Bruce Gates to Altria
March 31, 2008
Patrick O’Connor: Influential GOP lobbyist joins Altria
Bruce Gates, an influential Republican lobbyist with close ties to House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), is leaving Washington Council Ernst & Young, the firm he helped found in 1996, to work in the Washington office of the newly reconstituted Altria, according to someone with knowledge of the departure.
Mitt’s Wonder Year
March 31, 2008
A Nats blog worth checking out
March 31, 2008
Good insight from several perspectives. [another WaPost powered blog]
The metal detectors were cumbersome but we understood; the nerds who decided to make opening day a political scene were worse. If I had a nickel for each person who made the “Bush messes everything up” joke while waiting on line, those $7.50 beers would not have hurt so bad. It wasn’t funny, or necessary, we all knew to get there early.
Great advice for a campaign on the brink of striking out
March 31, 2008
Listen to Mortman: A Banks Shot For Hillary [free advice, that might work]
Latest Links
March 31, 2008
Gold star for rebuilding after Katrina [Wally World]
Digging up Bones [Friedrich Schiller]
Best of the state political blogs [the fix!]
Julia Allison = real life Carrie Bradshaw [Harold Ford’s Ex]
Caron Butler’s 28th birthday bash [Ray Lewis & Jason Campbell kicking it]
One in six West Virginians receive … [drum roll please…]
Patrick Hynes helps McCain embrace the blogosphere
March 31, 2008
It’s no doubt the McCain camp has a firm grasp on the importance of bloggers and the role blogging will have this cycle - proof is in the fact that the left is paying close attention. But also worth noting is the fact that the MSM has taken notice too.
Below is an article about McCain’s blogger outreach, and how Patrick Hynes has paved the way for future campaigns.
The Washington Times (3/31, Dinan) reports, “Mr. McCain’s blogger outreach, the most extensive of any presidential campaign in either party, helped keep him afloat in the dark days last summer when the major press was sizing up his campaign grave. … For the campaign, it came down to deploying the campaign’s best asset - Mr. McCain himself - in a forum where he can excel. … It also helped that Mr. McCain treated bloggers similar to other reporters, including repeatedly inviting them to travel on the campaign bus with the press, said Matt Lewis, who blogs at TownHall.com. … Neither Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton nor Sen. Barack Obama’s campaigns returned calls about their Web outreach, though Jerome Armstrong, a liberal blogger at MyDD.com, said Mr. McCain’s regular outreach tops anything the two Democrats are doing, and he said it’s an approach he would recommend to any candidate. … As for Mr. Obama, he said the Illinois senator ‘didn’t do enough to reach out to his potential allies in the blogosphere and integrate them into the campaign.’ Now, when he runs into trouble, they are slower to rally to his defense. And last month, Mr. Obama told reporters on his campaign plane he doesn’t read blogs - something they took note of.”
NRCC’s Blues
March 31, 2008
Here’s the famous New York Times Magazine article all of DC discussed over brunch this weekend.
Benjamin Wallace-Wells: A Case of the Blues
Cole’s strategy is not complicated, but it does contain an essential difficulty: at a moment when Washington is deeply unpopular, he wants his candidates to run as insurgents, but voters still identify Republicans with what they don’t like about Washington — they prefer a generic Democratic Congressional candidate by a margin of 49 percent to 35 percent, according to a March 7-10 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll; in an ABC/Washington Post poll released in early February, they preferred Democrats to Republicans on seven out of seven issues. Cole’s basic challenge is to try to flip the popular perception of the capital so that more voters identify Washington with the Democrats than with the Republicans. He says he wants to use his party’s resources to define Nancy Pelosi as a national character, the face of a Democratic Congress that is once again too liberal for the country. (“Those three little words — ‘San Francisco liberal’ — are just magic for fund-raising,” one of Cole’s staff members told me.)
