Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is a loner in the nation's capital and he's proud of it.

During his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, a smiling DeMint said, "I did not come to Washington to make friends and so far I haven't been disappointed."

DeMint isn't just playing to the crowd. He has infuriated members on both sides of the aisle with his crusade against earmarks and other government spending.

Senate GOP hopeful Marco Rubio fired up conservatives so much during a speech on Thursday so much that they stated chanting, "Marco! Marco!"

A laughing Rubio said he is always worried about that rallying cry "because someone might say Polo."

Rubio, who is running against Florida Gov. Charlie Crist in the Senate Republican primary, addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday.

President Barack Obama had some fun Wednesday during an intergalactic video conference call with the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavor, which is docked at the international space station.

Obama was accompanied by students and teachers from across the country, and before the Q & A began, the president took the opportunity to give a big shout out to one TV comedy host who he's not likely to sit down for an interview with anytime soon: Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told Time Magazine that while Obama "would love" to appear as a guest on Comedy Central's other political satire, "The Daily Show," a "Colbert Report" interview was less likely. The hitch? It's too risky.

"I have yet to see a politician best Stephen Colbert in an interview on his show," Gibbs said.

In a perfect example of Colbert's brand of irreverent (and yes, risky) political humor, last year the host encouraged his fans to submit his name to a write-in contest sponsored by NASA to name a node on the Endeavor. When he won, NASA downgraded the name from a room to a treadmill, now called the Stephen Colbert treadmill. 

Obama was hip to the joke, "Everybody here back home is excited about this bay on the world that you guys are opening up," he told the astronauts, "and Stephen Colbert at least is excited about his treadmill."

Even the president and first lady have to attend parent-teacher conferences. The first couple went on an unannounced trip to Sidwell Friends School’s upper campus where younger daughter Sasha attends.
 
The two stayed for about a half an hour, after being delayed for a bit because of snow-related traffic (it even affects presidential motorcades).
 
Excited teens congregated outside the Friendship Heights Metro station to get a glimpse of the motorcade rushing by before the president and Mrs. Obama entered the school wearing dark overcoats.

The Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards have expanded their nominations to include president and first Lady.
 
The Obamas were nominated for “Cutest Couple” in the awards show, which will air on March 27.
 
Katie McCormick Lelyveld, press secretary to the first lady, told ITK they are not commenting on the honor.
 
The Obamas are up against two couples from the ‘tween favorite Twilight and the Avatar duo, Neytiri and Jake.

For those of you who were wondering, or perhaps forgot, those were ashes on Vice President Joe Biden’s forehead in the picture snapped of President Obama and him at The White House Wednesday morning.
 
Biden, who is Catholic, took part in the ancient Catholic tradition of Ash Wednesday, which involves getting ashes on one’s forehead and fasting and abstaining from meat to signify the beginning of Lent.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) will not press charges against the airline passenger who allegedly tried to assault him.

Romney and his wife Ann had been in Vancouver since last Friday for the Winter Olympic Games. On Tuesday, they were on an Air Canada flight to Los Angeles when the incident occurred, according to the Globe and Mail, one of Canada's largest newspapers.

A man, who was not named, was seated in front of Ann Romney dropped his seat back and, when Gov. Romney asked him to move it upright for takeoff, the man became “physically violent,”  the paper quoted Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom as saying. Other reports claimed the man tried to strike the former governor.

Fehrnstrom told the Globe and Mail: “Gov. Romney did not retaliate." The pilot turned the plane around and the airline crew removed the man, who has not been named, from the plane.

President Obama may have faced down heads of state, joint sessions of Congress and crowds of angry Republican lawmakers, but there's at least one foe the White House is afraid of: Stephen Colbert.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told Time Magazine that while the president would love to appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he probably won't be sitting down with Colbert anytime soon.

"I think the President would love to [do the Daily Show], just maybe not Colbert," Gibbs joked to Michael Scherer. "I have yet to see a politician best Stephen Colbert in an interview on his show...I mean, he's really, really good."

Truth be told, Colbert has embarrassed many a politician in his day. In one interview he coaxed former Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) into encouraging drug use and prostitution. He's also caught Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) unable to recite the Ten Commandments.

Rep. Lamar Smith's (R-Texas) legislative assistant, Robert Fischer, is engaged to Olympic gold medal gymnast Kerri Strug. The wedding is set for April 25 in Strug's hometown of Tucson, Ariz.

Strug, an attorney at the Department of Justice, is best known as having been a member of the Magnificent Seven, the 1996 U.S. women's gymnastics team that won the gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics. Since leaving gymnastics, Strug attended Stanford University, worked at the Treasury Department, and since 2005, has served as an attorney in the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
 
Fischer works on health policy in Smith's office. The pair met through a mutual friend, Katherine Rossi a fellow member of the Junior League of Washington, D.C. with Strug.

The bride told ITK in an interview that she has known the kind of wedding she would want ever since her sister got married, the same country club location, the band, and the Rabbi, which was made easier by the fact that her mom and the wedding planner are taking care of almost everything.

"If we didn't get married in April, we would have to wait until October because the weather is too hot in Tucson from May through September. Robert’s brother is getting married this fall and we thought we should space the weddings out more than 3 weeks apart for his family’s sake!"

The engagement was announced this weekend in The Washington Post.