Check out this item by Paul Kane in today's Washington Post.

Paul Kane, covered Maine politics as a younger reporter with States News Service, and went on to work at Roll Call before jumping to the Post last year. His career path is of interest only because he has some institutional memory when it comes to Maine politics.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has been ridiculed for exaggerating the dangers of a visit she made to Tuzla in 1996 with her daughter, Chelsea, rock singer Sheryl Crow, and Sinbad, the comedian.

But Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and six other senators actually did face the threat of sniper fire when they landed in Sarajevo. They stepped off the airplane to face a wall of fire trucks, which blocked potential sniper fire, and then they were hustled into armored cars.

Most CODELs, Congressional Delegation trips, are tame affairs. But every now and then there is a real adventure. In February, Sens. Joseph Biden, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel were forced to land on an Afghanistan mountaintop in a blinding snowstorm. They sat at 8,000 feet for several hours before a convoy of Army vehicles drove the treacherous mountain roads to fetch and bring them back to a U.S. base.

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