Welcome Back Congress
March 31, 2008
The second graph of the Beltway’s best round-up should get you back up to speed:
Good Monday morning. The president is off to Eastern Europe, the HUD secretary is out, the Treasury secretary wants to rewire the nation’s financial regulators, Al Gore is launching an ad campaign featuring Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton, Obama could see a superdelegate surge, Obama plans a gas-station presser among other events on his bus tour today, John Sidney McCain is in Mississippi to being a tour illustrating his family’s heritage of service, HBO runs a ‘Recount’ trailer, Campbell Brown has started her show, the Nats won on the last out at their stadium opener, and all four top seeds are in the Final Four. [from Mike Allen’s Politico Playbook]
Is Allen the next Halperin? [Fishbowl says yes]
ZIMMERMAN! Nats Win!
March 30, 2008
Ryan Zimmerman delivers game ending home run in the bottom of the 9th!
Nationals 1-0 in new stadium
Michael Ruane: Cheers Not Just for the Home Team but for Timely Rails, Clear Roads
Dick Heller: A permanent palace for baseball in the District
Express: Opening Night at Nationals Park
Selig: Washington Must Wait for All-Star Game
ESPN’s Jayson Stark picks the Atlanta Braves to win the World Series [on opening day?!]
Was President Bush met with cheers or boos?
You be the judge - here’s the video
Additional coverage on Nats320, Professor Swag, The Baseball Writer, and here.
Great fan pics here
President Bush waits to deliver first pitch at Nationals opener against Braves
REUTERS/Jason Reed (pic)
Opening Day
March 30, 2008
Nationals Park opens today. WaPo has an interactive map for your own virtual tour.
Boswell: Upon Inspection, New Home Has Some Sweet Aspects to It
Sommer Mathis: Nationals Park Songs Selected
Latest Links
March 28, 2008
Hillary facing gun fire [yikes]
Pin the VP on the nominee [the fix]
Blog Freedom [Freddoso]
Look alike?
March 28, 2008
Does anyone else think Xavier’s basketball coach Sean Miller is a ringer for the Republican Study Committee’s spokesman Brad Dayspring?
We’ll let you decide ….
*PS: Thank you to the tipster who ripped the Dayspring photo off Facebook. Ah, the ever so public Facebook phenomena …
Famous Five [twitterific version]
March 28, 2008
This week we are highlighting the 5 Most Ridiculous Twitter Updates.
In case you have a life and don’t know what Twitter is - it’s a microblog for nerds who can’t get enough blogging in on a daily basis. It’s utterly useless, but entertaining for us.
[*note, names have been left off as not to embarrass anyone]
5. Watching ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ with the wife. [Put down the twitter machine and touch your wife Twitter boy]
4. Margaritas, burritos, and Becca @ Alero in Dupont. [Dude, you’re on a date… what the hell is wrong with you?]
3. Just spotted a robin and walked home sans coat — spring has sprung! [Thanks, let us know when you put your jacket back on and spot a tiger.]
2. My right eye is bleeding again. It’s a little like going through life with a lava lamp strapped in front of your eye. [Suggestion, step away from the computer and go to the hospital you moron]
1. Hey babydoll, no fair calling me a dope when I’m on “stage” doing a webinar and can’t defend myself! [Okay, you’re off stage - so is it fair to call you a dork now?]
The ticket?
March 28, 2008
Leave us your thoughts in the comment section …
Virtual Respect
March 27, 2008
Someone has uploaded a virtual Vietnam Wall [amazing]
You can view every name on the wall. You can search by name, hometown, service, or enlistment type.
Facts about the Interactive Wall
- At full size, The Wall image on Footnote is about 460 feet wide (400,000 pixels wide by 12,500 pixels tall).
- We found 58,320 names inscribed on The Wall.
- There are about 70 names, which are duplicates or misspellings.
- 8 names are women.
- 2,056 are listed as “body not recovered.”
- Average age is 22.8 years old.
- The image was assembled from 6,301 images photographed by Peter Krogh and stitched by Darren Higgins
Latest Links
March 27, 2008
Dr. Pepper will give everyone in America free soda if Chinese democracy is released in 2008 [Marketing GENIUS]
G-town offers a class on Harry Potter [Still no Final Four?]
