One of the great things about being an unapologetic wonk who can't seem to visit the east coast without planning some sort of nerdy day trip to our nation's capitol is that our nation's capitol is full of unapologetic wonks engaging in all kinds of nerd activities.

This week, I got especially lucky. Some 16 or 17 hours after attending a This Moment on Earth event, I was able to secure a couple of seats to a "Conversation on Global Climate Change & the Environment" between Senator Kerry and Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

(And, yes, I was asked by certain fangirl parties to quit hogging the senator. Do rest assured, ladies, that I shall probably never so many opportunities in which to bogart the tall guy again, let alone within the space of about five days.)

We arrived on the Hill about 45 minutes prior to the start of the debate, which left lots of time for sightseeing and squeeing through the Russell Senate Office Building, watching a C-SPAN sound check, and for snagging third row seats. Had I not been significantly smaller than everyone sitting in front of me, I'd be visible in this picture:

Seriously, look how happy everyone was to be there! Now, on to the ties:

Opening remarks were made by NYU professors Ellen Schall, and Paul Light, who was careful to point out that, when he had put on a dark blue tie that morning, he'd forgotten that he was meant to moderate a bipartisan debate. (You can imagine what a truly validating moment it was in my blogging career to have an NYU professor bring up the subject of ties.) But if Professor Light had any biases, it was tough for them to show - Senator Kerry and Speaker Gingrich talked among themselves for the full two hours of debate with no intervention whatever from the moderator.

Former House Majority Whip and NYU President Emeritus John Brademas followed with a special welcome on behalf of the John Brademas Center for the Study of Congress, which is exactly the sort of place I'd love to study if I weren't already using an embarrassingly small fraction of my expensive formal education. Dr. Brademas wore a bright orange tie for which he made no apologies.

Senator Kerry and Speaker Gingrich then took to their podiums and shook hands, and since no pictures of that moment are appearing over the AP wire, you will have to be satisfied with my grainy, no-flash shot:

Speaker Gingrich delivered the first opening statement, which included a very gracious plug for This Moment on Earth. He wore a very attractive and springlike pale yellow tie with alternating light blue and dark blue stripes. I don't really know if there were any Newt groupies in the house, as I was one of the many Democrats who had staked out prime seats near the leftmost podium, but if there were, I imagine they would have been pleased. (Provided they were not expecting neckware that included partisan symbolism.)

Senator Kerry's tie happened to be my personal favorite, which was in no way planned, and which I announced, probably to loudly, to my husband and the 15-20 people seated closest to us.

Did I mention I was REALLY happy to be there?

With the unofficial Handsome-Off I was holding in my head won just seconds after the debate began, I settled in to watch the environmental equivalent of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and was really amazed at what a genuinely great discussion, and great time, it was. It's no wonder Dr. Brademas called it "one of the most elevating and illuminating" debates he'd heard.

It's tough to even try to do the conversation justice, even after making many, many pages of notes. Instead, now that we've taken a moment to obsess over fashion, I urge everyone to move on to the important stuff, and watch the video on JK's multimedia page.

I will even go out on a limb and say that this video will make you feel good about America. How often has that happened over the past six years?