Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has “an intolerance for fat people,” according to a new profile.
Reid will make comments to aides “who seem to be getting portly” and his office staff is “suspiciously slim,” according to an upcoming piece in the New York Times magazine.
That intolerance apparently extends to animals, too.
When then-President George W. Bush invited Reid to the White House for coffee during his final days in office, the president’s dog walked in and Reid said to the president, “Your dog is fat.”
As for his own physique, the skinny Democratic leader dons black Lycra stretch pants at least twice a week to practice yoga with his wife in their DC apartment.
Other juicy tidbits in the profile, which the Times previewed on its website Wednesday, include that Reid has a Grateful Dead poster signed by the band’s members hanging in a bathroom at his house.
He also revealed that his tenure as the chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission inspired a character in Martin Scorsese's movie "Casino."
The magazine comes out in the Sunday paper. To read the preview, click here.
President
Barack Obama in a recent interview expressed faith that embattled
golfer Tiger Woods can restore his once-sterling reputation.
The president told People magazine
in an interview that will hit newsstands Friday that he "absolutely"
believes that Woods can rehabilitate his broken personal life after it
was revealed he has had multiple extramarital affairs.
"I'm a strong believer
that anybody can look within themselves, find their flaws and fix
them," he said. "I'm sure he feels terrible about what happened, and I
suspect that he will try to put his life back together again."
Shortly
after Woods, the world's No. 1 golfer, had a minor car crash near his
Florida home in November, it was reported that he had several affairs.
Woods later issued an apology on his website in which he blamed the
crash on a private matter. He subsequently lost a number of personal
and professional relationships.
His wife Elin Nordegren has reportedly left him and several of his corporate sponsors have severed ties with him.
Woods
has also announced he is taking an indefinite leave of absence from
golf. Woods has won 14 major championships, the second most of all
time, and is the first black person to achieve an elite level of
success in the sport.
They say "Virginia is for lovers," but with the help of sex therapist Dr. Ruth and a new "stimulus plan," the nation's capital hopes to lure couples to the opposite side of the Potomac.
On Thursday, Dr. Ruth will join Washington, D.C. Council member Kwame Brown to announce the start of a month-long "stimulus plan" designed to boost tourism by marketing the city as a premiere romantic destination. Brown will conduct a mock swearing in of Dr. Ruth as Honorary Secretary of Love & Relationships, under the watchful (albeit wax) eyes of President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, provided courtesy of Madame Tussauds.
A press release from Destination D.C. said the initiative was inspired by the Obama's "date nights," occasional evenings when the First Couple will eat out without their two children. The Obamas have dined in Washington at the Blue Duck Tavern and at Citronelle, as well as restaurants in Chicago and New York.
Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen had made quite a name for himself with his impression of New York Gov. David Paterson (D).
Armisen
frequently appears on the NBC comedy show's "Weekend Update" segment as the
governor, often riffing off Paterson's blindness and his (most likely fictional)
hatred of New Jersey.
Now Paterson is firing back, and from the sound of it, he may even be willing to throw a few punches.
Appearing with host Don Imus on Fox Business network Wednesday morning, the governor said, "I
can take a joke about my disability…and by the way I don’t bounce off
walls and if anyone at Saturday Night Live would like to have me on, we
could find out. Maybe I could bounce of few left hands off of them."
Paterson then explained that jokes like Armisen's are "what stops small business owners" from hiring disabled employees who would be "effective."
"They can ridicule me all they want. I’m the governor—I have a
job. But there are so many people out there who don’t..."
Before he finished he took one final dig at the show: If they want ratings, he said, "They need Sarah Palin to come back on."
See for yourself if SNL deserves a "few left hands" from the governor:
The Weekly Standard's John McCormack has a way with special elections.
McCormack, who you might recall led former House candidate Dede Scozzafava's campaign to call the cops on him, is now at the heart of a dustup in Massachusetts.