White House Race SACKS NFL
March 27, 2008
Calderone: Pigskins and Politics
The NFL and NBC reached a compromise today to run the game at 7 p.m. EST, instead of 8:30 p.m. So as long as there’s no overtime, the game should end before McCain hits the podium.
Adam Clymer Kissing the Conservative Ring
March 27, 2008
Mary Ann Akers soberly files: Major-League [Expletive] Newsman Finds Redemption [The Panama Canal?]
Politicians who have been maligned by the media find redemption all the time. So why shouldn’t that be the case for journalists who have been maligned by politicians?
It seems to have happened for Adam Clymer, the former New York Times correspondent who once was considered an enemy of the Right but who now seems to be, dare we say, a darling of the conservative establishment. That’s the same Adam Clymer who conservatives collectively rallied against after 2000 GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush, not realizing his microphone was on, dubbed the newsman a “major-league —hole” and Bush’s running mate, Dick Cheney, affirmed, “Yeah, big time.”
Inside look at DC’s latest attraction
March 27, 2008
Danny Glover’s latest project, Eyeblast TV, tours DC’s latest attraction, the ”Newseum.”
Paging the Advance Team
March 27, 2008
Work on the backdrop, bro
JoMa: An off-message backdrop
Lloyd!!!
March 27, 2008
Following his Entourage brother Ari - Rahm still holding out for the biggest deal
Ambinder: Rahm’s the Only One
Now, Rep. Rahm Emanuel is the only Illinois superdelegate who hasn’t taken sides.
HotAir booking dept. all aces for Captain Ed
March 26, 2008
Amanda Carpenter and Ed Morrisey are knocking out the cable news outlets!
DC Moves-lots of Suite Talk!
March 26, 2008
Suite Talk 3/18
IT-ISAC makes moves and names Phil Reitinger as new president
Neil Adler leaves the fourth estate for the Mac
J.P. Fielder leaves NAM to join the Chamber
Suite Talk 3/20
MSHC sits in Yahoo’s purple chair
Jim Murphy named COO and CFO for DDC
Baker Donelson expands freebie practice by naming BHM’s Lisa Border pro bono shareholder
Suite Talk 3/25
America’s Voice still talking immigration and has Frank Sharry on board
Dawson & Associates adds fifth retired Corps general officer - Maj. Gen James van Loben Sels
Center for Community change names Lassen as managing director
mCapitol hires Christine Heggem (Senate Approps)
Explain me something …
March 26, 2008
If the McCain campaign is dumb enough to fire a blogger for posting an Obama video, shouldn’t they consider letting Meghan McCain go for posting this terrible YouTube clip? [for the love of hypocrisy]
My editor called and you need to move up your engagement
March 26, 2008
A story of love, Washington Post deadlines, commodities prices and Whole Foods [famousDC Love]
Last week, while reporting a story about high gold prices, Washington Post staff writer Ylan Q. Mui asked District resident Noah Cuttler what effect the rising costs would have on his plans to surprise his girlfriend, Garen Singer, with an engagement ring. That put him in a quandary: Should he reveal his intentions in the article? The interview sent Cuttler, urged by two friends, on a romantic adventure. Here is Cuttler’s account of what happened when the demands of journalism collided with a volatile commodities market.
…On Thursday, Jen Zuccarelli, my ex-roommate and hard-nosed press person for the Department of Treasury, e-mailed me. “Wash Post wants to talk to you about something. DO NOT FWD this e-mail to Garen.”
…I’ve known Jen for three years, mostly in the context of someone who loves “The Wire,” a healthy dose of trash television like “The Girls Next Door” and, of course, pillaging our other roommate’s mint chocolate chip ice cream. I snapped to attention.
