By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – A Capitol ceremony honoring Rep. John Dingell for becoming Congress’s longest-serving member in history featured the expected, such as praise and jokes from Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner. It included the unexpected – a pointed pitch to a roomful of congressional leaders and lawmakers by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick for controversial immigration legislation.
Yet it was hard to top a performance by singer Mary Wilson backed up by a vaguely synchronized chorus line that included House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the actress Lynda Carter.
Wilson, an original member of The Supremes, a marque 1960s group of Detroit- based Motown Records, sang a brief set of songs climaxed with their upbeat hit “Stop in the Name of Love.” Pelosi, Sebelius and Carter – along with Dingell’s wife, Deborah, and Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md. – formed an unlikely dance line behind her, singing and flashing their hands in the classic “stop” signal familiar to generations of partygoers dancing to the tune.
The 45-minute ceremony was aimed at honoring Dingell, who has served 57
