Archive: June 2007
Fred and Jeri Thompson: Last Chance For Romance?
With an 8-month-old baby boy and a 4-year-old daughter, it might be tricky for Fred and Jeri Thompson -- the as-yet unofficial potential first couple -- to steal some candlelit alone time on this special day, their fifth wedding anniversary. Former Sen. Fred Thompson and his wife, Jeri, arrive for a party at the Macedonian Embassy in Washington following the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 29, 2007; 4:18 PM ET | Comments (0)
Howard "the Matchmaker" Dean
If you've been wondering where the now-silent scream machine Howard Dean has been, we found him. Seems the not-so-visible Democratic National Committee chairman has been busying himself with logic and matchmaking while employing that 50-state strategy of his. Dean was spotted in a United Airlines terminal of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday night before boarding a red-eye flight back to Washington, D.C. playing the puzzle...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 27, 2007; 5:40 PM ET | Comments (0)
Title IX, Not For Congressional Baseball Game
Even before she got suited up to take to the diamond last night in her "IX" jersey for the annual congressional baseball game, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) got some heavy incoming. A group challenging Title IX was looking to make an example of the California congresswoman, a big Title IX proponent - and the only woman on the Democratic team's roster. Ah, the height of...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 26, 2007; 11:25 AM ET | Comments (0)
Sen. Coburn, Tumor Gone, Returns to Voting
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) returned to Washington Monday nearly two weeks after undergoing brain surgery. The 59-year-old senator had surgery on June 13 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., to remove a benign pituitary tumor. Coburn, according to his spokesman, returned to his Capitol Hill office saying he was eager to "get after it" - just in time for resumption of the immigration debate...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 25, 2007; 7:50 PM ET | Comments (21)
Do Tell: Ben Nelson - Jokester, Daredevil, Rocker
This week, we profile Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) who wore a Brooks Brothers seersucker suit as he chatted with us on the campiest of Senate holidays -- Seersucker Thursday. Sen. Ben Nelson and congressional colleagues on Seersucker Thursday. Nelson hails from McCook, Neb., a town of about 8,000, which has produced three of Nebraska's governors and two of its senators. Besides being the most conservative...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 22, 2007; 4:35 PM ET | Comments (8)
Michael Moore's Sicko So Meano To Hillary
Michael Moore sure is getting a lot of mileage out of the hit he takes on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in his provocative new movie Sicko, which made its Washington premiere Wednesday night at the Uptown theater. Moore told the Sleuth in the lobby of the theater after the premiere that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, a personal friend and supporter of the Clintons whose...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 21, 2007; 12:33 PM ET | Comments (36)
Clinton's "You and I" Debuts ... to Boos
There were some notably odd moments for the 2008 Democratic presidential candidates at this week's annual Take Back America conference of liberal activists in Washington. Sen. Clinton speaks Wednesday at the Take Back America conference in Washington. (Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post) Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) got to test out her brand new campaign theme song -- "You and I" by Celine Dion....