…“They want to interview you about your choice in metals for the ring. But you’d be speaking strictly on background so you aren’t unmasked,” she instructed in firm press speak. I was happy to do that, but in a follow-up e-mail Jen copied my other ex-roommate, Jaci Barrett, bound for Harvard Business School. Jaci, late to the conversation, added, “This is great. Is this how he’s going to purpose?” [read it all here]
UPDATE: Here’s a link to the original article that ran Saturday. Well played Noah Cuttler, you’re a modern day Casanova!
For some people, however, no compromise is acceptable. Take Noah Cuttler, 29, of the District. He met his true love, Garen Singer, 28, about a year and a half ago during Yom Kippur service at Washington Hebrew Congregation in Cleveland Park. They have dated ever since, and Cuttler decided two months ago he was ready to pop the question.
…
Through his friends, he found an independent dealer in Maryland who helped school him in the four C’s of diamond buying — cut, clarity, color and, of course, carat. But Cuttler had little idea that the band would be just as important.
…
He knew platinum was the metal of choice, but there were white gold and yellow gold to consider. His dealer urged him not to go down that road.
…
“He wouldn’t even show me gold because of the pricing on it now,” Cuttler said.
…
He thought about buying a loose diamond and getting the band elsewhere to save money. He even walked into Tiny Jewel Box, but walked out after seeing the prices.
…
The bands “were so small, I couldn’t imagine what would sit on it,” Cuttler said. “And they were more than I ever wanted to spend.”
…
Finally, he pulled out his credit card and charged $1,000 for a platinum band from his dealer and several thousand dollars more for a 1.3-carat diamond. He plans to propose after she reads this article.
…
“I know she’ll be happy with whatever, but at the same time . . . it’s supposed to be for a lifetime,” he said.
Reagan to Endorse McCain
March 25, 2008
ABC is reporting that McCain will receive the endorsement of former first lady Nancy Reagan Tuesday evening in Los Angeles.
Latest Link Traffic
March 25, 2008
WaPo publi$her makes more than the President [hat tip — fishbowldc]
Grab your jacket [global warming warning]
The 24-hour news cycle [the fix]
What does Karl Rove read? [FamousDC?]
Foxhole Productions expands [team McCain]
Capitol Hill Jock Jam
March 25, 2008
Who knew that Capitol Hill was littered with such athletic talent.
For some politicians - such as former Major League Baseball pitcher and current Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), and former NFL quarterback and current Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) - athletic endeavors have served as a steppingstone to Capitol Hill.
…For others, they’re a way to survive after getting there.
…Hit the paths that line the National Mall on any sunny afternoon, and you’re likely to see members of Congress and their staff members sweating off the stress of the day.
….
There’s no Hall of Fame for staying in shape while working at the Capitol, but here are 10 members and staffers who would deserve a spot if there were.
Note: If you haven’t already, now’s the time to hunt down Erskine Wells and ask him to join your softball team.
Dr. Death wants to be your congressman
March 25, 2008
Assisted-suicide guru Jack Kevorkian has tossed his political hat into the ring and is running for office.
According to reports, he’s running in Michigan to unseat Rep. Joe Knollenberg.
Kevorkian, who recently spent time in the slammer for killing a man, will apparently run for office from his death bed and while also on parole.
Kevorkian tried to get out of prison early because of health problems, including Hepatitis C, high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries. But the request was denied, he served his full sentence and was released on parole in June. He will remain on parole in June 2009.
Clinton: So I might have lied a bit
March 25, 2008
Last week we wrote about Clinton’s oh so dangerous trip to Bosnia in 1996…Well, turns out the lady that wants to be your next commander in chief fabricated her account and never really ran from the hail of gunfire she once claimed.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that she “misspoke” when she said last week that she ran from sniper fire when she landed in Bosnia in 1996. [my bad]
Campaigning 101: How to excite your base
March 25, 2008
This lesson in how to run for office is magical. Trust me.
Latest Links
March 24, 2008
Death and life of the American newspaper [out of print]
Stanford Law Professor Bets ‘Wikipedia’ Approach Will Transform Congress [Lessig]
When Barry became Barrack [what’s in a name?]
