WASHINGTON (CNN) - Usually in Washington it's Republicans and Democrats battling each other but on Thursday night they joined together to battle a common enemy: the Washington Press Corps.
In the third annual Congressional Women's Softball game, members from both sides of the aisle came together to play the Capitol Hill Press Corps to benefit the Young Survival Coalition, a group that assists young women facing breast cancer.
Rep. Laura Richardson, D-California, started things off with a three-run home run in the first inning but the press women came back to eventually tie things up in the top of the 6th inning, 4-4.
The nail biter went down to the bottom of the 7th and last inning. CNN's Erika Dimmler made an incredible outfield somersault catch to make it two outs but then Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultze, D-Florida, came to the plate. Wasserman-Schultze, whose jersey simply read "DWS", made the incredible game winning hit, driving in Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-California, to win the game 5-4.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a long time New York Yankees, fan threw out the first pitch as the crowd cheered her on.
Bipartisanship was in the crowd too as Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, came to cheer on his team as did Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and a number of others including Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois, Dennis Kuchinich, D-Ohio, Democratic Caucus Leader John Larsen, D-Connecticut, and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland.
Players included Congressional team MVP and DNC chair Wasserman-Schultz, Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, Kelly Ayotte, R-New Hampshire, and Kay Hagan D-North Carolina for the Congressional Women's team.
The press team had players from all five television networks and print, including CNN's Brianna Keilar, Abby Livingston, Stephanie Kotuby and Erika Dimmler who won MVP for press team, CBS's Jill Jackson, ABC's Amy Walter and Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet.
CNN's Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash and Wasserman-Schultze started the annual game between Members and Press. But this year Bash could only watch on as honorary coach of her "baby" as she is expecting her own baby next month.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, who repeatedly pointed out that the average age of the Members' team is 53 years old, and NBC's Andrea Mitchell called the game. Mitchell's husband former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan watched on. With all these members, bipartisan spirit, and a win in their column perhaps successful discussions on the debt limit are next?
It was for a good cause. I hope this bipartisan spirit can move into Congress so that issues can be resolved with less anger and poor language and bad feelings from both sides.
What position did Virginia Foxx & Michelle Bauchmann play...or did any Republican participate?
Way to go ladies.
Good job! Maybe the guys should borrow the idea and do the same thing... Who knows what might come out of it. As an independent leaning Democrat (during the past few years), I want to see these people work together. Case in point, yesterday we heard Eric Cantor quit the budget deficit discussions. So far, what I heard they have agreed on a cuts; however, it appears the moment the discussion moved to raising revenue, he quit... That's not working together...
Wasserman-Schultz is the bomb... I like her.
Softball is a great summer game.....nothing like a softball game followed up with a BBQ and BEER!