Vegging Out With the 'Soup Nazi'
He shocked former Senate Minority Leader
Tom Daschle by
beating him by just over 4,000 votes last year, repelled the
administration?sbid to shut down a key Air Force base back
home in South Dakota, and is talked about as a possible 2008
vice presidential candidate for the GOP. But when he's got
some free time, Sen.
John Thune doesn't play big man
on campus, hanging out with lobbyists and donors at
Washington's Capital Grille. He watches
TV-specifically
Seinfeld reruns.
"I've watched a number of times," he says, "way more than I
should." In fact, Thune's a
Seinfeld junkie going
back to the first season. And he's got it bad. He TiVo's 20
episodes a week at home in South Dakota, times his Senate
gym workouts to the show's cable schedule, and kicks back in
his office from 10:30 to 11:30 to catch nightly reruns.
Thune's even got other members hooked on the show. "It?s
sort of mindless entertainment," he tells us. "It's just a
nice break from the heavy stuff you're doing all day." His
faves: "The 'Soup Nazi' is great. That's my daughter's
favorite." And he can practically recite the script from the
episode where
Kramer installs a garbage disposal in
the bathtub. "I can anticipate almost all the lines," he
brags. But don't ask him to compare the cast's quirky
characters, like
Newman, with his colleagues in the
Senate. "Let's not go there," he says.
No White House Wedding Bells Yet
What's the start of the wedding season without a good rumor about
the Bush twins? But we hear a White House ceremony is not
likely just yet. Despite whispers that
Jenna's beau,
Henry Hager, popped the question during her
trip to his parents' Richmond, Va., hometown over Christmas,
we're assured that there are no wedding plans at this point.
Ditto for
Barbara, who's been spotted with some
sparkle on her wedding-ring finger. Instead, we hear that
the twins are deeply committed to their jobs and causes.
Jenna teaches at a Washington charter school, and Barbara
just returned from working with AIDS pediatric patients in
South Africa. In fact, Barbara's part of the first lady's
official delegation this week to Liberia and Ghana to push
for education for women and AIDS prevention.
From the Desk of Colin Powell
As if former Secretary of State
Colin Powell isn't busy
enough giving pricey speeches around the world and joining
lucrative business partnerships, we're told he's also
mulling writing another book. But there's a rub: He doesn't
want to dis the prez and is concerned that a publisher will
want him to air all that dirty laundry over the start of the
war in Iraq.
Even Sick, Reagan Had the Touch
We're still learning about former
President Ronald
Reagan's final years with Alzheimer's. But one tidbit
about to be revealed shows that the Gipper still had his
trademark positive approach as the disease worsened. The
proof is in a 1998 letter, scribbled four years after
announcing he suffered from the debilitating disease and the
first ever shown to the public. Traced in part over words
written by somebody else, he thanks some friends for their
concern about his situation. "Individuals like you give me
the courage and inspiration to move forward, and with your
prayers and God's grace, we'llknow we will be able to face
this long latest challenge. God bless you all!!!" Then the
kicker: "P.S. I didn't write this with Nancy's help!" Reagan
died of the disease June 5, 2004.
Bill Panagopulos,
president of Alexander Autographs, will auction the letter
February 18-19 and expects to get $7,000 to $9,000.
Panagopulos says the letter "shows the terrible effect of
the disease on the ex-President's mental faculties, yet his
wit still manages to shine through!"
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