Rep. Tauscher and Michael Douglas Nuke It Out
When actor Michael Douglas sauntered around Capitol Hill Tuesday lobbying for nuclear disarmament, no member of Congress was happier to see him perhaps than Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), a big fan who actually had license to say, "Long time, no see, Michael."
Rep. Ellen Tauscher and Michael Douglas.
Tauscher met Douglas in 1978 at a planning meeting for the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. Tauscher worked on Wall Street at the time, and was the youngest woman to hold a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, according to her spokesman. (Hmmm, was there a little bit of Ellen Tauscher in Douglas's famous "Wall Street" character Gordon Gekko?)
On Tuesday, Gekko and the former NYSE broker reunited.
Douglas, working on behalf of the Ploughshare Fund, an organization dedicated to nuclear non-proliferation, met with Tauscher in her office, where Douglas pressed her on funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead and the need for the United States to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
And both the actor/lobbyist and the congresswoman/fan agreed things will be better on the nuclear disarmament front when a Democrat controls the White House.
Tauscher, who chairs the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, seems to have a bit of a fan crush on Douglas (who is married to Catherine Zeta-Jones).
Her favorite Douglas flick is "The American President," the one in which Douglas plays the dashing widower commander in chief who falls in love with a lobbyist, played by Annette Bening. Tauscher, according to her spokesman, loves the scene at the end of the movie when Douglas, a.k.a. Mr. President, hands Bening a bouquet of flowers. A surprised yet heart-warmed Bening asks how POTUS was able to pull off such a commonplace feat, to which Douglas replies, "Turns out I have a rose garden."
(Cue scene of a teary-eyed Congresswoman Tauscher, remote in one hand, a Bon Bon in the other, enjoying her chick-flick night.)
Tauscher tells us it was "great" meeting with Douglas. "I figured it was about time that we got together again," she says.
By Mary Ann Akers |
May 20, 2008; 7:51 PM ET
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Posted by: Anonymous | May 20, 2008 10:12 PM
I just saw that movie on tape, really good. I would vote for him. Good drama about doing the right thing.
Posted by: bwcolq | May 20, 2008 10:40 PM
Not a word about the important issue of nuclear disarmament......empty fluff!
Posted by: alison stone | May 21, 2008 9:53 AM
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Posted by: Frank Miles | May 21, 2008 11:03 AM
This reminds me of nothing so much as a scene in my book, A Time Like This, about what the last 8 years would have been like under a Democrat President. When Hollywood makes a movie about how the Democrat President would respond to 9/11, the famous actor playing the fictional President steps out onto a White House balcony, shakes his fist in the direction of Flight 903, and vows, "I will never forget." Predictably, Big Media and the rest of official Washington swoons.
Life imitating art?
-Wm Tate,
http://www.atimelikethis.us/
Posted by: Wm Tate | May 21, 2008 1:04 PM
Spamming a fourth rate blog (to be generous) doesn't make your book sound good.
Posted by: Michael | May 21, 2008 4:42 PM
Absolutely disgusting. Our elected representatives need to be beyond this sort of thing. A child running to see Clayton Moore handing out plastic silver bullets while dressed up like the Lone Ranger is one thing, But these are supposed to be adults were talking about.
I never understood the admiration actors get. After all they are only professional pretenders. Why anyone would think that their view of the world from the back seat of a limo would be better then the average taxpayers is a puzzle to me. Actors don't even belong on the hill unless it is a Hollywood related issue. If politicians want to be star-struck let them go to the movies like everyone else.
Congresses days should be filled with concerns about the 2 wars we're fighting, the home mortgage crisis, The economy, runaway gas prices, homeland security, taxes, the national debt, etc, etc. It is no wonder that their public approval rating is at a historic low.
Posted by: E Hansen | May 22, 2008 10:14 AM
It is time to shut down the Film Actors Guild.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 22, 2008 9:17 PM
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yawn