Partying with Great Lakes heroes and our Canadian friends

The night before everyone stormed The Hill, The Canadian Embassy hosted their fellow Lakers for a really nice party with good wine and delicious little fried hors d'oeuvre-y things (check out the Great Lakes Commision page for good photos of the party and other events in DC). Some legendary congressional Lakes champions were there to party with the folks from back home and tell stories about their efforts to explain the importance of the Lakes to their colleagues:

• Longtime Great Lakes hero Senator George Voinovich of Ohio talked about collaborating with his Canadian counterparts through one of the "best kept secrets in government," the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group. He's participated with the group over the years to solve Lakes problems.
• Republican Congressman Vernon Ehlers of Grand Rapids told a favorite story of his from early on in his career. After giving a floor speech about fighting zebra mussels, he had to correct one of his fellow congressmen when they were angry about spending taxpayer dollars on "the muscles of zebras."
• Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar gave a fun speech about her first year in the Senate trying to explain invasive species to her colleagues. She uses YouTube videos of Asian Carp to illustrate the importance of keeping them out of the Lakes.
  

Check it out yourself - tell me the thought of these monsters attacking folks throughout the basin isn't horrifying:


So there you go - take page from Senator Klobuchar's book and use the power of The Tubes to win hearts and minds, because sometimes a YouTube video is worth a thousand press conferences...