Posted on 03/19/2002 4:15:33 AM PST by wimpycat
Going Strom. Even at the age of 99, Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.)has come up with a new pickup line - literally - for the ladies.
Although he's visibly weakened and getting around in a wheelchair these days, Thurmond's interest in the fairer sex has apparently not waned. He was spotted Friday morning rolling down a Capitol corridor sporting a big smile after an encounter with a young woman.
"Want a ride?" Thurmond asked, pointing to his lap, according to a witness. She politely declined.
Maybe Thurmond was just looking for a guest so he could use the HOV lane?
Jackson Lee's New Commute. In the wake of criticism about her using a taxpayer-funded car to go a couple of blocks to work, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) has apparently dropped the government wheels - but not the government driver.
Although the Weekly Standard recently rapped Jackson Lee for having the government car waiting in front of her Capitol Hill home for a very short commute, an eyewitness noticed the Congresswoman slipping out the back door of her apartment building on the Hill one morning last week. Then she walked through an alley and stepped into a Mazda Miata that took her to work.
HOHplaced a phone call to Jackson Lee's chief of staff, Lillian German, who said the Miata is her vehicle. She said the boss only went out the back because it's the fastest way to German's parking space - the two live in the same building.
"As chief of staff, it is one of my responsibilities to staff the Member," she said. "But I'm also her neighbor, so it's my pleasure to staff my Member to the Capitol occasionally."
Does that include picking up dry cleaning too? "No way," she said.
Overheard at the ESPN Bash. When you put ESPNtalkmeister Dick Vitale and a politician like House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) in the same room, it's hard to believe that anyone can get a word in edgewise.
But Dick G. and Dickie V. had a long conversation at Wednesday's reception celebrating "ESPN Goes to Washington," the sports network's foray into D.C. for three days of "Sportscenter" from a rooftop overlooking the Capitol.
One ESPN executive was heard telling Gephardt that he knew he was in D.C. when he flipped on the hotel television to find all of the 24-hour news networks as well as C-SPAN and C-SPAN2, while some parts of the country only get one of the C-SPANs.
"There is C-SPAN3 now," noted Gephardt. "I don't know what they show, but they have it."
"I think it's C-SPAN Classic," cracked one exec. "They show 'Great House Floor Speeches.'"
Gephardt was eventually pulled on stage to give his Final Four picks, which included Duke (his son is an alumnus), Maryland, Kansas and Missouri. Vitale quickly noted that he had tagged those same teams as winners.
"You're awesome!" shouted Gephardt, stealing Vitale's signature line.
Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon, who hosted Gephardt and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on a special Congressional edition of the show "Pardon the Interruption," said he was amazed by the Members' knowledge of sports.
"These guys are whacked-out sports fans," Wilbon told HOH. "Senator McCain knows stuff you can only know from being a fanatic. And Congressman Gephardt - he knows everything. He can tell you about Marshall Faulk and the Rams offense in great detail. I didn't know the level of the depth of passion."
It turns out that longtime ESPN anchor Bob Ley, meanwhile, is a political junkie. The Connecticut resident said he regularly checks Roll Call's Web offerings and is closely watching the House race between Reps. Nancy Johnson (R) and Jim Maloney (D).
"I live in the 6th, which is in play," he told HOH. "Nancy Johnson is big on health care. Her husband is a physician. And Maloney is only in his ... third term? We have a front row on a great race."
Transgendered Politics. After all the Democratic attacks on Judge Charles Pickering, HOH was stunned to read a press release that seemed to suggest that Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) is struggling with gender issues.
The campaign of Rep. Ronnie Shows (D-Miss.), who is facing off with the younger Pickering because of redistricting, sent out a release attacking the judge's son for allegedly being a hypocrite on Social Security. But it sounded as if Shows was claiming that Pickering is a transsexual.
"First, he/she misled the families in [the] Third Congressional District by voting for a bill he/she had no intention of honoring," the Shows release said. "And to make matters worse he/she looked voters in the eye and campaigned on protecting Social Security. But then, he cast a vote to raid Social Security and, according to the [Congressional Budget Office], we see that the worst is yet to come."
Officials at the National Republican Congressional Committee jokingly charged that the Shows campaign was guilty of character assassination.
"I can't believe they'd call Chip Pickering a he/she," NRCC spokesman Steve Schmidt told HOH. "It's really a new low. Shame on them."
But Shows spokesman Barry Butler explained that he had merely made the mistake of taking a template of a press release from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, to be used by candidates across the country, and not editing it appropriately.
"I thought I had chosen he or she,"Butler said with a laugh.
Snacks With Dubya. Even though President Bush's relationship with Congress has been rocky lately, Hill denizens were impressed with a kind gesture from the commander in chief last week.
During his visit to the Capitol for the annual Speaker's luncheon to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, Bush made a point of stopping to visit Helen Sewell, who has been running the snack shop in the GOPCloakroom for nearly 70 years.
John Feehery, spokesman for Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), noted that she had known George H. W. Bush during his brief service in the House.
"She's an institution,"said Feehery. "Obviously the President knows of her, as does his father."
Feehery's Real Fave. While Feehery practices the art of spin control in his public life, he's trying to perfect it in his personal life.
After HOHquoted Feehery as saying that the three females in The Corrs, an Irish rock band that performed at the St. Patrick's Day luncheon, are "gorgeous,"he decided to do some damage control.
Feehery fired off an e-mail to his girlfriend, Kerry Fennelly of the Electronic Industries Alliance, with the HOHitem attached.
"Kerry, you are more gorgeous,"he wrote. "And that is also on the record."
If only he could spin that well on legislation.
Shouldn't that be a Marsda Miata?
I'm no fan of Sheila's, but that just sounds like a ride from a co-worker to me (unless we paid for the Miata).
"As chief of staff, it is one of my responsibilities to staff the Member,"Don't anyone tell Barney Frank or Gary Condit this one.
-Eric
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