Felony Charges for Detroit Mayor [falling star]
One fan’s very happy car accident
March 24, 2008
Imagine this… You’re hustling back to work from a doctor’s appointment, you’ve got plenty on your mind, you’re doing your best to manange the DC traffic and all of a sudden, bam, you smash into the back of a SUV.
You’re day is ruined, right?
Well, not if you’re a local PR professional, and you’re Honda Accord struck the back of a fancy black SUV last week on K.St.
From the WaPost: Kate House was driving back to the office after a doctor’s appointment Wednesday afternoon when she slammed into the back of a black SUV that had slowed in downtown traffic on K Street. The 23-year-old was already in tears when the other driver walked over. “I was really upset,” she told us, though her Honda Accord was far more damaged than the SUV. “It was obviously my fault.” At the man’s request, she followed him to his destination at 12th and H so they could exchange info.
And there, as she opened her car door, another man reached out his hand to help her. “I looked up, and” — no lie! — “it was Ben Affleck.” One of House’s favorite actors! Who happened to be a passenger in the SUV she struck.
So, what was he like? “He’s even better looking in person,” said House, an account coordinator at the PR firm Dittus Communications, who suffered a mild concussion in the accident. “I had just seen ‘Gone Baby Gone,’ and I told him how much I loved that. He said, ‘Take care of yourself, and take care of that car. Don’t cry anymore, it’s all right.’ “
It’s refreshing to know that not all actors throw tantrums when things don’t go their way. Good on you, Affleck.
Happy Easter
March 21, 2008
Postings will be light until Monday. Enjoy your Easter.
-FamousDC
Latest Link Love
March 21, 2008
Two years later [smack a chick]
I like mine ‘wit’ [Geno smack]
Straight underneath the “Straight Talk Express” [McCained]
Right Roots rally support for Soren Dayton
March 21, 2008
Yesterday, the McCain camp bagged popular blogger Soren Dayton because of a video he linked to on his microblog.
According to early reports, Dayton had been working tirelessly for McCain, and had the trust of those around him. After the video link, found widely in the public domain, was traced back to his Twitter account, Team McCain “suspended” Dayton.
Hours later, a network of right root heavy weights, led by Joshua Trevino, rallied support for their comrade and launched a Facebook page in his support.
Soren Dayton volunteered his time and good name to support John McCain’s candidacy for the Presidency. When he linked, via his Twitter account, to a hard-hitting video mashup against Barack Obama, the McCain campaign dumped Soren, and a national media conflagration ensued.
The McCain camp has said only this through a spokesperson:
“We have been very clear on the type of campaign we intend to run and this staffer acted in violation of our policy. He has been reprimanded by campaign leadership and suspended from the campaign.”
Tip to Team McCain: Put the pin back in the grenade and move on. You ought not to piss off the ones who might just be able to help you win.
Time will tell as to how this plays out.
Milbank reports from ground “Pink”
March 20, 2008
This quasi-awkward report hightlights Code Pink’s attempt to protest the IRS.
McCain and Obama going after the Edwards vote
March 20, 2008
Well it’s about time McCain finally released his bracket.
Noteworthy: His championship game is UNC vs. UConn, and — like Obama did — he has UNC winning the game.
Is this pure bracketology or are their picks politically motivated?
Where’s Randy McNally when you need him?
March 19, 2008
This is another party of protesting hippie marauders, who met up around noon to march down K Street — home of evil lobbyists like John McCain — and yell at all the corporates in their plush silk-lined oil money offices. For a good half an hour, the group was steadily making its way through D.C. yelling “Down with K Street,” or some such. For this same half an hour, they were on L Street. Oops! Check out this latest Wonkette Film, where the hobbits finally reach K Street, the road they hate. [YouTube]
Latest Links
March 19, 2008
Congress to fix financial market crisis [Barney to the rescue!]
Charlie Rose Face Plants to Save His MacBook Air [early adopter]
Busta Rhymes begins probation in NY [make it clap]
March Madness hits DC [traffic!]
Stress pains many in college [what?]
Arenas says he’ll be an “assist man” [right - and I can dunk
