Entries for February 18, 2007

JOE CIARDIELLO FOR USN&WR

Don't call the new release Amazing Grace just another political thriller. What was once billed as an educational movie is fast becoming the model for bipartisanship. For weeks the hottest flick in the political and religious underground, Amazing Grace debuts at the White House this week, capping President Bush's focus on Black History Month. "We really think this is a wonderful movie that can inspire a new direction in Washington," says a Bushie.

"Our film shows the good that politics can do," says Erik Lokkesmoe, the film's project manager. Amazing Grace charts the effort of British politician William Wilberforce to end the slave trade 200 years ago with the help of an odd team that included former slave ship Capt. John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace after finding God. Former Rep. Floyd Flake, now the president of Ohio's Wilberforce University, thinks all his former House colleagues should see it. "They could learn a lesson from it," he tells us. Even though it doesn't hit theaters until February 23, Bush is late to the endorsement parade. A crowd from liberal Rep. John Lewis to conservative Sen. Sam Brownback and groups from the Humane Society to Focus on the Family have applauded it, prompting movie makers to almost yawn at the White House invitation. "We find that these kinds of invitations and opportunities are everywhere," says Lokkesmoe.

He didn't use the word lazy, but that was Sen. Arlen Specter's suggestion when he asked Associate Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy if taking two months off in summer limited the number of cases heard by the high court. "I don't think my colleagues would say we are under-worked," says Kennedy. "We are very proud that we get work done every year on schedule and on time. Our docket is 100 percent finished on July 1st," he explains. "The only way we can do that is by taking two months to read and recover and so forth before we come back."

OK, so Washingtonians can't drive in the snow. But do we have to be sneered at by smug snow senators like Vermont's Patrick Leahy? On a day last week when a few inches shut down much of the District, Leahy opened a committee hearing with some Green Mountain State chest-pounding. "A little snow's not going to stop us," he bragged at the sparsely populated hearing. "We had 2 feet of snow overnight," he says of his home state. "I'm told that a number of places opened as much as an hour late. It's a new generation, and they go slowly."

Kennedy buffs rejoice: What's thought to be the biggest-ever cache of JFK and Jackie O memorabilia is heading to auction, including a racy letter from Jackie to Sen. Edward Kennedy's former wife, Joan, urging her to rein in her wandering hubby, a life preserver from jfk's sailboat Victura, and the former first lady's own 8-mm movie camera. We've noted auctions by Alexander Autographs before, but this one, online February 24–25 at alexautographs.com, is really rich. Just consider the Jackie-to-Joan letter, worth an estimated $5,000 to $7,000. In the unsigned letter, Jackie tells Joan to take charge of the family and balk when Teddy spends too much time with his siblings or worse. "This is the 20th century—not the 19th—" she pens, "where little woman stayed home on a pedestal with the kids & her rosary." The best part is how the goods became public. Seems a former helper recovered the items from Joan's Cape Cod home and put them in storage. But she forgot to pay the bill; the stuff was auctioned off, and the top bidder is cashing in.

The big debate is finally here: Will Mitt Romney's Mormonism kill him in the mainstream Christian-voting gop presidential primaries? We think we've got a source who knows: conservative pundit and radio host Hugh Hewitt. "He, and the country, definitely have a 'Mormon problem,'" Hewitt tells us, "but not an insurmountable one." In a new book out in mid-March, Hewitt takes an in-depth look at Romney's life. And for Regnery Publishing's A Mormon in the White House? 10 Things Every American Should Know About Mitt Romney, Hewitt even quizzed the former Massachusetts guv. His conclusion: "I don't even think it will be the biggest obstacle in his path to the Republican nomination." He did find a major hurdle, he teases, "though I will wait until publication in early March to discuss that."

The White House is still holding out hope that it will have a chance to name a third justice to the Supreme Court and cement its conservative tilt for generations to come. "We need one more on the Supreme Court," says a Bushie who was instrumental in getting Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito aboard. But with Democrats now running the Senate, pushing another conservative through might be hard. "That will be the battle royal, " says the insider. Meantime, the White House is seeking to add 17 more U.S. Circuit Court judges before leaving town in 2009. "This is our biggest legacy," says the official. And rightly so: Almost 30 percent of federal judges are Bush picks, he says.

Not that she really has to worry about her Baptist minister husband, but Janet Huckabee has her own spy traveling with gop hopeful Mike Huckabee. And the truth is the former Arkansas governor couldn't be happier. "It puts him at ease," says his 24-year-old daughter, Sarah, "and the rest of the family at ease, too." Since he announced, the former Education Department aide has been stuck to her dad, "doing whatever they want doing," she says. It's a good deal for both, she says. "I keep an eye on him, and he keeps an eye on me."

"My answer to him is, 'Look, don't pay attention to it. I'm doing fine.' "

"It is like sending your sweetheart Valentine's Day roses with divorce papers."

"BlackBerrys don't make babies."

"When you analyze a beehive, there's one queen, 20,000 drones, and 70,000 workers. And it's not an accident."

Sources: C-Span, Politico, Opelika-Auburn News, Washington Post