Honors: Bond gets a jersey, Honda gets ‘100 percent clean’ comedy tribute

U.S. Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) never wore a Mizzou Tigers jersey in college (he went to Princeton), but on Saturday, his hometown team presented the lifelong University of Missouri football fan with a regulation jersey at a home game against the Kansas State Wildcats.

The jersey, No. 1, commemorated Bond’s retirement from the Senate this year after serving four terms. The gift likely also held a personal significance for Bond: His father, Arthur Bond, was captain of the Tigers football team in 1924.

Mizzou beat the Wildcats, 38-28. Bond, a former governor of Missouri, will be succeeded in the upper chamber in January by Sen.-elect Roy Blunt (R).

Also enjoying laurels this week is Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), who will be honored Wednesday with a 10-year tribute hosted by the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies and the Center for Asian American Media.

Honda’s tribute, at the Naval Memorial Theatre, will feature plenty of entertainment — hosted by Sonya Gavandar, music will be performed by New York-based rising star Taiyo Na, and a comedy skit will come from Honda’s favorite comedian, Daniel Nainan, who promises on his website “100 percent clean” comedy, for better or worse.

Expect to see a bevy of Asian American lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, as well as Reps.-elect Hansen Clarke (D-Mich.) and Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii).

---