Video
shows McCormack taking a spill into a metal railing while chasing after
Martha Coakley in Washington last night, then being helped up by a man
who begins to impede McCormack's pursuit.
The man asks for
McCormack's credentials on what appears to be a public street,
physically blocking his path while McCormack strains to show his
congressional press pass and move on.
McCormack says the man shoved him into the railing. He also has a suspect: Democratic consultant Michael Meehan.
Meehan was dispatched to the race by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), according to the AP. A picture from the incident appears to back up McCormack's claim that it was Meehan.
The DSCC and Meehan could not immediately be reached for comment.
There was a recognizable, though rarely seen Washingtonian among the guests at Tuesday's launch party for the Daily Caller.com: I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Formerly chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, Libby resigned in 2005, after being indicted on charges relating to the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity. He was later convicted of five felonies, although then-President George W. Bush commuted his prison sentence at the last minute.
Since his conviction in 2007, Libby has kept a very low profile in Washington social circles, so his appearance came as a surprise to many of the guests. But not to Daily Caller co-founder Neil Patel, Libby's former colleague in the Vice President's office. Patel was Cheney's chief policy advisor while Libby served as the Veep's chief of staff.
The White House released a statement today saying to coincide with the State of the Union address, every week they will start the morning with a blog post from a top policymaker and then follow it with an afternoon video chat.
You can watch the chats at WhiteHouse.gov/Live or join the discussion on Facebook. First up on the list is Carol Browner, assistant to the president for energy and climate, discussing the president’s push for a clean energy economy. Others set to chat later include Ben Rhodes of the National Security Council, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Aneesh Chopra, the nation’s first Federal Chief Technology Officer and Christina Romer, chair of the council of economic advisers.
Meet
George Flinn, a wealthy doctor and Republican Shelby County
commissioner who is expected to make some noise in the GOP primary
for retiring Rep. John Tanner's (D-Tenn.) seat.
In 1990, Flinn
was chosen by Joan Rivers to go on a date with her, having been picked
among more than 1,000 entries in a nationwide contest. According to a
transcript of a CBS News interview that followed, Flinn made it to the
final three, at which point he took part in a Dating Show-like contest
on Rivers's talk show. And he won.
His method for winning? He sent her a vial of blood (or at least a worthy facsimilie).
From the transcript of the interview with Harry Smith:
Smith: What did you -- what did you do to get the attention of the -- of -- of the staff?
Flinn: Of her staff?
Smith: Um-mm.
Flinn: Well, I said Joan Rivers -- I
need to be her honey because she's in my blood and I sent a vial of red
fluid with her picture in it. Now the key was that I put up there: This
is not real blood. And I think that really caught the comedy writer's
attention.
It's time for someone to step forward with this video. We must find out if this was all as weird as it sounds.
Sarah Palin will speak to a major alcohol trade group in Las Vegas this spring.
The
former Veep candidate will be the keynote speaker at the Wine and
Liquor Wholesalers convention in April, the group's CEO said in a
statement today.
"Governor Palin is a great supporter of
America's free enterprise system and understands that industries like
the beverage alcohol industry play a key role in driving our national
economy," said Craig Wolf.
"We're proud and honored to welcome
her as a speaker...We expect she will share with the convention
attendees her analysis of the current political environment and her
vision for America's future."
The expo is scheduled for April 6th-8th at Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino.
Palin
is reportedly raking in lofty sums during her rounds on the lecture
circuit, which will help defray legal expenses she accumulated during
her time in office.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) shared a bit of sad news on Monday about her family dog.
The South Florida lawmaker tweeted that her dog Bard has died:
Had
2 put our dog, Bard, 2 sleep. 2 sick, old, no hope 4 recovery. So hard
2 do. He was a good ole dog. Tough guy, Dexter, my hubby, cried.
Her
"tough" husband is a Florida lawyer and formerly served in the state
Senate. Ros-Lehtinen, shown here at an animal welfare event in her district, typically tweets a mix of
personal and political messages.
