Link: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/31/tmz-lawmakers-vacationing-partial-government-shutdown

When US federal workers were missing paychecks and the partial government shutdown entered its seventh week, Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, was doing what any responsible lawmaker would do: riding Space Mountain and carrying a bubble wand at Disney World in Florida.

Naturally, TMZ had photos of the vacationing senator on its homepage a few days later.

The celebrity tabloid empire – better known for staking out actors and artists outside restaurants, gas stations, courthouses and their palatial estates – has turned its paparazzi prowess on a new and maybe equally chaotic subject: the US Congress. And America’s lawmakers may find themselves uniquely ill-equipped for the Hollywood experience.

The outlet last week put out a public call for tips on lawmaker sightings as the partial government shutdown dragged on, leaving thousands of Department of Homeland Security employees without pay.

Yeah how fucking dare they leave capitol grounds

When they're at fucking war, they'd better be.

I'm impressed by your total lack of ability to put this in context. It's not that they left, it's the issue of deciding to fly while not funding airport security. They could easily have passed a bill to solve this weeks ago, chose not to, and now think they deserve a vacation for doing nothing. I don't know how things work at your job, but I've never gotten extra vacation time for sheer incompetence.

The U.S. Congress is not at war

Which is, itself, a Constitutional crisis. It's unclear how you can spin their inaction into a positive.

I'm not spinning it into a positive.

Attacking these people's free time will not help

No, it won't change anything, but speaking truth to power is important. Honestly, "let the poor guys take a break" is intensive bootlicking.

I'm all for making these people suffer I'm just saying they are less likely to stand up to trump when there's this abstract enemy that also opposes trump that yells at them for everything they do.

These people are our first line of defense against trump. If them taking a break from doing nothing gets them to do something then I'm all for it.

Since when is nothing everything?

Our first line of defense failed roughly when Lindsey Graham decided that instead of Trump being the antichrist, he was actually the second coming.

TMZ is surprisingly putting their professional stalkers to good use here. Having them stalk Congresspeople while they fail to do their jobs at the expense of the entire country is a good use of their time, actually. It's actually providing some amount of transparency and accountability.

If I paid someone to do a job and they fucked around at Disney World instead of doing their one job at my expense, I'd be pretty fucking pissed. Also, I'm paying them to do a job, along with everyone else who pays taxes here.

Things would naturally be a lot different if they weren't over a month overdue on securing a budget for work that's already been done by people who rely on that paycheck.

I found myself for the first time saying, "you know, maybe these aren't just asshole paparazzi." One data point is not a trend.

If them taking a break from doing nothing gets them to do something then I’m all for it.

MILITARY GRADE MORON DETECTED

Don't forget to get your tongue out while deepthroating those boots. Don't want the heel feeling left out, now.