears, either.

      I'll never get over how many people obsess about trivial stupidities while fascists shut down the government and the media is actively lying to support them.

      1. RantHaven

        How would it affect the pilot’s ability to fly the plane? Be specific, show your work, provide quality citations. How much time do you spend looking at the pilots when you fly? Are you one of those passengers who gets tossed off for obstreperous behavior?

        And as for the Supremes, do the robes stop them from making crap rulings? Or do they just hide the fact that Clarence Thomas goes “commando?”

  10. jsrtheta

    I spent my career in court. Male attorneys wore suits and ties, female attorneys wore suits and usually some sort of neckwear. I never had a problem with this. In fact, I enjoyed it.

    Why? Because what we were doing mattered. People's lives, their freedom, their property, their role in society, it all mattered.

    If what the Senate does means nothing more than a pick up roundball game, or a stop at Starbucks, then what does matter? If Fetterman can't pay tribute to the seriousness of the People's business, if he can't recognize the awesome power his position entails, he should find another line of work.

    He's not dropping the kids off at a Saturday soccer game. He's been entrusted to make decisions about the lives of the citizenry, our relations with foes and allies, the People's work. He can damned well take it seriously, or find a different job.

    1. pjcamp1905

      How does a suit pay tribute to the seriousness of anything? Once upon a time, you "paid tribute to the seriousness" of something by wearing tights and ruffled collars and putting a giant ostrich feather in your cap. Times change.

      Seems to me you "pay tribute to the seriousness" of something by taking it seriously. There are a gracious plenty of unserious people wearing serious suits. Take Donald Trump and his entire legal team. They wear the Serious Suits but then behave like a bunch of monkeys in court. Jim Jordan wears a Serious Suit and I would not say he takes the public business seriously.

      Like anything else that is cultural, Serious Suits signify that you're part of the tribe and nothing else.

      Frankly, any tribe that include Mitch McConnell, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Green is one that I would want to signify a difference from.

  12. pjcamp1905

    It isn't clear to me that there is an enforcement mechanism. Will you be excluded from the Senate chamber? Does it cover the entire building? Does it govern what you wear in your own office? How about going to and from the Senate gym?

    Maybe they can do like a snooty restaurant and have some loaner suits in the cloak room.

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