Entries for January 2009

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

This whole Internet thing and Congress's use of it have come a long way since ousted Sen. Ted Stevens referred to the World Wide Web as a "series of tubes." Want proof? Nearly 50 House and Senate members are communicating on Twitter, where you have 140 characters to "tweet" about yourself. Even more members of Congress have YouTube channels. And here's a tweet scoop: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will soon Twitter at http://twitter.com/speakerpelosi. "Twitter is a great way for members to share what's happening in Congress in real time and hear back from their constituents," says her spokesman, Brendan Daly.

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

Barack Obama jumped over a bunch of longer-experienced presidential candidates to win the White House, so will that pattern take at the National Rifle Association? It might, considering rocker and hunter Ted Nugent's popularity among NRA members. We hear that the Nuge is being urged to get into the race, and a key NRA insider tells us: "He does have a grass-roots following." That's for sure. The singer of "Cat Scratch Fever" fame and 23 albums is being promoted on Facebook. While Nugent is an NRA board member, he doesn't have the type of top slot in the organization normally needed to springboard somebody into the presidency. Even Charlton Heston, who played Moses in Hollywood, worked his way up to the presidency.

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

During inauguration week, transition stories were all the rage, but this one takes the cake. It comes from Fred Ryan, a member of the Ronald Reagan transition team, who says he's only revealing it now. The scene: Reagan's California office the day after the Gipper left Washington. Ryan, chair of the Ronald Reagan Library Foundation and vice chair of the White House Historical Association, was tasked with setting up Reagan's office and says he didn't expect to see the ex-prez for about two weeks. But on Day 1, "the Secret Service called to say the president was on his way." An hour after arriving, Reagan exited his office "and he handed me this list and he said, 'I'd like to meet with these people.'" Asked who they were, Ryan says Reagan offered: "These are people who have been calling." Seems the receptionist's phone line was wired to Reagan's by accident. Ryan says "people would call the office and hear 'Hello . . . this is Ronald Reagan. '" The prez, adds Ryan, "kept his word and they came in."

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

War stinks, especially when you're fighting it. But on Super Bowl Sunday, it's really bad for football fans in uniform. Well, maybe not this year. For another year, Raytheon is using its military satellite system, which feeds live battlefield pictures, to send the game in Tampa also to troops around the world—including on submarines and in hideouts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

By Nikki Schwab, Washington Whispers

Looking back on Election '08, it's common knowledge that the youth vote played a key role in pushing Barack Obama over his first finish line at the Iowa caucuses, which helped him build the momentum to eventually topple Hillary Clinton's candidacy and then John McCain's. But Hans Riemer, former Youth Vote director for Obama, revealed that the credit for Iowa should be given to high school students, not necessarily their college-age peers.

By Nikki Schwab, Washington Whispers

If his dad were still around, there would be a fight: Which Russert, Tim or Luke, would land the first interview with Barack Obama? Luke Russert, 23, was obviously taught the right ropes because he's already in there fighting with the big shots for a one on one with Obama. While he interviewed Obama during the campaign, Russert, like every other journalist in Washington, wants another. "I think the list of who wants interviews goes quite long, and being 23, I might not be as important as a Brian Williams or a Charlie Gibson or a Katie Couric or whoever gets the lucky first sit down," he says. "I thought it was really interesting that his first sit down was with the Arab network and the message it sent to the world and to young people."

By Nikki Schwab, Washington Whispers

The real Michelle Obama has arrived in the White House, so why not a wax version, too? Madame Tussauds of Washington, the legendary wax museum, will unveil a wax copy of the first lady in March and, as you can see by the photos below, her face is already being sculpted. It's no easy process to create these figures. The head can take five weeks alone and each strand of hair is inserted individually. Obama will be the third first lady on display at the museum following Jacqueline Kennedy and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And the new piece will be posed next to wax Barack Obama in a replica of the Oval Office.

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

We already knew that the public has high expectations that new President Barack Obama will turn the country around but now we know just how much confidence they have in him. A new national assessment study from the authoritative Wilson Research Strategies finds that their confidence outpaces what they had during both Bush presidencies. In the new report, provided to Whispers, confidence that Obama will be an outstanding or above average president is a lofty 62 percent. For former President George W. Bush the rating in his first month was 47 percent and it was just 38 percent when his dad, former President George H.W. Bush took office.

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

The apology campaign continues from Congress as it tries to figure out why so many people with swearing-in tickets were turned away at last week's inaugural. Whispers has received a copy of a letter sent to House and Senate administrative directors in which the joint inaugural committee calls for a probe and offers gifts to those turned away. The memo in full is below:

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

President Barack Obama went to Capitol Hill today to push Republicans to back his $825 billion stimulus plan. While they probably won't, he won points for reaching out to the minority, making good on campaign promises. What's more, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel plans to fete more Republicans tonight. At the meeting today, Obama's comments were to be off the record, but we've got some notes on how it went down. Here's what we were told and E-mailed from various sources:

By Maura Judkis, Washington Whispers

As cheerleader Claire Bennet on NBC's Heroes, Hayden Panettiere saves the world. In her personal life, the actress saves the whales. And recently, the spunky actress has added one more thing to fight for—District of Columbia statehood. Whispers has learned that her new cause was sparked upon meeting D.C. shadow—and nonvoting—Sen. Paul Strauss. "Hayden came into my office and asked me if I could vote for a bill," says Strauss. "I said 'no.' She must have thought I was a heartless S.O.B. But I explained to her that I can't vote for anything."