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  May 14, 2013, 10:28 am

Former Rep. Steve Largent: Redskins should keep name

By Judy Kurtz

Former Rep. Steve Largent doesn’t count himself among the growing chorus of critics calling for the Washington Redskins to change the team’s name.

The Oklahoma Republican and ex-National Football League player told ITK when we caught up with him recently, “I’m kind of a traditionalist and I kind of believe in, you know, keeping the traditional name.”

Largent played for 14 seasons as a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks before putting down the pigskin for good in 1989.

Some opponents of the Redskins’ name call it racist and insensitive. Earlier this year, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) told The Hill the Redskins should seriously consider a name change. Lewis noted, “We have to be sensitive” while Holmes Norton said in a phone interview, “Nobody would let a comparable name to blacks stand.”

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a member of the Chickasaw Nation, has also called on the Redskins to scrap the name.

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  May 13, 2013, 5:57 pm

Lawmaker dings Justice Department with 'Call Me Maybe' tweet

By Judy Kurtz

Rep. Mike Pompeo took a page out of the Carly Rae Jepsen songbook amid reports that the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records from Associated Press (AP) staffers.

In a Monday post on Twitter, the Kansas Republican wrote:

The message, a play on the lyrics of the 2012 mega-hit “Call Me Maybe,” included a photo of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

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  May 13, 2013, 3:29 pm

'SNL' skit botches lawmakers' names

By Judy Kurtz


“Saturday Night Live” pulled a name switch-a-roo over the weekend, when an opening sketch on the Benghazi hearings identified Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, as a completely different congressman.

In the skit, cast member Kenan Thompson appears to portray the Maryland Democrat, but a nameplate mislabels him Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.).

Besides being on different sides of the aisle, the lawmakers — Hastings is white and Cummings is black — aren’t exactly look-alikes.

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  May 13, 2013, 1:58 pm

McMorris Rodgers walks the catwalk, but her son steals the show

By Judy Kurtz


Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers gave it her best shot on the catwalk, but she ended up being overshadowed by a 6-year-old.

The Washington Republican and her young son, Cole, strutted their stuff on the runway at last week’s “Be Beautiful Be Yourself” Global Down Syndrome Foundation gala at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in downtown Washington.

Before the fashion show fundraiser, ITK asked McMorris Rodgers how she felt about hitting the stage in front of a packed crowd: “Oh my! I don’t have much experience on the runway,” she replied.

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  May 13, 2013, 12:54 pm

Huntsman and Manchin launch radio show

By Daniel Strauss

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) is co-launching a monthly radio show meant to promote bipartisanship.

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  May 13, 2013, 12:00 pm

Snowe: Senate needs a five-day work week

By Judy Kurtz

She’s no longer a senator, but Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) says it’s about time her former colleagues start clocking in a five-day work week.

The three-term lawmaker, who retired earlier this year, makes the recommendation in her new book, Fighting for Common Ground: How We Can Fix the Stalemate in Congress, which hits stores Tuesday.

In an interview with NPR, Snowe said of the concept, “Isn’t that amazing? To work a five-day workweek?”

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  May 10, 2013, 4:36 pm

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reads Washingtonians a bedtime story

By Amrita Khalid

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored some points with a crowd of adoring -- albeit a bit overage -- fans by reading Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are at the Georgetown Four Seasons on Thursday night. The former NBA star and author was the focus of a themed gala hosted by children’s literacy organization Reading is Fundamental (RIF). RIF is planning on distributing copies of Abdul-Jabbar’s new children's book, What Color is My World: The Lost History of African-American Inventors, to many of its partner schools this summer.

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  May 10, 2013, 1:45 pm

Poll finds Democrats, Republicans sing to different tunes when it comes to musical preferences

By Emily Goodin

Republicans strongly dislike Madonna and Michael Jackson, a new poll found, while Democrats have a slightly more favorable views of the controversial singers.

Democrats narrowly view the Material Girl favorably — 43 percent to 41 percent a Public Policy Polling survey found, while Republicans strongly dislike her with a 21 percent favorability and 68 percent unfavorability.

Jackson is also rated more favorably by Democrats: 59 percent to 30 percent while 59 percent of Republicans disapproved of the King of Pop.

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  May 10, 2013, 11:53 am

Sen. Gillibrand spotted dining with Val Kilmer

By Judy Kurtz

SPOTTED: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand dining with the caped crusader himself — or at least the actor who played him in “Batman Forever,” Val Kilmer — in Washington on Wednesday.

Our spy eyed the New York Democrat sitting down for dinner with Kilmer and two other companions at Rasika Penn Quarter.

The foursome took in some of the fine Indian eatery’s delicacies, including palak chaat (crispy baby spinach), the eggplant and potato dish tawa baingan, chicken tikka masala, zafrani murg (chicken and cashew nuts), and lamb chops.

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  May 10, 2013, 10:44 am

Prince Harry lays wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery

By Emily Goodin

Prince Harry, dressed in his military uniform, laid wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday morning.

He laid one in Section 60, where several American veterans who served in Afghanistan are buried, and one at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, saluting at each stop.

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