Governing may be mostly a serious business, but not everything that happens in politics is as grave as an election, a presidential foreign policy speech or a congressional debate on health care reform. When conditions, personalities and the occasional surprise come together, the results can be downright weird.
In other words, sometimes the circus of professional politics gets a little out of hand.
In 2009 - a year that made history in so many ways - these were some of the moments that stood out for their sheer, unforgettable strangeness:
Obama gets sworn in - twice
President Barack Obama's Inauguration in January capped off the end of the longest, most intense presidential campaign in recent memory with a barrier-breaking event that drew a crowd of millions.
But when it came time for Chief Justice John Roberts to administer the oath of office, the judge fumbled the words, putting the adverb "faithfully" in the wrong place. Obama balked, but followed Roberts's example, misstating the oath.
White House Counsel Greg Craig said the swearing-in counted, even in flawed form - but just to be sure, Roberts came to the White House on the night of Jan. 21 to swear Obama into office a second time.
Obama joked to onlookers: "We decided it was so much fun."
Sarah Palin resigns
Few politicians did quite as much to surprise and puzzle the press in 2009 as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose sudden resignation from the governorship remains one of the year's biggest political curveballs.
The announcement - coming at the start of the July 4 weekend - caught even her aides by surprise, and Palin's meandering resignation speech did little to explain her abrupt decision. After deciding not to run for reelection in 2010, Palin said, she had concluded it did not make sense to stay in office as a lame duck.
"I'm determined to take the right path for Alaska, even though it is unconventional and it's not so comfortable," Palin said, adding in one of the year's major understatements: "All I can ask is that you trust me with this decision and know that it is no more politics as usual."
Sheila Jackson-Lee addresses Michael Jackson's funeral
"I can tell you as a member of the United States Congress, we understand the Constitution, we understand laws and we know that people are innocent until proved otherwise. That is what the Constitution stands for."
So declared Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) - not at a political rally or on behalf of a beleaguered cause, but at the Los Angeles memorial service for Michael Jackson.
At a moment when other politicians hesitated to honor the controversial musician, Jackson-Lee delivered an enthusiastic paean to the man she called a "global humanitarian" before a crowd of tens of thousands. Unveiling a resolution honoring Jackson she planned to introduce on the House floor, the lawmaker declared, arm crooked with her hand at eye level: "Michael Jackson, I salute you."
The resolution didn't go far. "We have too many other things to deal with right now," one House Democrat told POLITICO.
Patti Blagojevich teams up with Heidi and Spencer on reality TV
If Bloomberg, Gingrich and Sharpton were the oddest group of political heavyweights to team up in 2009, they had nothing on one rather less A-list threesome: Heidi and Spencer Pratt and former Illinois first lady Patti Blagojevich.
After the Illinois Legislature impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a judge denied the governor's request to appear on the reality show "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here." Patti happily stepped in, flying to Costa Rica to join the sun-kissed stars of "The Hills" and other nominally famous people for misadventures in the jungle.
After Blagojevich offered an impassioned defense of the ex-governor - "Every child in Illinois has health care because of my husband," she said - Spencer told her: "When I met him, I was like, this is who I would have voted for the president of the United States."
"I look at them as the Heidi-Spencer of politics," he added.
The White House beer summit
After years of debating which politicians Americans would want to have beers with, Washington finally got to see a president drinking with a couple of guys. But the White House beer summit of July 30, 2009, was anything but a casual affair - and had more to do with damage control than with alcohol.
Obama decided to host the event after getting embroiled in the controversy over Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s arrest. After saying the Cambridge, Mass., Police Department "acted stupidly" by arresting Gates in his own home, Obama found himself under fire from law enforcement groups for commenting on what they said was a local issue.
In a gathering the White House dubbed a "teachable moment," Obama and Vice President Joe Biden sat down at a garden table with Gates and Sgt. James Crowley, the officer who arrested Gates. It's not clear what, exactly, Americans learned from the event, but Obama released a statement afterward declaring: "I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart."
Sanford confesses - and confesses, and confesses
He was supposed to be squeaky clean - as pure in his personal life as he was in his conservative politics. Then Mark Sanford disappeared.
After vanishing for several days in June, leaving his staff with only vague information about his whereabouts, the prospective 2012 presidential candidate resurfaced at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Georgia. Hours later, he held a tearful press conference announcing that he'd been in Argentina visiting a mistress.
Sanford's initial sob-filled, face-contorting confession was filled with enough odd moments for several news cycles. That was before he opened up to The Associated Press, telling The AP his affair had been a "love story" and that he would "be able to die knowing that I had met my soul mate."
One of the less weird moments of 2009: Jenny Sanford's decision to file for divorce in December.
Tom DeLay goes on "Dancing With the Stars"
Say this for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas): He doesn't do things halfway. When DeLay, who resigned from the House in 2006, burst back into public view on the show "Dancing with the Stars" last fall, he was in - and he was in to win.
In a hip-gyrating, air guitar-playing, "Wild Thing"-singing Sept. 21 debut, DeLay prompted one judge to declare: "You are crazier than Sarah Palin!" For Americans who remembered DeLay as a sly, aggressive politician, it was a stunning performance.
The fun didn't last long: DeLay eventually withdrew from the competition, citing stress fractures in his feet.
Bloomberg, Gingrich and Sharpton team up
During the 2008 campaign, candidate Obama pledged to bring together new political coalitions in the White House. Few could have imagined he'd end up hosting an Oval Office meeting with such an unlikely trio as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Remarkably, the three politicos - none of them known for playing well with others - weren't there to lock horns. Instead, they gathered to talk about education with a president who wanted to shake up the national conversation - or, as Sharpton put it, to "move the envelope."
The group has continued working together, with all three appearing jointly on NBC's "Meet the Press" in November, and Gingrich and Sharpton hitting the road with Education Secretary Arne Duncan for events spotlighting reform.
Who's the leader of the GOP?
A month after Michael Steele won the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, he found himself scrambling to make peace with Rush Limbaugh, of all people.
Steele's offense: Pushing back on Democratic attempts to declare Limbaugh the de facto leader of the GOP. In a CNN interview, Steele called the country's top talker an "entertainer," rather than the head of the party.
"He's not. I'm the de facto leader of the Republican Party," Steele said.
In an uncomfortable spectacle, the normally confident chairman quickly reversed himself, apologizing to Limbaugh and telling POLITICO: "My intent was not to go after Rush - I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh."
Doug Hoffman says ACORN stole his election
Of all the strange twists in this year's special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District, none may have been odder than the way conservative standard-bearer Doug Hoffman ended his unlikely turn in the national spotlight.
The small-town accountant, who forced moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava from the race as his bid for Congress on the Conservative Party line caught fire, fell narrowly short of beating Democrat Bill Owens at the polls. But after conceding defeat on Nov. 3, Hoffman "un-conceded" a few weeks later and released a statement blaming the community organizing group ACORN for his loss.
"As evidence surfaces, we find out that reported results from election night were far from accurate," Hoffman said. "ACORN and the unions did their best to try and sway the results to Obamacare supporter Bill Owens."
Though it's hardly new for conservatives to take aim at ACORN, Hoffman's claim seemed especially far-fetched in a district that is hardly a hotbed of urban community organizing. He conceded defeat a second time on Nov. 24, hinting at plans for another campaign next year.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30931.html