Inaugural woes have members ticked

Politico's Sarah Abruzzese reports:

Rep. Jim McDermott’s brother had a ticket but never got through the gates.
Sen. Lamar Alexander’s chief legislative counsel was stranded — with a lot of other people — in a tunnel just off the Mall.

Staffers for Sen. John Barrasso fell victim to the now-legendary purple gate.
And a constituent of Sen. Amy Klobuchar — a man who wanted to be here so badly that he sold his snowmobile to come — never got in, even though he had a ticket in his hand.

On the day after Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States, members of Congress were flooded with complaints from people who just missed the chance to see history made.

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) said Wednesday morning that these people were “owed an apology.”

And on Wednesday afternoon, they got it.

“The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies deeply regrets that some ticket holders to the ceremonies were not able to get to their ticketed sections, primarily in the purple and blue zones,” the JCCIC said in a statement.
The committee said it had based its plan on “historic precedent” and “calculations of the number of guests that could safely be accommodated in each area.” But the crowds were “unprecedented,” the committee said, and a “huge flow of unticketed people” made matters worse.

The JCCIC promised a full examination of “every aspect of our planning, including ticketing, screening, pedestrian flows, gate numbers and placement, to provide a foundation of lessons learned to future inaugural planners” — and apologized “deeply ... to those guests who were not admitted.”

JCCIC chairman Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Wednesday night that she’s asked the director of the Secret Service – along with the Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies – to conduct a “prompt investigation into two serious incidents that have been reported.”

“The specific incidents include the report that a decision was made to cut off access to purple and blue standing areas, which meant that a large number of ticketholders could not reach their designated areas,” Feinstein said in a statement. “I am also aware of the incident involving the 3rd Street Tunnel, where thousands of people were stuck for several hours and apparently without any law enforcement presence.”

Feinstein said that there may have been “other irregularities,” but that she’s “heard enough to know that something went wrong.”

She urged people who have “direct information” of the incidents to contact the Secret Service as well as the JCCIC at feedback@jccic.senate.gov.

As Feinstein's statement suggested, the biggest problem on Inauguration Day came at the purple gate — an Inauguration entrance near First Street and Constitution Avenue Northwest that’s given birth to a Facebook group called “Survivors of the Purple Tunnel of Doom.”

Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, said members of his staff spent their Inauguration on the wrong side of the purple monster. “They got there at 4 in the morning and were among the first hundred people in line,” he said, but they never got in.

Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) said two of his constituents ran out of luck at the purple gate. They returned to his office to watch the event on TV, then went outside again to watch the parade.

Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) had a school group left outside the gates. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said at least 40 people bearing his tickets — including members of his staff — weren’t allowed into the ceremony.

McDermott, a Democrat from Washington state, said the Seattle mayor and the Seattle police chief were, like his brother, left out in the cold. “The emotion level was so high,” he said. “I said to my brother, ‘Don’t complain to me. You were in Washington on the biggest Inauguration Day ever.’”

Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, was more sympathetic. “These are regular people who wanted to come here,” she said. “I’m not so worried about laying blame, but how can we make this better?”

There were also problems getting into some of Tuesday night’s inaugural balls.
A large number of people who purchased tickets to official balls through Ticketmaster arrived at the Convention Center on Tuesday night expecting to pick them up at a will call window. But there was no Ticketmaster will call window at the Convention Center — and, given the security perimeter around the building, it’s not clear that would-be partygoers could have gotten to one if there were.

Albert Lopez, the vice president of strategic communications for Ticketmaster Entertainment, said the company hasn’t received any complaints from the public. But in response to Politico’s inquiry, he said the company is investigating the matter.

Thomas P. Ryan, a lawyer in town from Chicago, said he and “hundreds of people” tried unsuccessfully to find someone at the event to give them tickets, roaming to different areas around the Convention Center for hours with no luck. Finally, the Secret Service told them to go home.

“It was hundreds and hundreds of people,” Ryan said Tuesday night. “People were out there for hours freezing their asses off.”

Melanie Roussell, a spokeswoman for the Presidential Inauguration Committee, said some people with tickets for the Youth Ball at the Washington Hilton were denied access after fire department officials declared the site over capacity. “We are in the process of determining a response to ticketed guests who were unable to attend,” she said.

Conrad missed the Midwestern Ball at the Convention Center, but he has only Obama to blame. The president’s motorcade restrictedthe senator’s access to the ball, where many of his constituents partied on without him.