Washington Whispers

Washingtonians got their first look at a new litter of seven lion cubs at the National Zoo this week, after their handlers decided that they were ready for prime time. Born late this summer at the zoo, they have been gradually adapting to life in the public eye. The cubs have received all their vaccinations and have been plopped into the big cat enclosure’s moat for a swim. They recently received their names, including one named “John,” after John Berry, former Zoo director and current director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. During the next few weeks, visitors can only view them for an hour at midday, says the Zoo’s Lindsay Mayer, as they get accustomed to the snow and the Nikon-wielding crowds. Until then, thanks to the Zoo’s online “cub cams,” the bitty kitties are fast becoming seasoned pros in front of the lens.

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Maybe it’s the stress of the holiday season or just the general quackery of the lame duck session. But awash in wins, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and fellow Democrats have been in rare form this week. First, the soft-spoken Reid told a reporter that if the GOP doesn’t move on immigration reform during the next Congress, it’ll be because “they have real problems with their mental capacity.” Ouch. Next, his office released a list of major events that happened while the START arms treaty was under consideration in an effort to illustrate how the GOP held up the process while claiming it did not receive an adequate hearing. Those events included the Chilean mining incident, the BP oil spill, the World Cup, and Donovan McNabb debuting with the Redskins—only to ride the bench twice. Zing!

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In a year when Lady Luck seemed to desert the nation's most prominent political leaders, a few found the pot of gold under the rainbow, some in big fashion. Overall, Republicans were the luckiest considering how pundits like James Carville greeted President Obama's election with predictions that the Democrats would control Washington for the next 40 years. But some Democrats escaped disaster. So for this year it's a bipartisan collection of the five luckiest politicians of 2010. [See slide show: The 5 luckiest politicians of 2010.]

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Move over, Sarah Palin. You’re not the only big shot who’s stirring it up in 140 characters or less on Twitter. Now tweeting and regularly updating his Facebook status is former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. While it’s all part of the marketing campaign for his upcoming book Known and Unknown, Rumsfeld seems to be having fun enticing fans with tidbits of his life. Like: “69 years ago today I was listening to a Chicago Bears game with my dad when the US was attacked. He decided to join the Navy and went to war.” Aide Keith Urbahn says the book, and the Internet library being built to back it up, will be filled with personal and policy facts. “It’s a totally different project than most books of its kind because of the use of contemporaneous documents,” he says. “A lot of folks are going to be surprised—not only by the documents, but by the story they tell.”
 

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