Say what you want about Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), but the guy knows how to make news. (Well, news is a relative term here.)

During a hearing last Thursday of the House Science Committee, Rohrabacher, who obviously has serious questions about how mankind relates to global warming, said, “We don’t know what the other cycles were caused by in the past. It could be dinosaur flatulence. Who knows?”

In just a few days, that comment quickly made the rounds on the Internet. Google searches for “Rohrabacher and dinosaur flatulence” hit 693 yesterday.

Oh, and Rohrabacher also agrees with House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) that Congress should look at impeaching President Bush, though for entirely different reasons. After lambasting Bush for his administration’s imprisonment of two Border Patrol agents who shot an unarmed suspected drug smuggler along the U.S.-Mexico border, Rohrabacher suggested the president should be impeached if the two men are murdered in prison.

Rohrabacher, the 59-year-old father of toddler triplets, attracted attention last Congress when he investigated whether foreign terrorists were responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The congressman quietly ended that investigation with little evidence to support what some have called a conspiracy theory.

A Rohrabacher spokeswoman opted not to expand on her lawmaker’s recent remarks, but we already had enough to work with.

 Dems vote on Rush Limbaugh bill

Who says Democrats don’t allow votes on Republican bills? The House last night was scheduled to vote on a (non-controversial?) measure sponsored by Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) that would rename a United States courthouse in Missouri after Rush Hudson Limbaugh Sr., the conservative talk-show host’s grandfather, who died in 1996 at 104 years of age.

 Barack Obama Down Under

Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said Sunday that name recognition would be his biggest challenge in the 2008 race. Within a day of announcing his candidacy, he has made great strides already in getting his name out — in Australia.

Obama’s cognomen is all over the front pages of newspapers Down Under after Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch ally of President Bush’s, told a television station that terrorists should root for him to win the presidency.

“If I was running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats,” Howard said in the interview, a swipe at the Illinois senator for proposing to pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq by March of next year.

The opposition Labour Party seized on the opportunity to criticize the prime minister. Opposition leader Kevin Rudd on Monday introduced a censure motion in Parliament that calls on Howard to withdraw his remark.

Rudd said the remarks criticizing the Democrats as the “terrorists’ party of choice” are irresponsible and could hurt Australia’s relationship with the U.S.

But Howard stated it was “absurd” to say he was interfering in domestic U.S. politics and was unapologetic for his remarks. He noted that Australian opposition politicians criticize Bush all the time.

Obama responded by saying that unless Australia is committing more than the 1,400 troops it already has in Iraq, Howard’s statements on the issue are just “empty rhetoric.”

Newspapers in Australia were having a field day with the issue, just as politicians there had in this election year.

“PM fights Obama outrage,” national newspaper The Australian said. “Howard cops Barack-lash,” read the headline of the Herald Sun.

In an unscientific poll, 82 percent of readers of the Sydney Morning Herald said Howard had “put his foot in it” when asked about their reaction to the prime minister’s comments.

 Restaurant adapts to new ethics rules

Area restaurants hate the no-lunch rule as much as lawmakers and staff do. But one local caterer sees opportunity in the gift ban and the toothpick exception.

The owners of Just Fresh DC, a bakery and cafe, have produced an ethics-compliant menu and are sending a mass e-mail this week to lobbyists and trade associations letting them know that it is still OK to entertain.

Free lunches from lobbyists would violate the new rules. But members and staff can still eat hors d’oeuvres and other food items that don’t qualify as a meal; in other words, food that can be served on a toothpick.

One example of the fare Just Fresh will offer are wrap sandwiches. These will be cut in pinwheel shapes and served on platters.

“You don’t want to push the rule,” said Sean Clancy, president of Just Fresh DC. Clancy, who is also a full-time tax attorney at Patton Boggs, had ethics attorneys review the menu choices to make sure everything was well adapted to the new rules.

“You don’t want to [take] a sandwich and stick a toothpick in it, “ he said.

Instead, smaller sandwiches with toothpicks will be served.

“Everyone is scared. Everyone is moving away from lunch,” says Clancy. Of the business Just Fresh now does, half comes from catering; the other half is in retail sales at the eatery’s two D.C.-area stores.

“We hope the new rules means more business.”