By Mary Ann Akers | June 20, 2007; 5:31 PM ET | Comments (41)
Johnny Sack's Campaign Cameo
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has a bit of that Edie Falco thing going on, at least in the eyes of Vince Curatola, the actor best-known for playing mobster Johnny "Sack" Sacrimoni on HBO's "The Sopranos." Like Falco, who played Carmela Soprano on the popular series, Clinton "has thick hair, multiple shades of light brown and blond," Curatola said. Actor Vince Curatola loaned his "Sopranos"...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 19, 2007; 7:00 PM ET | Comments (7)
Like a Prayer: 14 Women (and Joe Biden)
Does it make any sense at all that two creators of risqué music videos for pop culture icons Madonna and Janet Jackson would wind up making a documentary about women senators? The "14" in a 2003 photo: Left to right in the front row are Olympia J. Snowe, Blanche L. Lincoln, Barbara Boxer, Susan M. Collins, Dianne Feinstein, Maria Cantwell. In the back row left...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 15, 2007; 3:25 PM ET | Comments (13)
Frank Wolf's Shocking Matinee
The representatives of companies doing business in East Asia must have had no idea they were in for such a buzz kill when they scheduled a meeting with Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) this week. While the members of the Asia-Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce wanted to discuss business issues, Wolf preferred talking about human rights abuses. A few minutes into the Wednesday session...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 14, 2007; 7:32 PM ET | Comments (0)
C-SPAN Squelches Dodd's D-SPAN
The public affairs network that political and government junkies couldn't live without -- C-SPAN -- has put a stop to a Democratic presidential candidate's rip-off of the C-SPAN logo for a new video Web TV feature. In the lower right-hand corner of Sen. Chris Dodd's (Conn.) campaign Web site, you'll find a plug for DTV "coming soon...LIVE VIDEO and highlights from the campaign trail." DTV...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 14, 2007; 4:09 PM ET | Comments (0)
The African American $ Primary
A Tuesday night fundraiser for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) at the home of BET founder Bob Johnson was a Who's Who of prominent (and wealthy) African Americans, some of whom seem to be wavering between Clinton and her top rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Billed as a "family reunion," the event drew dozens of former Clinton administration officials, political...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 13, 2007; 5:00 PM ET | Comments (0)
Blood in the Capitol After Bush's Meeting with GOP Senators
From the way Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) looked afterward, you'd have thought that President Bush's very rare face-to-face meeting on Capitol Hill today with Senate Republicans had erupted into a bloody brawl. After Bush's closed-door 11th-hour appeal to rescue his immigration overhaul policy (and, thus, his domestic legacy), the Sleuth saw Bennett walking down the hall on the first floor of the Capitol looking dazed...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 12, 2007; 5:50 PM ET | Comments (0)
Do Tell: Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Funny Senator
In this week's installment of "Do Tell," we chat with first-term Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), whose class peers have deemed her funniest freshman. Klobuchar discusses the challenges of being a new kid on the block - from her most embarrassing etiquette faux pas and the thrill of gaveling Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) to order to her husband's tireless work in the Senate Spouses organization. (Watch...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 8, 2007; 6:16 PM ET | Comments (0)
Cabinet Member Misses Senator's Obit
Maybe Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and his staff are just in denial. Or maybe they don't read the papers, thus missing the sad news that Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) died Monday, seven months after he was diagnosed with leukemia. Whatever the case, Leavitt's office called Thomas's office late Thursday afternoon to request a meeting with the late senator. Needless to say, grief-stricken...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 7, 2007; 7:01 PM ET | Comments (35)
Times Editor Spoofs Murdoch Bid for WSJ
There's funny "ha-ha" - and then there's funny "ouch." The latter would best describe the reaction of Wall Street Journal reporters and editors to a tabloidized version of the paper's fabled front page lampooning a potential Rupert Murdoch ownership. As you can see, the mock WSJ front page looks like a hybrid of the traditional Journal, with its signature pin dot drawings and bullet point...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 7, 2007; 2:30 PM ET | Comments (0)
Rep. Conyers Miffed at Fox News Mix-up
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) is not a happy camper with Fox News Channel for mistaking him for indicted Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), who is about a head taller than Conyers, about 20 years younger and otherwise bears little resemblance to the Judiciary Committee chairman. "Fox News has a history of inappropriate on-air mistakes that are neither fair, nor balanced. This type of...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 5, 2007; 4:45 PM ET | Comments (68)
Condi for President (But Where's the Candidate?)
With Fred Thompson inching toward an official presidential candidacy, the "Draft Condi" movement is cranking up the volume on its candidate-less campaign for the White House. Today, one of the leading -- and zaniest -- Condi for President grassroots groups sweeping the Internet, Think Condi, is putting out a press release titled "Fred Thompson Draft Movement Success, Think Condi Can Follow." "I am pleased to...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 4, 2007; 4:20 PM ET | Comments (52)
Hill Rats v. Hill Rats
The year of the rat has come a year early, at least on Capitol Hill. While the year of the rat, according to the Chinese zodiac calendar, is not scheduled to occur until 2008 - rats are swarming certain neighborhoods on Capitol Hill. The infestation seems to have grown worse since the fire last month that burned down Washington's historic Eastern Market. Apparently, the inferno...
By Mary Ann Akers | June 1, 2007; 5:05 PM ET | Comments (9)
