Washington Whispers
Our and Ann Richards's Secret
She was justly celebrated for her barbed wit, and when former Texas Gov. Ann Richards died of cancer this month, it was her "Poor George" line about former President Bush in her electric keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention that won attention. "He was born with a silver foot in his mouth," she twanged. One of the secrets Richards took to her grave: She lifted the line from U.S. News Editor-in-Chief Mort Zuckerman, who used it an editorial less than a month before. When they crossed paths after she had used the line a second time, he thanked her for making it famous. Richards smiled wickedly: "I didn't give you credit then," she said, "and I'm not going to give it to you now." They both laughed.
Even Liberals Know Sex Sells
If all those bankruptcy rumors about liberal Air America Radio are true, then maybe its new morning-drive-time feature show, The Young Turks, can help in more ways than just spicing up the airways. As in sharing profits from its hugely popular $6.99 girlie calendar that features curvy young cohost Jill Pike. "We've made more money off those calendars than Cheney has from Halliburton," says Cenk Uygur, another cohost of the show that debuts on Air America September 18-and also switches from Sirius to XM on satellite radio. The third cohost,Ben Mankiewicz, adds: "Guys want Jill's calendar so much that we're thinking about giving out her phone number so they can just call her and ask her what the date is."
Clinton's New Date: Laura Bush
Another Clinton-Bush odd couple forms this week when first lady Laura Bush headlines the opening of the second annual Bill Clinton Global Initiative. That's Bubba's big effort to fix the world's problems. Rules are that every headliner must pledge action in a major problem area; the first lady will call for a special clean water program in sub-Saharan Africa. Clinton spokesman Jay Carson says Bush's participation is "a testament to her commitment to good works around the world and the nonpartisan nature of this event."
Spotlight on an Ex-House Page
At 16, she was just a "geek" from Kentucky serving as a House of Representatives page. But Courtney Fine didn't fall into the trap some others did: going wild away from home. "I was a geeky page. I got into it," she says. Fine fast worked her way up the ranks and soon became one of the few House floor cloakroom pages, where she regularly interacted with lawmakers, befriending some. And now, nine years later, they want her back. But not to deliver envelopes and phone messages. The glam Fine has been invited to perform her well-received one-person play Me2, which she says is "about a girl's worst nightmare-losing her cellphone." Adds L.A.-based Fine: "I never would have thought I'd be a page, go to Hollywood, and then come back to perform."
With Suzi Parker
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