By Nick Smith
Staff Writer
Posted: February 28, 2020 2:52 PM

When the dust cleared Thursday morning after the testy partisan Senate floor debate and subsequent disapproval vote on George Heartwell's appointment as chair of the Natural Resources Commission, it seemed like the best thing to do would be to move on to the next thing and to cool off.

It just so happens Thursday's schedule around the Capitol provided the perfect opportunity.

Just hours after the vote the annual legislative Polar Plunge was scheduled near the front steps of the Capitol.

A quick check of the National Weather Service listing for the Lansing area shortly after the event started at 3 p.m. Thursday put the temperature at a pleasant 23 degrees. With the wind (which was gusting as high 39 miles per hour) the temperature was a balmy 6 degrees.

Perfect way to change gears, right?

Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr. (D-East Lansing) participated; he had earlier delivered one of the floor speeches in which he sounded off over the disapproval votes of Mr. Heartwell.

As shown here, Mr. Hertel was able to move on and focus on the next task at hand:

Sen. Marshall Bullock (D-Detroit) was one of several others who posted footage of his dive.

The event had a bipartisan spirit, as shown here where staff from the office of Sen. Kevin Daley (R-Lum) joined in. His staff were one of several examples of people rocking costumes to get into the spirit of the event.

And Sen. Adam Hollier (D-Detroit) was a little braver than most given the weather conditions, opting to take his plunge only with a pair of shorts.

In politics, this was one clear example of officials moving seamlessly between being fired up and being able to chill out, sometimes quite literally.