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What's an 'L' Among Political Foes?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 22, 2007 CommentIn the strange bedfellows department this week, we've got the hand-holding of the right-leaning American Conservative Union and left-tilting American Civil Liberties Union. Come June 26, in front of the Senate, ACU boss David Keene will join with ACLU's Anthony Romero to demand the re turn of basic rights—habeas corpus in constitutional lingo—to prisoners long held at Guantánamo Bay. "Many people might be shocked to see a tag-team of the ACLU and the ACU," says Romero. "But, hey, what's an 'L' between friends?"
More From this week's Washington Whispers column in the magazine:
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Cartoon: June 24, 2007
Tweet Share on Facebook June 22, 2007 Comment (21)
JACK OHMAN/TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES/THE OREGONIAN -
Out Loud: June 24, 2007
Tweet Share on Facebook June 22, 2007 Comment"How many people know the price of his most expensive haircut?"
Elizabeth Edwards, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards's wife, quizzing an Iowa audience on what it knew about her husband-like his recent $400 trim"It takes time to reverse the damage done by the Republicans. Rome wasn't built in a day."
Rep. Nita Lowey, a Democrat key to reversing GOP opposition to funding overseas family planning groups, a victory that is expected to face a presidential veto"I've got two goats on my place in Mississippi. There ain't no fence big enough or strong enough to hold them. People are at least as smart as goats, maybe not as agile."
Sen. Trent Lott, explaining that it will take a lot more than just a fence along the nation's border with Mexico to deal with the growing immigration problemSources: New York Times, Washington Post, the Hill
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Face Time with Secretary Chertoff
Tweet Share on Facebook June 22, 2007 CommentBEFORE AFTER 
It's not an easy job running the Washington Whispers desk. Sometimes we just have to ask the most obvious and sometimes embarrassing question. Like when Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff came to the regular Christian Science Monitor newsmaker breakfast this week. As everybody else focused on terrorism and immigration, I just couldn't stop looking at his clean-shaven face. Yes, he shaved the Don Johnson beard off! So after one of my pals at the breakfast club asked the Secretary about what keeps him up at night, what worries him, it was my turn. And I couldn't help but ask. Here's the exchange between the Secretary, Monitor Bureau Chief David Cook, and me:
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Obama Had a Presidential 'Plan' Too
Tweet Share on Facebook June 19, 2007 Comment (1)You've heard about the questionable "plan" Bill and Hillary Clinton hatched to make them the first husband and wife presidents, revealed in the new book Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Clinton. Well, now we are finding out that her popular presidential campaign rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, had one too. But unlike the tale told by Clinton's New York Times biographers, whose plan claim has been disputed, Chicago Tribune Obama biographer David Mendell charts Obama's in detail from the initial days of the senator's arrival in Washington in 2005.
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Adorable First Pets or PR Nightmares?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2007 Comment
JOE CIARDIELLO FOR USN&WR T hat sweet image of modern-day presidents romping with first pets—FDR with Fala, Reagan with Lucky, Clinton with Buddy—hides a not-so-adorable truth: Most were props. In the first-ever critical look at presidential pets, a new exhibit at the White House Visitor Center reveals how important these critters were—or were not—to their masters.Researcher Katie Schank, who opens the show June 21 by speaking on "Pets With a Purpose," tells us: "Not that everything in the White House is calculated, but I knew there was sort of something behind the pets that presidents chose to keep and pets they decided to get rid of." Yes, pets were exiled, she explains, because they were PR disasters. Consider FDR's first dogs: Meggie bit a reporter, and Major bit a senator before being shipped to Hyde Park. Roosevelt then got a Scottie, Fala, used mightily for publicity when he donated his chew toys to the WWII rubber drive. Or Reagan: Lucky was banished when pictures showed him yanking the Gipper around. Some were "philanthropic pets," others "paparazzi pets" acquired to help a president's image. Buddy, for example, helped Bubba with voters distrustful of cat owners, Schank suggests. Then there's Bush's Barney. Says Schank: "I sometimes wonder if Bush got a Scottie because FDR had such good luck with one."
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Honoring the First Antiwar Candidate
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2007 CommentGeorge McGovern, now there was a real antiwar candidate. And in what some think is a historical deja vu moment, the man who famously opposed the Vietnam War is to be feted by many in the current antiwar movement to mark his 85th birthday and the 35th anniversary of his Democratic presidential nomination. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Sen. Gary Hart, actor Warren Beatty, and others are hosting a weekend of events July 13-14 in Washington and hope to turn it into a 1972 reunion and a fundraiser for McGovern's favorite charities like the World Food Program. Organizers, looking for a big turnout for the reunion and symposium on McGovern's legacy, say it's been hard reaching the old crew despite a very snazzy home page: McGovern72.org. "Thirty-five years is so long," says organizer Polly Bishop.
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Big Hitters Steer Bush Legacy Plan
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2007 Comment (1)President Bush isn't leaving it to strangers to take care of his legacy project, the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. Playing key roles are political aide Karl Rove, first lady Laura Bush, and former Chief of Staff Andy Card. The trio has been interviewing architects and touring similar research campuses for tips. We hear that some are urging Bush to put Rove in charge once it's built.
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Skip the Shoes, and Change the World
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2007 CommentWomen, you've been challenged. By skipping the next shoe purchase at Payless and instead sending that $26 to a political candidate, you could forever change politics. "They need to start enjoying that pleasure instead of pinched toes," says Democratic fundraiser Susie Tompkins Buell, the founder of Esprit clothing. The idea was suggested by the Woman's Campaign Forum in a new report that found women to be poor political donors. "What if you could change the world for the price of a pair of shoes? Women can," says the report. Consider: The average pair of shoes costs $26.75, and if women gave up one purchase in 2006 to a candidate, they would have donated $1.3 billion. "If we think about all the women who are buying shoes at $50, $100, $500, the power is enormous," adds the report.
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Out Loud: June 17, 2007
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2007 Comment"You've got to turn off the Spanish television set."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, of California, saying immigrants should avoid Spanish-language media to learn English quicker"I'm told that 90 is the new 80."
Sen. Robert Byrd, the 89-year-old from West Virginia"There is more attention on Britney Spears getting out of a car without underwear than there is about who is going to be the next president."
Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential candidate, on his frustration with the media"Rudy Giuliani's been married more times than Mitt Romney's been hunting."
Sen. Harry Reid, on what he's learned from the Republican presidential candidates, referring to Giuliani's three marriages and to Romney's two hunting trips despite earlier saying he had hunted all his lifeSources: AP (3), Washington Post
