I showed up to a GOP congressman's 16-minute Christmas party. Here's what it was like to watch Democrats and Republicans rub shoulders in his cramped Capitol Hill office.

• Rep. Tim Burchett had a 16-minute Christmas party featuring cracker-and-cheese "charcuterie."
• It was a jarringly bipartisan affair.

Five minutes before noon, the south hallway of the first floor of the Longworth House Office Building was already buzzing with activity.

It was probably nothing new for the lawmakers and staffers who share that space — after all, the recently expelled Rep. George Santos's office was just down the hall, attracting episodic hordes of reporters and cameras with each shoe that dropped during the New Yorker's chaotic 11 months in Congress.

But on this particular Tuesday, it wasn't just reporters who were clogging the hallway — though there were plenty — but congressional staffers and a handful of lawmakers: Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, was hosting an incredibly brief Christmas party for the second year in a row.

"Charcuterie?" Burchett asked me as I walked in, presenting me with a paper plate stacked with Wheat Thins and Ritz Crackers while brandishing a can of cheese spray.

I asked to take his photo. "It'd be rude if you didn't," he exclaimed

Burchett, a third-term lawmaker from Knoxville, is everything a reporter wants in a lawmaker: accessible, unfiltered, and a little bit eccentric. That the Carhartt-wearing congressman is a Republican makes his pronouncements all the more compelling, including when he recently suggested to me, unprompted and with a tinge of disappointment, that some of his constituents are homophobic. On a recent November afternoon outside the Capitol, he showed me a photo of a gay friend's Halloween costume as he dubbed himself "progressively right-wing."

The congressman films front-facing videos almost every day he's in Washington, recapping that day's activities before signing off with "thank you all for sending me here." He might refer to you as "baby," even if you're fully an adult male. And at the beginning of this year, POLITICO declared him the "newly crowned comedy king" of House Republicans.

Yet the last few months have undeniably been rough for Burchett. He was among the eight Republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the speakership in October, a decision driven in part by the former speaker's apparently dismissive attitude towards Burchett's religious faith. That vote has fueled resentment towards the Knoxville congressman from some of his GOP colleagues, leading to his expulsion from a lawmakers-only workout group and what Burchett claimed was a sharp elbowing from McCarthy.

I wondered, as I walked in, whether an event that New York Magazine suggested last year was "the worst holiday party ever" might fall victim to recent events.

Ultimately, the vibes were fine — if a little jarring.

Scores of eager staffers and a couple members of Congress have already filled into the front room of Burchett's office, a space that couldn't be much larger than the average living room. There was more of the congressman's crackers-and-cheese-spray "charcuterie" set-up, plus a peanut butter and jelly station.

While there was no guitar strumming by former Rep. Louie Gohmert, there was Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Jewish Florida Democrat who frequently spars with Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, dressed in a fat suit with a Santa outfit on top. I found myself standing beside Moskowitz's chief of staff, who explained with a laugh how Burchett "came over to our office and asked Jared to be Santa." For a while, it felt like Moskowitz's party as much as it was Burchett's.

In a room off to the side — Burchett's personal office — Republican Reps. Tim Wahlberg of Michigan and Cliff Bentz of Oregon strummed away on their guitars, later to be joined by Margaret Kibben, the House Chaplain.

"We got our singers here," said Burchett as he beckoned Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who had just arrived with her deputy chief of staff and primary spokesman, Nick Dyer. "Thanks for coming Marge, appreciate you," said Burchett.

Greene would stay for just three minutes, somewhat hesitantly snapping a photo with Moskowitz, a frequent sparring opponent both online and in the committee room. The Florida congressman also happens to represent Parkland, the sight of the 2018 school shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. Shortly after she took office, video resurfaced of Greene chasing down a Parkland survivor on Capitol Hill in 2019.

Not that anyone happened to be thinking about that.

"Tweet that!" Dyer yelled after the awkward photo-op had concluded, following his controversial boss out of the room.

Though certainly skewed towards Republicans, the party was a surprisingly bipartisan affair. Rep. Wiley Nickel, a North Carolina Democrat who was recently gerrymandered out of his seat, stopped to take a photo with "Moskoclaus," as did Democratic Reps. Sara Jacobs of California and Jennifer McClellan of Virginia.

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida made a brief appearance with her husband (who also happens to be the co-author of her recently-released MAGA children's book) and her infant, remarking that their photo with Moskoclaus might be their family's "Santa photo" for the year.

Luna, Burchett, and Moskowitz are all part of a bipartisan group of House members that have been agitating about UFOs (or UAPS) this year — though I haven't followed it closely myself, largely owing to my lack of interest in thinking about outer space.

I also watched as staffers for progressive House Democrats rubbed shoulders with Republican Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois, who was there along with her husband Chris, an Illinois state representative who was censured by the state legislature for attending Trump's rally on the Ellipse on January 6.

Sixteen minutes was ultimately just the right amount of time for this party, and Burchett began flashing the lights when it was over. "Hey baby, you comin' in? It's over," he said to Republican Rep. Morgan Luttrell of Texas, a towering figure and former Navy SEAL who had arrived one minute too late.

Unlike last year, there were no McCarthy staff in sight — surely no accident.

But perhaps there was something to be said for the bizarre bipartisan gang that Burchett had managed to bring together the day before a vote on authorizing an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden would drive yet another wedge between the two parties. The boisterous Burchett, I realized, might be one of the few members of the lower chamber capable of pulling this off.

"Was fascinating to see Democrats and Republicans rubbing shoulders like that," I texted the congressman later on Tuesday.

"All my friends," he replied.