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"Rayburn House Office Building" Visit

Date confirmed in “CNN” (“Tuesday [March 30, 2004]”)

...Michael Jackson is in the Rayburn House Office Building. Which is why a gaggle of media types are camped outside the offices of Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) waiting, and waiting. Because Jackson is in town, and well, this is what you do if you're the press and Mr. Jackson comes to Washington.

...Jackson is in Washington to talk about serious things: AIDS in Africa, his own years of philanthropy and good works. Today he's scheduled to meet with African ambassadors. Tomorrow he'll receive an award. He mentions some of these things in his "STATEMENT OF RECORDING SUPERSTAR MICHAEL JACKSON ON CAPITOL HILL," distributed by his people.

"I am in town this week because I am being honored by the African Ambassadors' Spouses Association," the statement continues. "While I am more humbled by this honor, it is more important to me to help raise awareness of what is going on in our sister continent . . . Africa; . . . and to help them rid their countries of some of these problems . . . whatever I can do to assist you in your fight, I will do so."

To further the fight, he's here to meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus... so Michael waits in a holding room as the good congresspeople go skedaddling out of Fattah's office. "There will be no official meeting with the CBC as a collective because, as Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) says, "This is still Congress." And folks are just busy.

Finally, nearly an hour and a half after his appointed meeting time, Jackson is swept into Fattah's office. He's sporting a smoothly brushed pageboy, aviator shades, red armband, black suit. Escorted, of course, by a contingent of important-looking people wearing very important and serious expressions.

He does, however, look up, and waves to the cameras. Flashes the peace sign. And then he disappears.

He meets with assorted members of the Congressional Black Caucus, among them Jesse Jackson Jr., Bobby Rush, Danny Davis, Sheila Jackson Lee and John Lewis.

It was, as Lewis says later, "nothing heavy, just a meet-and-greet."

But in the meantime, we wait.

And while we wait, we try to figure out which door he'll use to make his getaway.

Backbones start to slip. Feet start to ache.

...No one moves.

There's also a small, exceedingly small, contingent of fans standing and watching, armed with mini-cams and digital cameras and disposable cameras. They're being held back by a security guard, but they've got an unobscured view of the hallway and the Ungloved One, once he appears.

A good portion of the fans are made up by the very large and very well-prepared Swack family from Bowling Green, Ky. Among them is Perry Swack, who says he is a big fan, as much a fan as you can be when you're 11 and you just happen to be visiting your congressman and doing the tour thing and you happen to find out that -- guess what? -- Michael Jackson will be here in the very same building. So you decide to seize the day and hang out for a couple hours with your mom and younger siblings and your grandma and your dad and your uncle, because it's, well, you know, cool.

...Then suddenly, Jackson jets out into the hall and past flashbulbs and shouted questions. We dash after him -- caught up in the excitement of it all -- past the security guards running interference, past the other scrambling reporters trying to get comments from assorted lawmakers, holding the slickly smooth pageboy in our sight. We run right up to the elevator, where our prey stands in the very back, obscured by his entourage.

"Michael!" we shout.

He looks around, peers past shoulders. Looks at us. Looks at us. We are no longer the infatuated third-grader. We are a journalist with the hard questions.

Um, "When are you going to Africa?"

A gloveless hand lifts to push aside a curtain of glossy prefab hair. We take note of the lipstick. It's matte. A little cakey, the way it does when you've had a long day and no time to reapply.

"Uhhhhh," he says.

We hover expectantly.

"Hopefully soon."

The elevator doors slam in our face. The Gloveless One is gone.

Michael Jackson on Capitol Hill for a meet-and-greet with legislators emitted a small but concentrated aura of celebrity.Surrounded by his entourage, Michael Jackson zips out of Rep. Chaka Fattah's office yesterday in the Rayburn House Office Building.

CNN (March 30, 2004) (archived)

Pop star Michael Jackson paid a high-profile visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, meeting with a congressman to promote the fight against AIDS in Africa.

Surrounded by a large entourage, Jackson flashed the peace sign before entering the office of Democratic Rep. Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania in the Rayburn House Office Building.

In planning the Capitol Hill visit, Jackson's publicist requested a meeting for the singer with the Congressional Black Caucus but was turned down.

The caucus cited scheduling conflicts, but aides privately acknowledged that many members didn't want their picture taken with the star.

During the brief meeting with Fattah, a member of the caucus, Jackson read a statement touching on his humanitarian efforts in the battle against AIDS.

"I know that many of you will continue to raise awareness and will continue to fight for funding in Africa," Jackson read. "I want you to know I will do whatever I can to assist you in that fight."

After the meeting, Fattah said Jackson seemed happy, and he praised the singer's efforts in combating AIDS.

"We were happy to have a chance to spend some brief moments to talk to one of the leading celebrities in world that has used their celebrity status to help other people, particularly... the millions of people on the continent of Africa who are suffering with the most devastating disease known to mankind," Fattah said.