Celebrity News

It’s a perfect ending to this presidential campaign season: Paris Hilton decides to throw her bikini into the ring.

And how fitting. After Mike Gravel, Rudy Giuliani, Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney and all those other clowns, why not Paris Hilton?

After all, she’s sexier than Barack Obama. She’s more articulate than John McCain. And she’s more famous than either one of them.

And she’s not as dumb as she looks. With no experience, and no army of consultants, Paris came up with a better energy plan than that wrinkly old white-haired guy, whatever his name is. Read more...

Jesse Jackson’s remarks suggesting he wanted to castrate Obama not only demonstrate his self-loathing and envy over Obama’s ascendancy to the national stage, they are a stark reminder of the vast difference between the two. Jesse Jackson, who is supposedly a man of the cloth, should never have made such remarks privately — although, as far back as his “Hymietown” remarks about New York Jews, he has been known to issue nasty personal attacks.

Obama, who had to lighten the sandbags on his sagging presidential hopes by casting the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his church overboard, nonetheless continues to enjoy overwhelming popularity in all communities across the American spectrum. Moreover, his recent play to faith-based initiatives could further endear him to the Christians. Read more...

As many of us have heard by now, the Rev. Jesse Jackson had less than appropriate things to say about Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (D). Not content to say that the senator had been “talking down” to black people, the reverend, in very un-reverend-like language, suggested that he wanted to remove a part of the junior senator’s anatomy beneath the waist.

I am not often a defender of Sen. Obama, as I believe his policies will take the country in the wrong direction where the government, rather than individuals, has all of the answers and all of the power. At the same time, what we heard from the Rev. Jackson illustrates the mindset of a relic from a bygone era where the government and “the man” were out to suppress blacks, versus a new voice for change embodied by Sen. Obama. Read more...

Is he coming to our capital city over the Fourth of July weekend?

Will he welcome fans, players, military, families, kids and media at opening ceremonies on July 2?

Will he be on crutches?

How long will he stay?

Will he tool around Congressional Country Club's Blue course in a golf cart, acting host? Read more...

The date was Oct. 24, 1999, and at the campaign headquarters for Senate Republicans, we were just getting word that Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.) had died.

Within an hour of the news being confirmed, reporters were calling me — as the spokesman for the campaign committee responsible for electing Republicans to the U.S. Senate — to get information on what his death meant with respect to a special election in Rhode Island or the possible appointment of Chafee’s son to the Senate. Then, on July 18, 2000, history repeated itself as Sen. Paul Coverdell (R–Ga.) — one of the hardest-working people in the Senate and well-liked in both parties — died. We were stunned by the news. And again the media calls poured in to me and we scrambled to find and explain what the special election or appointment procedures were in Georgia. It seemed so cruel, but the political machine churned. As time has gone on, I’ve found this it is not a sign of disrespect to the person but an acknowledgment of the business and passion they chose to pursue. Read more...

I was moved by the many, incredible tributes to Tim Russert I watched and read this weekend. The ones from dear friends like Mike Barnicle, Joe Klein, Al Hunt and Judy Woodruff were especially poignant, and the interview that Luke Russert gave Matt Lauer on "The Today Show" this morning was the killer.

But I wanted to share another one from Chuck Todd, political director at NBC, that you may have not seen. It appeared this morning in First Read, which Todd and his team publish each day, informing the political world with analysis and the top news stories. Read more...

So many things come to mind in the wake of the passing of the great and gifted Tim Russert. But two are fitting for this column.

First, what a small town our capital city still is, isn’t it? Nearly everyone has a Tim Russert story — about how they met him in a restaurant or at the ballpark, how he remembered your kids’ names and asked about them like he really cared — because he did. He’d show up at my IFE/INFO Policy Roundtables and be the first one there, eager to talk with people, learn what folks were thinking. Tim certainly could call any of the IFE/INFO speakers and get straight through, but he liked listening to the Q and A. He valued that personal interaction, which was a key to his success. Read more...

Like millions of other Americans, out of habit I tuned into “Meet the Press” Sunday morning. It’s still hard to believe Tim wasn’t there — and Sunday mornings will never be the same without him.

Tim was, first of all, a great guy. Larger than life, and great fun to be around. He loved life, loved his family, and loved politics.

As famous as he became, Tim never forgot his working-class roots in Buffalo. And he never abandoned his Catholic faith. In fact, Tim came to journalism through politics. And he came to politics through his faith, where he learned politics — and, later, journalism — as the highest form of public service. For him, the Catholic faith was all about helping those less fortunate than we are. I considered it the greatest compliment when he once called me a “Sermon on the Mount Catholic.” Read more...

Tim Russert was not just another pretty face.

Let’s face it. He wasn’t really a pretty face.

But he was the best at his craft.

He wasn’t a traditional journalist. He migrated from politics to journalism, so he knew well the field that he covered.

You could always sense that Tim loved politics as much as he loved the country. Read more...

It’s as close as Washington comes to the Academy Awards: Saturday night’s 2008 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. And a mediocre time was had by all.

Yes, it’s fun to go, just to witness the scene. But, frankly, it’s a zoo — and it gets more and more ridiculous every year.

What started out as an annual occasion for White House reporters and administration officials to socialize for an evening and raise money for journalism scholarships has degenerated into a race to see which media outlet can attract the most outrageous celebrities. Read more...