



In a video recorded by an anonymous bystander, it appears that Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) finds parking her vehicle a daunting challenge.

The tipster tells RollCall.com that she had her miserable mishap at around the same time that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was beginning his joint-address to congress.

When the video is recorded you can hear commentary from this anonymous man and, hilariously, he says, “If she parks like that, she should not be a member of Congress anymore.”

You can also hear that she has been trying to fix her mistake and, in doing, so had been rubbing the rear end of her car against the vehicle on her driver’s side. Is that considered damaging, not just poor parking? If it is, couldn't she get into some serious trouble?

An aide is seen trying to help her right herself and she quickly gives up and exits her vehicle, locks the doors, and begins walking away. It appears she may have had second thoughts as she returns to the vehicle, but she only returns to retrieve a forgotten item and repeats her obviously careless actions.

Isn’t this considered hit and run? She doesn’t leave any information on the vehicle and she certainly didn’t take the time to report it to police. (Not even to the clueless U.S. Capitol Police officer who mosied by on a motorcycle at 0:40)

Though, apparently Congress has been benefiting from a sort of “legislative immunity” as a survey from 2011, also done by Roll Call, revealed that members of Congress collectively owe Washington D.C. more than $15,000. That was in 2011. If those tickets (most of them had gone years without payment) were left unpaid since then, imagine what the total amount could reach at this point.

It’s sad that Vincent C. Gray, who was mayor of D.C. at the time, can only ask the congressmen to pay their dues. He didn’t even try to demand responsibility from our national representatives. He said “We wish they would pay up because we can use the revenue.”

Why not say, “You are just like any other American citizen and you are required by law to pay the balance owed from you parking violations!”

An aide to Norton later said “After the Congresswoman parked her car, we assessed the cars on either side to see if there was any damage. We could not find any, but we left a note with a business card so the congresswoman could be contacted in case we missed any.”

Regardless of the possible hit-and-run, that was still very deserving of a ticket that would, more than likely, have gone unpaid.

See the original video below:

H/T RollCall.com