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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) isn’t the first Clinton representing the Empire State to be faced with funding a war.
An Under the Dome reader and House staffer who wants to be identified only as Dave has an April 18, 1793 promissory note signed by then-New York Gov. George Clinton to borrow 100 pounds from a private citizen. The note (pictured here) was due and payable “within one year after the conclusion of the present war with Great Britain.”
The note was paid back nearly two years later, plus interest of six percent.
How’d Dave get it? He says he found it in a drawer of his aunt’s house several years ago after she died.
Moran, his Hollywood friends
Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) will be rubbing elbows with some Hollywood types as he accepts an award for his commitment to promoting non-animal testing methods in medical research later this week, including actors Alec Baldwin, Marilu Henner, and Lisa Edelstein (she of the Fox medical drama “House”).
Moran will pick up the award Saturday at the Mellon Auditorium on Constitution Avenue. Steak is not on the menu for the event sponsored by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Instead, it’ll be a gourmet vegan plate that would make Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) proud.
Grassley’s bag Most senators are far too important to be carrying something as they roam around the upper chamber, thinking great thoughts about saving the nation and solving its problems.
But before the Easter recess, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was lugging his own stylish and manly black bag as he walked to a vote. Unlike Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), though, Grassley wasn’t packing heat — he opened the bag to reveal newspapers and briefing papers.
Domain-name ’08 politics Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) must be serious about entering the presidential fray: His people are negotiating to reserve the rights to the domain name www.fredthompson.org.
The bad news for Thompson: Sterling Davenport, a Democrat, owns the domain name. The good news: Davenport is a fan of Thompson’s and will vote for him if he runs.
In an e-mail message to Under the Dome, Davenport said, “Fred is from my hometown (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) and I registered the names (Fredthompson.org and FredDaltonThompson.com) in 2003 to protect him and not have some idiot point it to an adult website. I always [knew] this day would come. I am a Democrat, but I always said if he ran, I would vote for him.”
Davenport added that “Fred’s people” have contacted him and he is “currently in talks with them.”
Thompson has not officially entered the race, but many political operatives believe it’s a matter of when, not if.
Thompson’s spokesman did not comment.
We can’t make this stuff up It’s been about a month since we checked in on former Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s (D-Ga.) effort to retire her $60,000 in campaign debt. By last month she had raised nearly $9,800. Since then, well, it’s been a bit slow; her number has risen by only $335.
But that was before the McKinney people came up with a fundraising idea that will surely take off.
Her campaign website says that there are “less than three dozen new, never-been-used T-shirts left” that have been signed by McKinney.
The site states, “Hang a piece of history on your study wall. … Let the world, or at least your dinner guests, know you support a politician with backbone. We anticipate printing clearly marked replicas of these shirts to support this debt-retirement campaign. But these are the real thing.”
The cost for these priceless items: only $100 each.
But hurry, the site suggests, these T-shirts can’t be reserved. They are available only on a first-come, first-serve basis.
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